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About

Jennifer L. Jipson is a developmental psychologist whose research illuminates how children come to understand the boundary between living and nonliving kinds. Her work lies at the intersection of cognitive development, social interaction, and early STEM learning. In her highly cited study "Robots and Rodents" (177 citations), Jipson demonstrated that young children do not rely on a simple living/nonliving dichotomy but instead reason flexibly about biological, psychological, and perceptual properties based on cues like movement and facial features. This foundational work challenged prevailing assumptions about early ontological reasoning. Jipson has since explored how parent–child conversations shape these concepts, showing that parents’ talk about robotic dogs influences children’s animacy judgments and that parents’ STEM backgrounds affect how families engage with robots during play. Her research reveals the powerful role of social context—particularly parent–child dialogue—in guiding children’s understanding of ambiguous entities like robots. By bridging cognitive science and sociocultural theory, Jipson’s work offers critical insights for educators and designers of interactive technologies aimed at young learners.