Karen Adolph

{{short description|Psychologist}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Karen Adolph | image = Karen Adolph.jpg | caption = Karen Adolph in 2019 | occupation = | title = | awards =  |alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * Sarah Lawrence College * Emory University }} | discipline = Developmental Psychology | sub_discipline = Infant motor development | workplaces = New York University | main_interests = | notable_ideas = | website = [https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/karen-adolph.html NYU Faculty Profile] }}

'''Karen E. Adolph''' is a psychologist and professor known for her research in the field of infant motor development. She is the 2017 recipient of the Kurt-Koffka medal from the University of Giessen. Previous honors include the 1999 APA Boyd McCandless Award and 2002 American Psychological Foundation Robert L. Fantz Memorial Award. She has served as the President of the International Congress on Infant Studies.<ref>[https://www.infantstudies.org/ International Congress on Infant Studies]</ref> Adolph and her colleagues developed computerized video coding software, called Datavyu, and state-of-the-art recording technology to observe and code behavior. A related project, Databrary, provides a repository for video recordings of behavior and encourages open data sharing across research labs. Adolph is a recipient of a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development in support of her innovative research.<ref>[http://psych.nyu.edu/adolph/ NYU Infant Action Lab]</ref>

== Locomotion == One of the Adolph's most heavily studied subjects is Locomotion. She considers it to be the biggest achievement for an infant. In her articles she explains which phases of movement lead to higher accomplishments. For example, "Tripod" sitting is followed by sitting without any need for hands to balance. Babies crawling scooting around on their stomach gives way for them to start crawling around on hands and knees. Infants generally crawl around 9 months of age.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last1=Misirliyan |first1=Sevan S. |title=Development Milestones |date=2022 |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557518/ |work=StatPearls |place=Treasure Island (FL) |publisher=StatPearls Publishing |pmid=32491450 |access-date=2022-05-03 |last2=Huynh |first2=Annie P.}}</ref> After learning to crawl, babies transition to walking around 18 months.<ref name=":0" /> This alters infants' vantage points and gives them new perspectives inside their environment.

Locomotion comes along rapidly just like a child's growth, but everything is very gradual and in baby steps. It is important to know all individuals develop differently, and milestones are based on averages. Adolph presents an important part of this developmental stage, which is "learning to learn." She says, "The notion of learning to learn provides a framework for understanding how ongoing actions are adapted to cope with variability and novelty."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adolph |first1=Karen |title=Learning to Move |journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science |year=2008 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=213–218 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00577.x |pmid=19305638 |pmc=2658759 }}</ref> Adolph discusses how locomotion also encourages infants to explore their environment more and experience challenges such as stair climbing, avoiding dangerous surfaces, and testing the limits of their surroundings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Adolph |first1=Karen E. |last2=Bertenthal |first2=Bennett I. |last3=Boker |first3=Steven M. |last4=Goldfield |first4=Eugene C. |last5=Gibson |first5=Eleanor J. |date=1997 |title=Learning in the Development of Infant Locomotion |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1166199 |journal=Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=i–162 |doi=10.2307/1166199 |jstor=1166199 |pmid=9394468 |issn=0037-976X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Low impact errors, such as a slight stumble or fall, allow children to continue practicing to crawl, walk, and explore.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Han |first1=Danyang |last2=Adolph |first2=Karen E. |date=September 2021 |title=The impact of errors in infant development: Falling like a baby |journal=Developmental Science |language=en |volume=24 |issue=5 |article-number=e13069 |doi=10.1111/desc.13069 |issn=1363-755X |pmc=8178414 |pmid=33278863}}</ref> Adolph and Han found infants are not dissuaded by these many mistakes when learning new developmental skills.<ref name=":1" />

== Biography == Adolph received a B.A., in Psychology and Fine Arts in 1986 from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. She went to graduate school at Emory University, in Atlanta GA where she attained her M.A. in Experimental/Developmental Psychology in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Experimental/Developmental Psychology in 1993.<ref name="resume" /><ref name="nyu">{{cite web|url=https://www.nyu.edu/academics/awards-and-highlights/university-distinguishedteachingawards/past-recipients/2010-2011-distinguished-teaching-award-recipients/karen-e-adolph.html|title=Karen E. Adolph|publisher=New York University}}</ref> In 1994, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.<ref name="walk">{{cite web|url=https://www.sfu.ca/bpk/news_events/seminarsandpresentations/KarenEAdolphSeminar.html|title=Dr. Karen E. Adolph - How Infants Learn to Walk (And How They Don't)|publisher=Simon Fraser University|access-date=2017-08-14|archive-date=2020-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200817215952/http://www.sfu.ca/bpk/news_events/seminarsandpresentations/KarenEAdolphSeminar.html}}</ref> She worked under Eleanor J. Gibson,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/ecopsyc/isep/icpa13_students2.html|title=Eleanor J. Gibson's Ph.D. Students|publisher=The International Society for Ecological Psychology}}{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Esther Thelen, and Ulric Neisser. She was a member of the faculty at Carnegie Mellon until 1997 when she joined the NYU faculty.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.psy.cmu.edu/100years/graduates.html|title=Gilmore, Rick|publisher=Carnegie Mellon University}}</ref>

Adolph has held a number of positions over the duration of her career. She presided over the International Congress on Infant Studies until 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://infantstudies.org/icis-leadership/|title=Past Presidents|publisher=International Congress of Infant Studies}}</ref> Additionally, she has chaired the NIH Study Section on Motor Function and Speech Rehabilitation,<ref name="nyu" /><ref name="walk" /> served on the advisory board of the McDonnell Foundation,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jsmf.org/meetings/2015/may/participants.htm|title=Participants|publisher=James S. McDonnell Foundation}}</ref> and has served on the editorial boards of the journals ''Developmental Psychobiology'' and ''Ecological Psychology''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1098-2302/homepage/EditorialBoard.html|title=Editorial Board|publisher=Wiley Online Library|doi=10.1002/(ISSN)1098-2302}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=editorialBoard&journalCode=heco20|title=Editorial board|publisher=Taylor and Francis Online}}</ref> She has been a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society since 2006.<ref name="resume" />

She is currently Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University (NYU) where she leads the Infant Action Lab at NYU, focusing on the study of behavioral flexibility in motor development.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://psych.nyu.edu/adolph/index.php?page=people|title=People|publisher=Infant Action Lab}}</ref>

== Research == Adolph's work examines how individuals learn to adapt to changes in their bodies and develop skills to handle variation in the environment. She examines motor skill acquisition in infant humans and monkeys in order to track learning and development. Although much of her work has focused on infant development, the Infant Action Lab also conducts studies with children and adults.<ref name="nyu" /> One of their main research methodologies involves developing tasks that challenge infants, children, and adults with novel predicaments, such as crawling over bridges, squeezing through apertures, swinging over monkey bars, and reaching for targets with the body in motion. Adolph has studied infant locomotion and coordination by using infant head-mounted eye-tracking cameras to examine infants' patterns of visual attention as they played in a toy filled room with their mothers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://psych.nyu.edu/adolph/index.php?page=et|title=Eye-tracking|publisher=Infant Action Lab}}</ref> Another developmental skill Adolph has explored is stair climbing, detailing the challenges for infants to learn stair climbing due to their strength and coordination levels.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Berger |first1=Sarah E. |last2=Theuring |first2=Carolin |last3=Adolph |first3=Karen E. |date=February 2007 |title=How and when infants learn to climb stairs |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0163638306000750 |journal=Infant Behavior and Development |language=en |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=36–49 |doi=10.1016/j.infbeh.2006.11.002|pmid=17292778 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Awards and honors== Adolph was awarded the FIRST Award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development from 1996 to 2001,<ref name="resume">{{cite web|url=https://psych.nyu.edu/adolph/files/AdolphVita.pdf|title=Curriculum Vitae Karen E. Adolph|publisher=}}</ref> the APA Boyd McCandless Award in 1998,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.apadivisions.org/division-7/awards/mccandless.aspx?tab=4|title=Boyd McCandless Award|publisher=American Psychological Association}}</ref> the Young Investigator Award from the International Congress for Infant Studies in 1998,<ref name="resume" /> the James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award from 2001 to 2002,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cattell.duke.edu/cattrecip.html|title=The James McKeen Cattell Fund Fellowship Recipients|publisher=Duke University|access-date=2017-08-14|archive-date=2014-02-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140205161724/http://www.cattell.duke.edu/cattrecip.html}}</ref> the American Psychological Foundation Robert L. Fantz Memorial Award in 2002,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.apa.org/apf/funding/fantz.aspx?tab=4|title=Robert L. Fantz Memorial Award for Young Psychologists|publisher=American Psychological Foundation}}</ref> the MERIT Award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development from 2006 to 2016,<ref name="resume" /> and the Golden Dozen Teaching Award from NYU in 2015.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.psych.nyu.edu/news_awards_honors.html|title=NYU Psychology Awards and Honors|publisher=NYU Psychology|access-date=2017-08-14|archive-date=2017-06-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170619052048/http://psych.nyu.edu/news_awards_honors.html}}</ref> In 2018, Adolph won the Kurt Koffka Medal, awarded by Giessen University for "advancing the fields of perception or developmental psychology to an extraordinary extent".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uni-giessen.de/fbz/fb06/psychologie/postertag-koffka/KKM/KKM/view|title = Kurt-Koffka-Medaille}}</ref>

== Representative publications == * Adolph, K. E. (2008). Learning to move. ''Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17''(3), 213–218. * Adolph, K. E. (2000). Specificity of learning: Why infants fall over a veritable cliff. ''Psychological Science, 11''(4), 290–295. * Berger, S.E., Adolph, K.E. (2007). Learning and development in infant locomotion. ''Prog Brain Res''. 164:237-55. * Berger, S.E., Theuring C., Adolph, K.E. (2007) How and when infants learn to climb stairs. ''Infant Behav Dev''.30(1):36-49.

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/karen-adolph.html Professor Adolph's NYU Faculty Profile ] * [https://www.nyuactionlab.com Professor Adolph's NYU Action Lab ] * [https://www.datavyu.org/ Datavyu video coding and data visualization tool for behavioral data ]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adolph, Karen}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:American women psychologists Category:21st-century American psychologists Category:Sarah Lawrence College alumni Category:Emory University alumni Category:New York University faculty Category:21st-century American women academics Category:21st-century American academics