Jacqueline D Woolley
Professor — Ph.D., University of Michigan

Contact
- E-mail: woolley@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: (512) 471-5196
- Office: SEA 5.232
- Campus Mail Code: A8000
Interests
Conceptual development in preschool and elementary school children, concept of mind, religious cognition, and the fantasy-reality distinction
Biography
Dr. Woolley will be accepting a new graduate student for Academic Year 2021-2022.
My research addresses children's understanding of reality, a topic with a long history that continues to intrigue and perplex developmental psychologists. Knowledge about how children evaluate new information and make proper assignment of entities to real and not-real categories is especially critical in the media rich age in which we live. Young children are bombarded with information and images offering a mix of the real and the fantastical: Elmo, a monster, teaches children about science, and Harry Potter, a human child, performs magic spells. Amidst this, children continuously encounter novel entities and events, and must assign these entities and events to their proper (real or not real) categories.
The goal of my research is to investigate how children make reality status judgments when they encounter novel information. I am assessing the effects of three broad classes of factors: (1) characteristics of the individual child (e.g., age), (2) characteristics of the stimulus (e.g., internal consistency of the attributes of a novel entity), and (3) effects of the environment (e.g., the context in which children encounter a novel entity). All of these are proposed to affect how children evaluate the reality status of novel entities and events.
It is imperative that children be taught to think critically about new information. To do this, researchers and educators must first understand how children identify and separate real from unreal. The findings of the studies in my lab have important implications for preschool and elementary education, parenting, and clinical practice with young children.
Dr. Woolley's research is funded in part by the John Templeton Foundation.
Courses
PSY 394S • Why We Believe Weird Things-Wb
41669 • Fall 2020
Meets TH 1:00PM-4:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
PSY 394S • Development Of Imagination
43470 • Spring 2017
Meets TH 1:00PM-4:00PM SEA 4.242
PSY 333F • Fantasy And Reality
43685 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 394S • Fantasy And Reality
43965 • Fall 2013
Meets W 1:00PM-4:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 394S • Current Topics In Devel Psy
43975 • Fall 2013
Meets M 12:00PM-3:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 394S • Fundmntls Of Devel Psychology
43505 • Fall 2012
Meets W 1:00PM-4:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 394S • Current Topics In Devel Psy
43515 • Fall 2012
Meets M 12:00PM-3:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY F333F • Fantasy And Reality
87571 • Summer 2012
Meets MTWTHF 1:00PM-2:30PM NOA 1.102
PSY 394S • Fundmntls Of Devel Psychology
43390 • Fall 2011
Meets W 1:00PM-4:00PM SEA 5.106
PSY 394S • Current Topics In Devel Psy
43392 • Fall 2011
Meets M 12:00PM-3:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 333F • Fantasy And Reality
43720 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 333F • Fantasy And Reality
43112 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM SEA 1.332
Wr
PSY 394S • Reality-Fantasy Distinction
44155 • Spring 2010
Meets T 9:00AM-12:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 341K • Fantasy And Reality-W
41500 • Spring 2005
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM PMA 7.114
C2
PSY 394S • Child's Understnd Of Mind/Fant
41755 • Spring 2005
Meets W 1:00PM-4:00PM SEA 2.224
PSY 333D • Intro To Developmental Psych
39975 • Spring 2004
Meets MWF 2:00PM-3:00PM NOA 1.126
PSY 333D • Intro To Developmental Psych
40185 • Spring 2003
Meets MWF 2:00PM-3:00PM NOA 1.126
PSY 394S • Child's Understnd Of Mind/Fant
40520 • Spring 2003
Meets F 9:00AM-12:00PM SEA 5.106
PSY 394S • Current Topics In Devel Psy
40383 • Spring 2002
Meets F 12:00PM-1:00PM BEN 318
PSY 394S • Scientif/Magcl/Relig Explanatn
40155 • Spring 2001
Meets W 2:00PM-5:00PM MEZ 402
PSY 304 • Intro To Child Psychology
40680 • Fall 2000
Meets MWF 2:00PM-3:00PM UTC 3.122
SB
PSY 333D • Intro To Developmental Psy
39260 • Spring 2000
Meets MWF 2:00PM-3:00PM UTC 4.110
Publications
Selected Publications
Woolley, J. D. & Kelly, K. (2020). “When something like a ladybug lands on you”: The origin and development of children’s concept of luck. Accepted, Developmental Psychology. (Available from author.)
Woolley, J. D., Nissel, J. & Gilpin, A. T. (2020). Children’s use of testimony to determine reality status. Accepted, Child Development. (Available from author.)
Dore, R.A., Woolley, J. D. & Hixon, J.G. (2019). “I believe in cusk”: The effect of explicit belief statements on children’s reality status judgments and beliefs about consensus. Journal of Cognition and Development, 20, 35-55. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2018.1545657
Woolley, J. D. & Cornelius, C. A. (2017). Wondering how: Children’s explanations for mundane, improbable, and extraordinary events. Special issue of Psychonomic Bulletin and Review on The Process of Explanation, 1-11.
Woolley, J. D. & Dunham, J. (2017). Children’s beliefs about miracles. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 17, 73-93.
Lopez-Mobilia, G. & Woolley, J. D. (2016). Interactions between knowledge and testimony in children’s reality status judgments. Journal of Cognition and Development, 17, 486-504.
Goldstein, T. R. & Woolley, J. D. (2016). Ho! Ho! Who? Parent promotion of belief and live encounters with Santa Claus. Cognitive Development, 39, 113-129.
Woolley, J. D. & McInnis, M. (2105). Young children’s understanding of invisibility and its relation to the appearance-reality distinction. Cognitive Development, 34, 63-75.
Woolley, J. D. & Lillard, A. S. (2015). Children’s cognizing the unreal. Cognitive Development, 34, 1-2.
Lillard, A. S. & Woolley, J. D. (2105). Grounded in reality: How children make sense of the unreal. Cognitive Development, 34, 111-114.
Cornelius, C. & Woolley, J. D. (2013). Development of the use of agents as explanations for events. In S. Robson & S. Flannery Quinn (Eds.), Routledge International Handbook of Young Children's Thinking and Understanding. Routledge.
Woolley, J. D. & Cornelius, C. (2013). Beliefs in magical beings and cultural myths. In M. Taylor (Ed.), Oxford Handbook on The Development of Imagination. Oxford University Press.
Woolley, J. D. & Ghossainy, M. (2013). Revisiting the fantasy-reality distinction: Children as naïve skeptics. Child Development, 84, 1491-1495.
Ma, L. & Woolley, J. D. (2013). Children’s sensitivity to speaker gender when learning from others. Journal of Cognition and Development, 14, 100-119.
Woolley, J.D., Ma. L. & Lopez-Mobilia, G. (2011). Development of the use of conversational cues to assess reality status. Journal of Cognition and Development, 12, 537-555. (Available from the author, woolley@psy.utexas.edu)
Woolley, J. D., Cornelius, C., & Lacy, W. (2011). Developmental changes in the use of supernatural explanations for unusual events. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 11, 311-337.
Woolley, J. D. & Ghossainy, M. (2013). Revisiting the fantasy-reality distinction: Children as naïve skeptics. Child Development, 84, 1491-1495. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12081
Vaden, V. C. & Woolley, J. D. (2011). Does God make it real? Children's belief in religious stories from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Child Development, 82, 1120-1135.