Ágnes Melinda Kovács

Position: 
Director
Rank: 
Associate Professor

Contact information

Building: 
Vienna, Quellenstrasse 51
Room: 
5th floor, Room C508.
Phone: 
+43 1 25230 7496

My research focuses on how the developing human mind manages to make sense of the complex social and physical world. I am interested in the basic cognitive mechanisms that are present very early on in development, and allow infants to learn from social partners and about social partners, both with incredible ease and efficiency. On the one hand, I investigate the mechanisms very young infants have to develop to learn from the complex input they receive from their social partners, while learning about language or about human made artefacts. On the other hand, my research focuses on the mechanisms infants need to employ to learn about social partners, especially about their invisible mental states, such as goals and beliefs. A great part of my work targets processes that allow sustaining simultaneously multiple representations of the world, which are fundamental in various domains, such as bilingual language acquisition or reasoning about other people's mental states that can be different from one’s own mental states. 

 

PhD Students Supervised:

Bálint Varga

Maja Blesic

Maria Mavridaki 

Bartuğ Çelik

Anna Kispál

PhD Students Graduated:

Dora Kampis

Martin Freundlieb (co-supervisor)

Eszter Szabó

Paula Fischer (secondary supervisor)

Ieva Lukosiunaite (secondary supervisor)

Dóra Fogd

 

Selection from the media:

Babys entwickeln kreative Fähigkeiten früher als gedacht - Der Standard

Creativity starts in the cradle, new research shows – ScienMag, Science Magazine

Kreatívabbak a csecsemők, mint ahogy azt korábban gondoltuk - Telex

New research shows how babies’ behavior is influenced by those around them/Mirage News

A gyerekek már 3 évesen képesek a felnőttekéhez hasonló döntésekre /Index

Mi alapján döntenek a 18-36 hónapos gyerekek / HVG

Meglepő felfedezés a 14 hónapos babákról: képesek logikai úton kikövetkeztetni mások preferenciáit - HVG

Particularly Exciting Experiments in Psychology / APA

ERC Starting Independent Research Grant

Seven-month-old babies can 'read minds' / NatureGrasping Another’s Point of View at an Early Age / New York TimesSeven-month-old babies can 'read minds' / Scientific AmericanVilágelső magyar kutatás kisbabáknál / OrigoTwice blessed Bilingual babies are precocious decision-makers / The Economist

Bilingual infants have better mental control -National Geographic

Zweisprachige Kinder lernen leichter / Die WeltNYTimes: The benefits of Bilingualism