Search Results - Carey, Susan

Susan Carey

Susan E. Carey (born 1942) is an American psychologist who is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. She studies language acquisition, children's development of concepts, conceptual changes over time, and the importance of executive functions. She has conducted experiments on infants, toddlers, adults, and non-human primates. Her books include ''Conceptual Change in Childhood'' (1985) and ''The Origin of Concepts'' (2009).

Among the ideas that Carey has developed are fast mapping, whereby children learn the meanings of words after a single exposure; extended mapping, folk theories, and Quinian bootstrapping. Her work is considered "the starting point for any serious modern theory of conceptual development."

In 2009, Carey was the first woman to receive the David E. Rumelhart Prize for significant contributions to the theoretical foundation of human cognition. Carey received the 2020 Atkinson Prize in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences for her theory of conceptual change, for which she is credited with having "revolutionized our understanding of how humans construct an understanding of objects, number, living kinds, and the physical world." Provided by Wikipedia