Merit Awards

Steve Reznick Early Career Award

The Steve Reznick Early Career Award was created to recognize an early career researcher who has a history of scholarly work that has advanced the field.  The award is administered by the CDS Awards Committee.

  Supported by:

About Dr. Steven Reznick

Dr. Reznick obtained his B.A. from UNC Chapel Hill in 1973, followed by his M.A. from Wake Forest University in 1975. He then went on to earn his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1982. He soon became the Research Director of the Harvard Infant Study and served on faculty at Yale University, before returning to UNC as a Professor of Developmental Psychology in 1998. Dr. Reznick was a key contributor to the world of Cognitive Science; besides founding the Cognitive Development Society he also authored several books and helped develop the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory and the First-Year Inventory, both popular scientific assessment tools. He was awarded multiple honors including the C. Know Massey Distinguished Service Award, the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, and the Order of the Golden Fleece. It is only fitting that there is now an award in his name to highlight up-and-coming Cognitive Scientists.

Steve Reznick Award Committee

Kristina Olson, Princeton University (Chair)
Richard William Prather, University of Maryland
Mahesh Srinivasan, University of California, Berkeley

Eligibility and Submission Guidelines

The Steve Reznick Early Career Award was created to recognize an early career researcher who has a history of scholarly work that has advanced the field.  The award is administered by the Steve Reznick Award Committee. We strongly encourage applications of eligible candidates from all institutions in all geographic areas, including those historically underrepresented in nominations. Candidates who applied in the past and are still eligible are encouraged to apply again. If any questions arise, please contact

Self-nominations and nominations are permitted.

Faculty are eligible for the first 8 years of their faculty careers, except if they have achieved tenure* (*if you are at a university where tenure means something different than in the traditional US/Canada system, and/or it is traditionally granted upon hiring, and you are within 8 years of your first faculty position, please include a short description of your university/country’s tenure/promotion system to be considered for the award. Also, if you’ve had unusual circumstances regarding health, parental leave, etc, please include a statement about those circumstances for consideration beyond year 8).

Nomination Materials

    1. Candidate’s CV
    2. A statement by the nominator or candidate (for self-nomination) with each of the seven substantive criteria listed as subheadings. Under each subheading, in no more than one paragraph, the candidate’s contributions in that domain should be described. See the statement criteria section below.
    3. Two publications that best reflect the candidate’s research program.
    4. A statement by the candidate indicating that they have not been found guilty of any scientific or personal misconduct. If the winner is later found guilty of misconduct the award will be rescinded.
    5. Two letters of support (maximum 2 pages per letter) by individuals who can comment on the candidate’s accomplishments as relevant to the criteria.

Statement criteria

    1. Novelty of Research: Is the research novel and creative?
    2. Transformative Potential: Does the research have the potential to change how we think about cognitive developmental science?
    3. Methodological Innovation: Is the research characterized by innovative scientific methods?
    4. Methodological Rigor: Is the research characterized by rigorous scientific methods?
    5. Scholarship: Does the research build upon existing cognitive development science?
    6. Breadth of Influence: Is the research influencing multiple fields of psychological / developmental science?
    7. Broader Impacts: Does the work demonstrate a potential or actual broader impact on the world and/or has the scholar made a broader impact via mentorship, teaching, or informal or formal service?

How to apply

All materials except letters should be submitted together to the CDS Secretariat via email () with the subject heading “Early Career Award – [last name]”

Letters of support should be emailed directly by the letter writers to the CDS Secretariat () with the subject heading “Early Career Award – [last name] – LOS”

Key Dates

Nominations open: September 10, 2025
Nominations close: October 10, 2025

The award recipient will be announced at the Cognitive Development Society Conference in April, 2026.

2026 Winner

Jamie Amemiya, PhD

Jamie Amemiya, PhD

Occidental College

Jamie Amemiya is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Occidental College, where she directs the Development of Thinking (DoT) Lab. Her research program examines children’s and adults’ perceptions of, explanations for, and responses to social differences (e.g., racial inequality, gender disparities, differences in beliefs). Theoretically, she takes an interdisciplinary approach that integrates social, cognitive, and developmental psychological perspectives. She employs a range of methods, including social-cognitive experiments, cross-cultural research, and interventions in real-world settings. Together, her work sheds light on the roots and consequences of people’s beliefs about difference, with implications for reducing social inequality and bridging divides. 

Past Steve Reznick Early Career Winners

Deon T. Benton (2024), Vanderbilt University

Hyowon Gweon (2022), Stanford University

Elika Bergelson (2019), Duke University

Marjorie Rhodes (2017), New York University

The CDS Excellence in Cognitive Development Research at Undergraduate-Focused Institutions Award

The CDS Excellence in Cognitive Development Research at Undergraduate-Focused Institutions Award celebrates the research being conducted at a wide range of institutions around the globe.

  Supported by:

Eligibility and Submission Guidelines

    • The nominee must have completed the nominated work while at an institution that primarily focuses on undergraduate teaching (for example, in the U.S. this may be an institution that does not have a Ph.D. program in psychology). Candidates can be from or work in any country in the world.
    • The nominee should have been the “senior” author of the work (i.e., a project done while a postdoc at an research intensive institution, with a senior mentor, but published when the nominee was at a teaching-focused college is not eligible.) The work may be in collaboration with colleagues at research intensive institutions but the nominee should be the primary investigator. If the work does include co-authors, a brief description of their role would be helpful to the award committee.
    • The nominee’s example paper must have been published (i.e., formally published in a journal, not “accepted” or “early view”) in 2024 or 2025 on a topic of relevance to the Cognitive Development Society (in any peer-reviewed journal
    • For this award, “research excellence” is defined broadly, including papers that make important theoretical and/or empirical contributions to our understanding of cognitive development, present innovative methodological advances, and/or reflect critical initiatives to increase the diversity and/or generalizability of developmental science.
    • Ideally the nominee is a member of CDS, but this is not essential.

Award Committee

Anna Shusterman, Barnard College (Chair)
Mary Wagner Fuhs, University of Dayton
Kirsten Read, Santa Clara University

Nomination Process

To nominate yourself or someone else, please submit the following materials:

    • A pdf of a 2024 or 2025 paper by the nominee that best illustrates their research excellence
    • The nominee’s CV
    • A brief explanation (one paragraph) of how the paper meets the description of research excellence and the nominee’s role as a senior author on the paper, as well as how the nominee’s school fits the criterion of a teaching-focused school.  There is no need to include additional information for this award (e.g., information about teaching abilities, other papers, etc), as the selection criteria will focus solely on excellence in research in undergraduate-focused institutions, as described above.

How to Apply

Applicants must submit the required materials directly to the CDS Secretariat via email using the ‘Submit Application’ button below, with the subject line: Excellence in Cognitive Development Research Award.

Key Dates

Nominations open: September 10, 2025
Nomination close: October 10, 2025

The award recipient will be recognized at the Cognitive Development Society conference in April, 2026.

2026 Winner

Koleen McCrink, PhD

Koleen McCrink, PhD

Barnard College, Columbia University

Dr. Koleen McCrink, Professor of Psychology, joined the faculty at Barnard College – Columbia University in 2009, serving as chair from 2022-2025. Before coming to Barnard, she held a postdoctoral research position at Harvard University and obtained her PhD at Yale University. Professor McCrink’s research focuses on the development of spatial and numerical cognition from infancy through adulthood. She has been funded by R15s from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. Professor McCrink has mentored one-on-one nearly 150 Barnard students in a variety of projects in her undergraduate-only laboratory. Her research assistants participate in a 10-week fully-funded summer program in which they learn theoretical basics and experiment development, followed by a full-year experience of gathering data, refining studies, data analysis, and manuscript drafting. These projects form the backbone of many publications that were student-driven, including this year’s cross-cultural work on parent-child spatial interactions published in JCD.

Past Winners

Anna Shusterman (2024), Wesleyan University

Mary Wagner Fuhs (2022), University of Dayton

Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) Early Career Impact Award

CDS is pleased to participate in the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) Early Career Impact Award. This award is presented to early-career scientists of FABBS member societies (including CDS) who are within ten years of completing their PhD.

The purpose of this award is to recognize scientists who have made major research contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior. The goal is to enhance public visibility of these sciences and the particular research through the dissemination efforts of FABBS in collaboration with the member societies and award recipients.

Award Committee

Elizabeth Bonawitz, Harvard University (Chair)
Richard William Prather, University of Maryland
Mahesh Srinivasan, University of California, Berkeley

Eligibility and Submission Guidelines

Nominations (including self-nominations) are encouraged for individuals who have made outstanding research contributions, especially those who have also increased awareness of science through outreach activities to the public or communication with the media. Please note that individuals who have received the Steve Reznick Early Carer Award are not eligible for the FABBS Early Career Impact Award.

You will be asked to submit the following:

    1. Name and contact information for the nominator(s)
    2. Basic informtion on the nominee
    3. Nominee’s CV
    4. A 400-word (or less) statement describing the major research contributions of the nominee, including relevance to policy and/or practice
    5. A 200-word (or less) statement describing activities of the nominee that have raised awareness of the science to the public
    6. A traditional letter of reference (up to 2 pages) describing the nominee’s research program, scholarly impact, professional integrity, and contributions to the field of cognitive development.
    7. Confirmation that the nominee is not more than 10 years post-PhD, or a brief statement about any circumstances (e.g. regarding health, parental leave, etc) for consideration beyond year 10

We encourage nominators to draft the word-limited statements (#2 and #3 above) offline so they can verify word counts before submission. Nominations that do not follow these requirements may not be considered.

More details about the FABBS Early Career Impact Award can be found on the FABBS website.

How to apply

Applications are submitted via this Google form

Key Dates
Nominations open: May 15, 2026
Nominations close: Monday, July 27th, 2026, 11:59PM UTC