In Memoriam: Renowned Expert on Child Development, Psychology Professor Emerita Judy DeLoache

Judy DeLoache, an internationally renowned researcher in child development and UVA’s Lawrence R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology Emerita, died on Oct. 23. She was 82.

A leading expert on children’s cognitive development, DeLoache greatly advanced our understanding of children’s memory and reasoning through her work on how children acquire a knowledge of symbols. Symbols require dual representations because they are both distinct entities and serve as referents for something else. 

As part of an early research program, DeLoache developed a paradigm in which she would hide an object in a small-scale model of a larger room. For example, she might hide a small toy doll behind a miniature sofa in the model and then ask a young child to find a similar full-size doll in the full-size room. Three-year-olds would immediately look behind the sofa, whereas 2 ½ year olds were flummoxed and did not know where to look. DeLoache concluded that the problem was not a failure of memory, but of symbolic understanding. The youngest children did not understand that the model room could be construed as a symbolic “stand in” for the larger room. The project led to a seminal 1987 paper on children’s symbolic functioning published in Science.

“I have found early symbolic development to be a fascinating area in which to do research,” DeLoache said in 2006 after she was awarded the distinction of Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “Often, I have found results that surprise and intrigue not only me, but other researchers and parents. This and other research that I and my students and colleagues have conducted is leading to a richer picture of how very young children start the process of becoming symbol minded.”

Especially noteworthy is DeLoache’s paper, “The Credible Shrinking Room,” published in 1997 with Keven Miller and Karl Rosengren in Psychological Science. In that project, she told very young children that she had a shrinking machine that could make a large room contract into a scale model of the room. Convinced that the small model was a shrunken version of the larger room, the children succeeded in the hide-and-seek task, shedding more light on the role played by dual representation in the development of symbol understanding and use.

This article was later selected by the Society for Research in Child Development as one of the 20 Most Fascinating Studies in Child Psychology.

While conducting the research for the Psychological Science paper, DeLoache noticed an odd behavior occasionally exhibited by her toddler research subjects. They would attempt to act on miniature toy objects as if they were full-sized; for example, they would try to sit in a toy chair or get into a toy car.  These observations prompted her to investigate these “scale errors,” leading to a (2004) Science paper with co-authors David Uttal and Karl Rosengren.

In addition to being elected to the AAAS, DeLoache was the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including APA William James Fellow Award, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, SRCD Senior Distinguished Contributions Award, and the Distinguished Contribution Award from the International Congress on Infant Studies (ICIS). Her undergraduate alma mater, Georgia State University,  awards an undergraduate research fellowship in DeLoache’s name. 

“Judy’s distinguished career was complemented by her generosity and cheerful optimism that made her a wonderful colleague and a much-beloved mentor,” said her Department of Psychology colleague Dennis Proffit, Commonwealth Professor of Psychology Emeritus.

Judy earned her B.A. and M.A from Georgia State University and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois (1974). Her academic appointments included assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University (1973-74), and visiting research assistant professor, assistant to full professor, and Alumni Professor at the University of Illinois (1974-2000). In 2000, she moved to the University of Virginia, where she served as the Lawrence R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology until her retirement in 2012.  

DeLoache is survived by her husband, Gerald Clore, UVA Commonwealth Professor of Psychology Emeritus, their son, Ben Clore, daughter in-law Laura Aimone, and two grandchildren.