Research Interests

My research program generally focuses on cognitive development in the preschool and school years, with a specific focus on children’s communication skills. Successful communication entails recognition of the social and situational context as well as appreciation for one’s conversational partner’s perspective (e.g., his/her knowledge state). My research investigates children’s sensitivity to another’s perspective and the degree to which they are able to use this information to guide their communicative behaviours (such as producing clear statements, correctly interpreting statements from others, working in a cooperative manner, and understanding figurative language). Current research focuses on the developmental course of various communicative behaviours, underlying cognitive skills necessary for children to successfully navigate their social world, as well as individual differences and contextual factors that influence communicative behaviour.
The research in my lab investigates the skills of typically-developing children and children who show atypical development (e.g., children with ADHD, children with socially withdrawing behaviour, etc.). Several recent projects also examine the communicative patterns of adults who experience symptoms of ADHD.

Selected Publications

• Nilsen, E. S., & Fecica, A. (in press). A model of communicative perspective-taking for typical and atypical populations of children. Developmental Review.
• Nilsen, E. S., & Graham, S. A. (in press). The development of preschoolers' appreciation of communicative ambiguity. Child Development.
• Nilsen, E. S., Glenwright, M., & Huyder, V. (in press). Children and adults understand that verbal irony interpretation depends on listener knowledge. Journal of Cognition and Development.
• Graham, S., Nilsen, E., Collins, S., & Olineck, K. (2010). The role of gaze direction and mutual exclusivity in guiding 24-month-olds’ word learning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28, 449-465.
• Nilsen, E., & Graham, S. (2009). The relations between children’s communicative perspective-taking and executive functioning. Cognitive Psychology, 58, 220-249.
• Nilsen, E., Graham, S., & Pettigrew, T. (2009). Preschoolers’ word mappings: The interplay between labelling context and quality of speaker attention. Journal of Child Language, 36, 673-684.
• Nilsen, E., Graham, S., Smith, S., & Chambers, C. (2008). Preschoolers’ sensitivity to referential ambiguity: Evidence for a dissociation between implicit understanding and explicit behavior. Developmental Science, 11:4, 556-562.
• Nilsen, E., & Bourassa, D. (2008). Word learning performance in beginning readers. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62:2, 110-116.
• Graham, S. A., Nilsen E. S., & Nayer, S. L. (2007). Following the intentional eye: The role of eye gaze cues in word learning (pp. 193-216). In R. Flom, K. Lee, & D. Muir (Eds.), Gaze following: Its development and significance. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
• Lindsay, D.S., Nilsen, E., & Read, J.D. (2000). Witnessing-condition heterogeneity and witnesses’ versus investigators’ confidence in the accuracy of witnesses’ identification decisions. Law and Human Behavior, 24, 685-697.

Clinical Interests

I am actively involved in the clinical supervision of graduate students in our UW Centre for Mental Health Research. At the CMHR I supervise adult and child assessments, as part of our Cognitive Assessment Team, and therapeutic interventions with children. My clinical work is guided by empirically supported methods, with my primary theoretical orientation as cognitive behavioural. I work at a private practice one day a week where I see adult and child clients.

Current Operating Grants

• Ontario Mental Health Foundation New Investigator Fellowship
Communicative Perspective-taking and Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Developing Communicative Competence: Preschoolers’ Sensitivity to their Communicative Partner’s perspective