University of Hertfordshire

Department of Psychology
University of Hertfordshire
College Lane
Hertfordshire
AL10 9AB

Tel : 01707 285282
Fax : 01707 285073

Email :

k.j.pine@herts.ac.uk

Telephone:

01707 285122

Location:

H169

View my personal home page or work area

Subject Area :

Professor of Developmental Psychology (part time)

Personal Statement

What is the nature of children's cognitive representations? To what extent do these vary in terms of explicitness and how do they change during the course of knowledge acquisition? How much of what we know is conveyed in language - and how much non-verbal 'leakage' is there and what can be learnt from this?
These are some of the questions my research seeks to address, particularly by exploring children's gestures and other non-verbal behaviours. Adult gestures, too, feature in some of my research and we have been looking at the intra-personal function of gesture, since both adults and children gesture even when a listener is not present (the Semantic Specificity Hypothesis, Pine, 2010).
I am also engaged in research that addresses some of the concerns that affect women's lives, particularly their emotional relationship with money, behaviour change and economic behaviour.

Research

Member of Research Group: Development and Language

My academic research interests focus around children's verbal and non-verbal knowledge and how this impacts upon their speech and cognitive development. In recent years my work has looked at children's gestures as non-verbal indicators of emerging knowledge and the role they play in facilitating cognitive change. To see more about this go to http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/res/child_gest/child_gest.html

An ESRC funded project looking at this topic ran until April 2004 with Nicola Lufkin as Research Assistant. A further ESRC funded project looked at the role of gestures in both cognitive and linguistic processing and ran from October 2004 to 2006. Liz Kirk was research assistant on this project. Liz is now carrying out a doctoral project with me evaluating the use of babysign. This is the first randomly controlled longitudinal evaluation of the effects of gesturing to young infants.
Our gesture work in the School has also extended to investigating the function of gesture in adult communication and cognition. With the help of a British Psychological Society grant in 2007 we looked at the effect of gesture congruency on language. Another PhD student, Daniel Gurney, is researching the subtle ways in which gesture can skew memory for an event.
With further grants from the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation and the ESRC we have also been looking at young children's spontaneous gesture use, particularly the role of deictic and iconic gestures in language acquisition and the linguistic and non-linguistic benefits of gesturing with infants.

Also, I am interested in the application of psychological theory to children's understanding of television advertising and have been involved in projects (part funded by the Independent Television Commission) to look into the effects of alcohol advertising on children. Dr. Avril Nash and I have also conducted research into pre-school children's brand awareness, commissioned by Channel 4.

I am also involved in research that has looked at the impact of behavioural flexibility on a range of health outcomes and use of the Do Something Different behaviour change technique (via www.rilkesroom.com) I am also carrying out research into women's emotional relationship with money (see www.sheconomics.com) and behavioural economics.

Teaching

I have taught Developmental Psychology to Psychology undergraduates, Masters students and DClinPsy trainees. and supervised students undertaking a final year project in developmental psychology and Masters and Ph.D. students.From 2011 I am undertaking PhD supervision only.

Publications

SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS:

Pine, K. J., Howlett, N., Reeves, L. M., & Fletcher , B. (2012). Giving cognition a helping hand: The effects of congruent gestures on object name retrieval. In press. British Journal of Psychology.

Huttunen, K., Pine, K. J., Thurnham, A, & Khan, C. (2012). The changing role of gesture in linguistic development: a developmental trajectory and a cross-cultural comparison between British and Finnish children. In press, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.

PINE K J & Fletcher B C (2011). Women’s spending behaviour is menstrual cycle sensitive. Personality and Individual Differences, 50,1 . 74-78

PINE, K.J., Gurney, D. & Fletcher, B. (C). (2010). The semantic specificity hypothesis: When gestures do not depend upon the presence of a listener, Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour.34, 3, p.169. DOI: 10.1007/s10919-010-0089-7

PINE, K. J. (2010). Seeking an alternative to medication for treating ADHD: Is EEG Biofeedback the answer? Every Child Journal, 1, 4, pp. 29-32.

Fletcher, B. (C), Hanson, J., Page, N. C., & PINE, K.J. (2010) Increasing behavioural flexibility leads to sustained weight loss. In press. Swiss Journal of Psychology.

Howlett, N. R., Kirk, E. S. & PINE, K. J. (2010) Does ‘Wanting the Best’ Create More Stress? The Link Between Baby Sign Classes and Maternal Anxiety. Infant and Child Development.DOI: 10.1002/icd.705

Kirk, E. & PINE, K. J. (2010). I hear what you say but I see what you mean: The role of gestures in children’s pragmatic comprehension. In press. Language and Cognitive Processes. DOI: 10.1080/01690961003752348

Pine, K. J., Knott, T., & Fletcher B. (C). (2010) Teaching concept-salient gestures to children leads to learning gains. Enfance, 03, 355-368. http://www.necplus.eu/repo_A24CVAFn

PINE, K.J. (2009) Consumer kids: How TV advertisers get into the minds of children. Pediatrics for Parents, 25, 7/8, 17-18.

PINE, K.J., & Fletcher, B. (C). (2009). The tendency of pre-school children to count discrete physical objects, Educational Psychology.29, 7, 801 — 813

Pine, K. J. (2009). Consumer Kids: How TV Advertisers Get Into the Minds of Children, Pediatrics for Parents, 257/8, pp.17-18

Nash, A. S., PINE, K.J., & Messer, D. J. (2009). Television alcohol advertising: do children really mean what they say? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27, 85-144.

PINE, K. J. Bird, H. & Kirk, E. (2007). The effects of prohibiting gestures on children's lexical retrieval ability. Developmental Science, 10, 6, 747-754.

PINE, K. J., Lufkin, N., & Messer, D. J. (2007). A microgenetic analysis of the relationship between speech and gesture in children: Evidence for semantic and temporal asynchrony. Language and Cognitive Processes 22,. 2, 234 – 246

PINE, K. J., Wilson, P. & Nash, A. S., (2007). The relationship between television advertising, children's viewing and their requests to Father Christmas. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 28 (6):456 - 461

Flynn, E., PINE, K.J. & Lewis, C. (2007). Using the microgenetic method to investigate cognitive development: An introduction. Infant and Child Development, 15, 1-6.

Critten, S., PINE, K. J. & Steffler, D. (2007). Spelling development in young children: a case of Representational Redescription? Journal of Educational Psychology, 99 1, 207 -220

Messer, D. J., PINE, K.J. & Butler, C. (2007). Children’s Cognitive Structures : Consistency or adaptability in cross-situational assessments? Learning and Instruction in press

Fletcher, B. (C), PINE, K. J., Woodbridge,Z, Nash, A. (2007). How visual images of chocolate affect the craving and guilt of female dieters. Appetite, 48, 211-217.

Fletcher, B. (C), & PINE, K. J. (2006). Read my hands not my lips: Untrained observers’ ability to interpret children’s gestures. Semiotica, 158, 1, 4.

PRE-2006 PUBLICATIONS CAN BE FOUND ON THE UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVE PAGES

Administrative and Professional

UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE ROLES:
Research Leader, School of Psychology 2003-2009
Vice-Chair of the Ethics Committee.
OTHER:
Professor, School of Applied Sciences, istanbul University, from 2011 -
Member ESRC Peer Review College
Member of the BPS Developmental Section, past Information Officer.
Associate Editor of The Psychologist, 2004 - 2007.
Vice-chair of governors of an Upper School with 1300 pupils 1997-2002.
Reviewer for various journals including the British Journal of Psychology, the British Journal of Educational Psychology, The British Journal of Developmental Psychology, Developmental Science, the Times Higher Educational Section, Trends in Cognitive Science and the ESRC.
Author and public speaker.