Robert Hepach
Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology
- Tutorial Fellow, New College, Oxford
I am a developmental psychologist who studies social cognition and motivation in early ontogeny from the first year of life to school-age: How young children’s understanding of the social world shapes their own behaviour to initiate, maintain, and repair cooperative relationships with others.
Together with my colleagues we have designed integrative experimental paradigms that allow us to assess children’s internal states and subtle emotional expressions while they engage with their peers in naturalistic study designs. We use eye tracking, pupillometry, and depth sensor imaging to capture the internal mechanisms that underlie young children’s (pro)social motivation.
Current Research Grants
The affective mechanisms underlying joint attention and joint action in infancy and toddlerhood (Co-PI: Dr. Christine Michel)
German Research Foundation, DFG (2020 - 2023)
Recent publications
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Chimpanzees help others with what they want; children help them with what they need
Journal article
Hepach R. et al, (2020), Developmental Science, 23
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Prosocial attention in children with and without autism spectrum disorder: Dissociation between anticipatory gaze and internal arousal
Journal article
Hepach R. et al, (2020), Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 48, 589 - 605
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How socialization goals and peer social climate predict young children's concern for others: Evidence for a development shift between 2 and 4 years of age
Journal article
Schmerse D. and Hepach R., (2020), Social Development
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The relation between young children's physiological arousal and their motivation to help others
Journal article
Hepach R. et al, (2019), Neuropsychologia, 126, 113 - 119
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Children's Intrinsic Motivation to Provide Help Themselves After Accidentally Harming Others
Journal article
Hepach R. et al, (2017), Child Development, 88, 1251 - 1264