Jeffrey Lockman

  • Professor
  • Human Development & Family Sciences
  • Human Ecology
Profile image of Jeffrey Lockman

Contact Information

SEA
Room Number:2.422

Research

Jeffrey J. Lockman conducts research at the interface of cognitive and motor development.  His work focuses on how thinking is embodied in action in infants, children and adults.  In his research, he uses state-of-the-art technology, including eyetracking, motor tracking and video data, to understand how infants learn about the properties of objects, and how young children and adults learn to use the everday tools of their culture (e.g., chopsticks, hammers, writing instruments). He also conducts research on how infants and toddlers begin to develop a concept of the self, and how such knowledge is reflected in their actions.  Dr. Lockman is a past Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Child Development, and is currently the Editor of Advances in Child Development and Behavior.  He is the co-Editor of the Cambridge Handbook of Infant Development.  His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Sciences Foundation and the James S. McDonnell Foundation.

Grant Funding

 Principal Investigator, “Origins of Body Knowledge.” James S. McDonnell Foundation (2020-2024).

Prior Grant Funding

Co-Investigator, “Learning about Hidden Affordances.” National Institutes of Health (2016-2021).

Co-Principal Investigator, “Learning Body Models: Humans, Brains and Robots.”  Lorentz Center (2018).

Faculty Mentor, Psi Chi Summer Undergraduate Research Award.  Psi Chi Foundation (2016).

Principal Investigator, “Origins of Hand-mouth Coordination: Objects to Tools,” National Institutes of Health.  (2010-2016).

Principal Investigator, “Skill Development. Object Manipulation to Tool Use.”  National Institutes of Health (2004-2009).

Principal Investigator, “Perception-action Foundations of Tool Use.” National Science Foundation (2001-2003).

Fields of Interest

  • Adult Development
  • Aging
  • Behavior
  • Contexts of Human Development
  • Diversity and Culture
  • Health & Medicine
  • Infancy and Childhood
  • Parenting & Caregiving

Centers and Institutes

  • Population Research Center

Education

  • Ph.D., Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
  • B.A., New York University

Publications

  • Leed, J. E., Chinn, L. K., & Lockman, J. J. (2019). Reaching to the self: The development of infants’ ability to reach to targets on the body. Psychological Science, 30, 1063-1073. 

    Lockman, J. J. (2019). Embracing process. Commentary on Brakke & Pacheco (2019): The development of bimanual coordination across toddlerhood. SRCD Monograph Matters. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12405 

    Fears, N. E., & Lockman, J. J. (2020). Case- and form-letter frequencies in children’s picture books. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 53, 370-378

    Fears, N. E., & Lockman, J. J. (2020). Using head-mounted eye-tracking to study handwriting development. Journal of Motor Learning and Development, 8, 215-231.

    .Fears, N. E., Walsh, L. E., & Lockman , J. J (2020). Letter writing instruction for children: Case-sensitive letter frequencies in children’s handwriting workbooks. Reading and Writing, 33, 171-185.-15https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-09954-7

    Lockman, J. J. (2020). Tool use development. In J. Benson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development, 2nd edition. New York: Elsevier. 

    Lockman, J. J., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., (Eds.) (2020). The Cambridge Handbook of Infant Development. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Lockman, J. J., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Adolph, K. E. (2020). Missing in action: Tool use is action based. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, E170. doi:10.017/S0140525X20000138. 

    Rachwani, J., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S, Lockman, J. J., Karasik, L. B., Adolph, K E. (2020). Learning the designed actions of everyday objects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149, 67-78.  

    Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Lockman, J. J. (2020). Infant object manipulation and play. In J. J. Lockman, & C. S. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Infant Development. New York: Cambridge University Press. 

    Chinn, L. K., Noonan, C. F., & Lockman J. J. (2021). The human face becomes mapped as a sensorimotor reaching space during the first year. Child Development, 92, 760-773. 

    Lockman, J. J., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2021). The development of everyday object interactions: Play as practice and practice as play. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 3, 165-186

    Lockman, J. J. (Ed.). (2021). Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 61, 2-374. Cambridge, MA: Elsevier. 

    Gilmore, R. O., & Lockman, J. J. (Eds.). (2022). Advances in Child Development and Behavior: New methods and approaches for studying child development, Vol. 62. Cambridge, MA: Elsevier. 

    Lockman, J. J. (Ed.), (2022). Advances in Child Development and Behavior: Vol 63. Cambridge: MA. Elsevier. 

    Somogyi, E., Hamilton, M., Chinn, L. K., Jacquey, L., Heed, T., Hoffmann, M., Lockman, J. J., Fagard, J., O’Regan, J. K. (2023). Tactile training facilitates infants’ ability to reach to targets on the body. Child Development, 94, e154-e165.