Campus Directory

Division Social Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit Psychology Department

Title Professor

Affiliation Faculty

Faculty Type Regular Faculty

Primary Office Location Social Sciences 2
313

Office Hours for Students/ Office Hours (Fall 2024) (Zoom) Weds., 11am-12PM (Meeting ID: 950 0015 5231; Passcode: 102799) https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/95000155231?pwd=Qk4MSUbT3t7mvKtKdZNX2rb74D6cah.1

Mail Stop Psychology Faculty Services

Biography, Education and Training

B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Dalhousie University

Summary of Expertise

Cognitive and social cognitive processes in early language development, infants' social understanding.

Research Interests

Nameera Akhtar's research interests are in early cognitive and language development; in particular, how social and cognitive developments play a role in young children's understanding and use of language. Infants' and toddlers' social-cognitive understanding , and their motivation to connect with others, are assumed to be fundamental to language development.

One way in which the importance of social-cognitive factors is investigated is by examining how young children use their social understanding in early word learning, even in situations in which they are not even being addressed. Using experimental techniques in semi-natural interaction contexts, we study what and how children learn from third-party interactions. These studies show that young toddlers are very motivated to understand what others are saying and doing and that they attend strategically to others' interactions.

Selected Publications

• Akhtar, N., & Dinishak, J. (2024). Short report: Can autie-biographies influence non-autistic readers’ views of autism and autistic people? Neurodiversity, 2.

• Dinishak, J., & Akhtar, N. (2023). Integrating autistic perspectives into autism science: A role for autistic autobiographies. Autism, 27(3), 578-587.

• Dinishak, J., Akhtar, N., & Frymiare, J. (2022). Still infantilizing autism? A replication and extension of Stevenson et al. (2011). Autism in Adulthood, 4(3), 224-232.

• Lewin, N., & Akhtar, N. (2021). Neurodiversity and deficit perspectives in The Washington Post’s coverage of autism. Disability & Society, 36(5), 812-833.

• Akhtar, N., & Jaswal, V. K. (2020). Stretching the social: Broadening the behavioral indicators of sociality. Child Development Perspectives, 14(1), 28-33. 

• Jaswal, V. K., & Akhtar, N. (2019a). Being versus appearing socially interested: Challenging assumptions about social motivation in autism. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 42, e82: 1-73.

• Jaswal, V. K., & Akhtar, N. (2019b). Supporting autistic flourishing. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Courses Psych 10: Introduction to Developmental Psychology
Psych 104: Development in Infancy
Psych 244A: Cognitive and Language Development
Psych 119Q: Perspectives on Autism