Fei Xu

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Fei Xu
徐绯
Portrait of Fei Xu, PhD
Born1969 (age 52–53)
Beijing, China
NationalityAmerican
OccupationProfessor of Psychology
Years active1995–present
Academic background
EducationPh.D. in Cognitive Science
Alma mater
ThesisCriteria of Object Individual and Numerical Identity in Infants and Adults: The Object-first Hypothesis (1995)
Doctoral advisorSusan Carey
Academic work
DisciplinePsychologist
Sub-disciplineDevelopmental psychology
Cognitive science
Bayesian cognitive science
Institutions

Fei Xu (Chinese: 徐绯; pinyin: Xú Fēi; born 1969) is an American developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist who is currently a professor of psychology and the director of the Berkeley Early Learning Lab at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on cognitive and language development, from infancy to middle childhood.[1]

Early life[]

Xu was born and raised in Beijing, China, where she graduated from the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China.[2] She moved to the U.S. and attended Smith College, graduating in 1991 with a B.A. in Cognitive Science.[2] She earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from M.I.T. in 1995.[2]

Career[]

Xu began her career as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, and M.I.T. under Alan M. Leslie.[3][2] She joined Northeastern University as an assistant professor in 1997.[2] In 2003, she moved to Vancouver to be an associate professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Science.[2] She was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley in 2007–2008, then returned to UBC.[2][4] In 2009, she joined the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology as a Professor, where she is also the director of the school's Early Learning Lab.[2][5][6][7]

Research[]

Xu worked with several prominent developmental and cognitive psychologists early in her career. She worked with Susan Carey for her Ph.D. research on object individuation, sortal concepts, and early word learning.[8] She worked with Elizabeth Spelke as a postdoctoral fellow, focusing on prelinguistic infants’ representation of numbers.[2][9] She also worked with Alan Leslie at Rutgers University on infants’ object concept.[10]

Beginning in the 2010s, Xu advocated for a new approach to the study of cognitive development, namely rational constructivism.[11][12] She argued that human infants begin life with a set of proto-conceptual primitives such as object, number, and agent, and as young learners acquire language. These initial representations are transformed into a format that is compatible with language and propositional thought.[13] She suggested that three types of learning mechanisms explain both belief revision and genuine conceptual change: (1) Language and symbol learning; (2) Bayesian inductive learning; and (3) Constructive thinking.[13] She also suggests that infants and young children are active learners, and cognitive agency is part and parcel of development.[13] In addition, she has explored the implications of rational constructivism for philosophy of mind and epistemology.[14]

Awards[]

Selected bibliography[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Fei Xu". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Fei Xu". Berkeley Early Learning Lab. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  3. ^ "Lab Members – Cognitive Development Laboratory". sites.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  4. ^ "ProActive Disclosure for the Canada Research Chairs (2009) / Divulgation proactive des chaires de recherche du Canada (2009)" (PDF). Canada Research Chairs. September 26, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  5. ^ Anwar, Yasmin (March 12, 2012). "Scientists tap the genius of babies and youngsters to make computers smarter". UC Berkeley. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  6. ^ Smilables Inc. (July 29, 2015). "Smilables' Baby Brain Development System To Aid New Parents Draws On Scientific Expertise From Top Universities". PR Newswire. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
  7. ^ "Lab Manager Position at the Berkeley Early Learning Lab". Duke University.
  8. ^ a b Xu, Fei (1995). Criteria of Object Individual and Numerical Identity in Infants and Adults: The Object-first Hypothesis. MIT. hdl:1721.1/11135. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Xu, Fei; Spelke, Elizabeth S. (January 10, 2000). "Large number discrimination in 6-month-old infants". Cognition. 74 (1): B1–B11. doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(99)00066-9. PMID 10594312. S2CID 12185314. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  10. ^ a b Leslie, Alan M.; Xu, Fei; Tremoulet, Patrice D.; Scholl, Brian J. (January 1, 1998). "Indexing and the object concept: developing 'what' and 'where' systems". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2 (1): 10–18. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(97)01113-3. PMID 21244957. S2CID 8612552. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  11. ^ Xu, Fei (March 31, 2014). "Towards a rational constructivist approach to cognitive development" (Video). UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via YouTube.
  12. ^ a b Xu, Fei (2016). "Preliminary thoughts on a rational constructivist approach to cognitive development: primitives, symbols, learning, and thinking". In Barner, David; Baron, Andrew Scott (eds.). Core knowledge and concept change (PDF). New York, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 11–28. ISBN 9780190467630. LCCN 2016014527.
  13. ^ a b c d Xu, Fei (2019). "Towards a rational constructivist theory of cognitive development". Psychological Review. 126 (6): 841–864. doi:10.1037/rev0000153. PMID 31180701.
  14. ^ a b Fedyk, Mark; Xu, Fei (November 27, 2017). "The Epistemology of Rational Constructivism". Review of Philosophy and Psychology. 9 (June 2018): 343–362. doi:10.1007/s13164-017-0372-1. S2CID 53641572. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  15. ^ "Prizes". Society for Philosophy and Psychology. November 13, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  16. ^ "APS Fellows Elected to SEP". APS Observer. 33 (2). 2020-01-29.
  17. ^ "2020 Editorial Team". Association for Psychological Science - APS. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  18. ^ "Five APS Fellows Elected to Society of Experimental Psychologists". Association for Psychological Science - APS. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  19. ^ Xu, Fei; Kushnir, Tamar; Benson, Janette B., eds. (2012). Rational Constructivism in Cognitive Development. Advances in Child Development and Behavior. Vol. 43. Waltham, Massachusetts: Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-397919-3.
  20. ^ Xu, Fei; Kushnir, Tamar (February 1, 2013). "Infants are rational constructive learners". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 22 (1): 28–32. doi:10.1177/0963721412469396. S2CID 52994806. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  21. ^ Denison, Stephanie; Xu, Fei (June 11, 2019). "Infant Statisticians: The Origins of Reasoning Under Uncertainty". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 14 (4): 499–509. doi:10.1177/1745691619847201. PMID 31185184. S2CID 186203667. Retrieved March 15, 2021.

External links[]

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