My research focuses on conceptual development, and on interrelationships between cognition and language. More specifically, I have been pursuing several questions. How do infants and young children form categories of objects and events, as well as more abstract categories? How do they store this information in memory? How do they generalize acquired knowledge to novel situations? And how do all these processes change in the course of development and learning? In an attempt to answer these questions, we study pre-linguistic infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and adults using a multiple experimental methodologies.

Awards, Honors and Recognition

Fellow, Cognitive Science Society
Fellow, The Association for Psychological Science (APS)
Huber Distinguished Fellow in Social and Behavioral Sciences, The Ohio State University

Selected Publications

Sloutsky, V.M., Ralston, R., Turner, B. M., & Ghetti, S. (2024). A little imprecision goes a long way in launching memory development. Child Development Perspectives. 10.1111/cdep.12536

Wan, Q., & Sloutsky, V. M (2024). Exploration, distributed attention and development of category learning. Psychological Science, 09567976241258146.

Unger, L., Savic, O., Chang, T., Bergen, B., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2024). When is a word in good company for learning? Developmental Science, e13510.

Gao, M., Turner, B. M., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2024). The role of attention in category representation. Cognitive Science, 48, e13438.

Gao, M., Starks, M. D., Golomb, J.D., & Sloutsky, V.M. (2024). The development of visual cognition: The emergence of Spatial Congruency Bias. Developmental Science, e13482.

Weichart, E. R., Unger, L., King, N., Sloutsky, V. M., & Turner, B. M. (2024). The eyes are the window to the representation’: Linking gaze to memory precision and decision weights in object discrimination tasks. Psychological Review, 131, 1045–1067.

Blanco, N. J., & Sloutsky, V.M. (2024).  Exploration, exploitation, and development: Developmental shifts in decision-making. Child Development, 95, 1287–1298.

Turner, B. M., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2024). Cognitive inertia: Cyclical interactions between attention and memory shape learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 33, 79-86.

Ralston, R., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2023). From features to categories: The development of inductive generalization. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 49, 1615–1634.

Sloutsky, V. M. & Turner, B. M. (2023). Cognition: The power of simple associative learning. Current Biology, 33, R223-R225.

Unger, L. Yim, H., Savic, O., Dennis, S. J., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2023). No frills: Simple regularities in language can go a long way in the development of word knowledge. Developmental Science, e13373.

Unger, L., & Sloutsky, V.M. (2023). Category learning is shaped by the multifaceted development of selective attention. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 226, 105549. 

Blanco, N. J., Turner, B. M., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2023). The benefits of immature cognitive control: How distributed attention guards against learning traps. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 226, 105548.

Galdo, M., Weichart, E. R., Sloutsky, V. M., & Turner, B. M. (2022). The quest for simplicity in human learning: Identifying the constraints on attention. Cognitive Psychology, 138, 101508.

Savic, O., Unger, L. & Sloutsky, V.M. (2022). Experience and maturation: The contribution of co-occurrence regularities in language to the development of semantic organization. Child Development, 48, 1064-1081. 

Weichart, E. R., Galdo, M., Sloutsky, V. M., & Turner, B. M. (2022). As within, so without, as above, so below: Common mechanisms can support between- and within-trial category learning dynamics. Psychological Review, 129, 1104-1143. 

Yim, H., Osth, A., Slousky, V. M., & Dennis, S. J. (2022). Sources of interference in memory across development. Psychological Science, 33, 1154-1171. 

Darby, K. P., Sederberg, P. B., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2022). Intraobject and extraobject memory binding across early development. Developmental Psychology, 58, 1237-1253. 

Savic, O., Unger, L. & Sloutsky, V.M. (2022). Exposure to co-occurrence regularities in language drives semantic integration of new words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 48, 1064-1081. 

Unger, L., & Sloutsky, V.M. (2022). Ready to learn: Incidental exposure fosters novel category learning. Psychological Science, 33, 999-1019. 

Yim, H., Dennis, S., & Sloutsky, V.M. (2021). Examining three-way binding as a constraint on statistical learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 47, 75-86.

Blanco, N. J., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2021). Systematic exploration and uncertainty dominate young children’s choices. Developmental Science, 24, e13026.

Darby, K. P., Deng, W., Walther, D.B., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2020). The development of attention to objects and scenes: From object-biased to unbiased. Child Development, 92, 1173-1186.

Castro, L., Savic, O., Navarro, V., Sloutsky, V.M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2020). Selective and distributed attention in human and pigeon category learning. Cognition, 204, 104350.

Blanco, N. J., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2020). Attentional mechanisms drive systematic exploration in young children. Cognition. doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104327

Unger, L. Savic, O. & Sloutsky, V.M. (2020). Statistical regularities shape semantic organization throughout development. Cognition, 198, 104190. 

Savic, O., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2019). Assimilation of exceptions? Examining representations of regular and exceptional category members across development. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148, 1071–1090.

Blanco, N. J., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2019). Adaptive flexibility in category learning? Young children exhibit smaller costs of selective attention than adults. Developmental Psychology, 55, 2060–2076.

Plebanek, D. J., & Sloutsky, V. M (2019). Selective attention, filtering, and the development of working memory. Developmental Science, e12727. doi.org/10.1111/desc.12727.

Darby, K. P., Castro, L., Wasserman, E. A., & Sloutsky, V. M (2018). Cognitive flexibility and memory in pigeons, human children, and adults. Cognition, 177, 30-40. 

Yim, H., Osth, A., Sloutsky, V. M., & Dennis, S. J. (2018). Source and associative recognition require three-way binding structures. Journal of Memory and Language, 100, 89-97.

Sloutsky, V.M., Yim, H., Yao, X., & Dennis, S. (2017). An associative account of the development of word learning. Cognitive Psychology, 97, 1–30.

Plebanek, D., J., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2017). Costs of selective attention: When children notice what adults miss. Psychological Science, 28, 723–732.

O’Leary, A., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2017).  Carving metacognition at its joints: Protracted development of component processes. Child Development, 88, 1015–1032.