Professor Emeritus
Psychology and Neuroscience
214 Soc-Psych
Mailing Address: 214 Soc-Psych Durham, NC 27708
cecker@duke.edu
Research Summary
Premature Infants and Communication Skills
Research Description
My research focuses upon delineating processes of developmental change, creating explanatory models of how biological, behavioral, and social-cultural factors act together in development, and detailing how developing organism's own modes of functioning shape their subsequent paths of development. I address these issues mainly through the study of how human newborns become transformed into three-year-olds who have mastered several of the basic forms of cooperative action valued within their culture (e.g., social games, verbal conversations, cooperative problem-solving). Four interrelated lines of inquiry are ongoing. The first relates differences among very-prematurely-born infants in early central nervous system development to their paths of social-communicative development over the first two years of life. The second uses classical eyeblink conditioning paradigms to better characterize the behavioral differences between preterm and full-term infants in terms of cognitive, attentional, and arousal processes. The third asks whether the pivotal roles of imitative behavior in the early communicative development of USA toddlers also occur for the Seltaman toddlers of Papua New Guinea. The fourth details children's communicative and memory skills and the social experiences that facilitate their transition from being effective communicators about present events to their becoming effective communicators about past events.
Education
PhD,
Psychology,
Columbia University,
1968
M.A.,
Psychology,
Columbia University,
1966
A.B. (with Honors),
Psychology,
The College of Wooster,
1963
Recent Publications
Journal Articles
Peterman, K., & Eckerman, C.O..
(under review).
Sharing is important: The function of self-disclosure in the peer conversations of five-year-olds.
.
Herbert, J., Eckerman, C. O., Goldstein, R.F., & Stanton, M.E..
(2004).
Contrasts in infant classical eyeblink conditioning as a function of premature birth.
Infancy
,
5
(3)
.
Herbert, J., Eckerman, C.O., & Stanton.
(2003).
The Ontogeny of Human Learning in Delay, Long-Delay, and Trace Eyeblink Conditioning.
Behavioral Neuroscience
,
117
(6)
.
Claflin, D.I., Herbert, J., Greer, J., Eckerman, C.O., & Stanton, M.E..
(2002).
A Delay-Interval Study of Classical Eyeblink Conditioning in 5-Month Human Infants.
Developmental Psychobiology
,
41
,
329-340.
Didow, S.M. & Eckerman, C.O..
(2001).
Toddler Peers: From Nonverbal Coordinated Action to Verbal Discourse.
Social Development
,
10
,
170-188.
Haden, C.A., Ornstein, P.A., Eckerman, C.O., & Didow, S.M..
(2001).
Mother-Child Conversational Interactions as Events Unfold: Linkages to Subsequent Remembering.
Child Development
,
72
,
1016-1031.
Ivkovitch, D., Collins, K.L., Eckerman, C.O., Krasnegor, N.A., & Stanton, M.E..
(1999).
Classical Delay Eyeblink Conditioning in 4- and 5-Month-Old Infants.
Psychological Science
,
10
,
4-8.
C.O. Eckerman & Whitehead, H..
(1999).
How Toddler Peers Generate Coordinated Action: A Cross-Cultural Exploration.
Early Childhood Education
.
C.O. Eckerman, Hsu, H-C., Molitor, A., & Leung, E.H.L..
(1999).
Infant Arousal in an En-Face Exchange with a New Partner: Effects of Prematurity and Preinatal Biological Risk.
Developmental Psychology
,
35
,
282-293.
Eckerman, C.O., & Didow, S.M..
(1996).
Nonverbal imitation and toddlers' mastery of verbal means of achieving coordinated action.
Developmental Psychology
,
32
,
141-152.
Eckerman, C.O., Oehler, J.M., Hannan, T.E., & Molitor, A..
(1995).
The development prior to term age of very-prematurely-born newborns' responsiveness in En Face exchanges.
Infant Behavior and Development
,
18
,
283-297.
Eckerman, C.O., Oehler, J.M., Medvin, M.B., & Hannan, T.E..