Amy Masnick

Amy Masnick is an assistant professor in Hofstra University’s Psychology Department. She earned a B.S. and Ph.D. in human development from Cornell University, with a minor in statistics. She then worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the Psychology Department at Carnegie Mellon University before joining the Hofstra faculty in 2003.

Dr. Masnick’s main research interests are in the area of cognitive development, specifically focused on scientific reasoning in children and adults. Recent research has included explorations of children’s reasoning about data characteristics and about variability in outcomes when running simple science experiments. Other interests include studying the development of scientific literacy skills and processes of reasoning about anomalous information. She has also been involved in research projects exploring infant visual attention.

Professionally, Dr. Masnick is affiliated with the American Educational Research Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Cognitive Development Society, the Cognitive Science Society, the International Society for the Psychology of Science and Technology, and the Society for Research in Child Development.

She regularly teaches undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Psychology, Child Development, Research Methods, and the Research Seminar in Developmental Psychology. In addition, she teaches a graduate course in cognition and perception to students in Hofstra’s Psy.D. Program in School-Community Psychology. She serves as a core faculty member in Hofstra’s B.A. Program in Psychology.

Hofstra Horizons Articles

• Spring 2008: How Children and Adults Think About Data