Culture and Development Lab

Welcome to the Culture and Development Lab, located at Simon Fraser University and directed by Dr. Tanya MacGillivray. We are a team of researchers interested in questions related to early social development and the role of experience. Our research is centred on the topic of Social Learning which encompasses research on social communication, early learning and imitation, attachment, parenting, and the role of formal education.

Since 2012, the Culture and Development lab has had two research laboratories – one on the SFU Burnaby Campus, and another on Tanna Island, in the generous host village of Lounikawek. Our team at the SFU lab works with partner organizations such as community recreation centres in the greater Vancouver area to engage parents and children in our research. Our team at Lounikawek assists us with all aspects of our research – from inception to write up – to communicating our results back to participants. We have not perfected this process, but we are improving little by little.

Recently, we have started the process of adding a third research site in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, where Dr. MacGillivray spent her formative years and currently resides with her family for part of the year. This field site to aimed to expand our knowledge beyond children living in urban settings.

Who We Are

The culture and development lab is comprised of several members – the director Dr. Tanya MacGillivray, our undergraduate team of research assistants at Simon Fraser University, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, collaborators, visiting scholars and our team of research staff and hosts on Tanna, Vanuatu, including Johnny Tari and Rachel Naliau. We are also supported by our staff in the Psychology Department (daily!) and FASS, as well as the Vanuatu Kaljoral Senta in Port Vila and the Tafea Kaljoral Senta on Tanna.

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What We Do

Our primary objective is to better understand the range of human diversity and, specifically, how variation in early experience shapes the developing human mind. This objective is met by examining both basic developmental processes in children as well as examining how the kinds and amounts of early social experiences influence development. Another objective is to move psychology toward a less biased and ethnocentric science by expanding our knowledge of child development beyond the urban white middle class participant pool which represents the majority of psychological science, yet the minority of the world’s population.

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