Research Interests 
Lisa Oakes studies cognitive development in infancy, with a particular interest in visual cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and categorization. She has been investigating the effects of everyday experience on such processes by comparing face processing as a function of infants' exposure to different kinds of faces and by comparing infants' learning and memory of animals as a function of infants' experience with pets. Other topics studied in the lab are the early development of visual short-term memory, categorization processes, and infants' memory for and learning about dynamic events. Oakes and her students use a variety of procedures, including eye-tracking.

Award

Eleanor Maccoby Book award (2022) from APA: https://www.apadivisions.org/division-7/awards/book "The Maccoby Award is presented to the author of a book in the field of psychology that has had or promises to have a profound effect on one or more of the areas represented by Div. 7, including promoting research in the field of developmental psychology; fostering the development of researchers through providing information about educational opportunities and recognizing outstanding contributions to the discipline; facilitating exchange of scientific information about developmental psychology through publications such as the division's newsletter and through national and international meetings; and/or promoting high standards for the application of scientific knowledge on human development to public policy issues."

Selected Publications 

Oakes, L.M., & Rakison, D.H. (2019). Developmental cascades: Building the infant mind. New York: Oxford University Press.

DeBolt, M. C., Rhemtulla, M., & Oakes, L. M. (in press). Robust data and power in infant research: A case study of the effect of number of infants and number of trials in visual preference procedures. Infancy.

Beckner, A.G., Cantrell, L.M., DeBolt, M.C., Martinez, M., Luck, S.J., & Oakes, L.M. (2020). Visual short-term memory for overtly attended objects during infancy. Infancy. 25, 347-370.

Hoeman, K. Wu, R., LoBue, V., Oakes, L.M. Xu, F. & Barrett, L.F. (in press). Developing an Understanding of Emotion Categories: Lessons from Objects. Trends in Cognitive Science

Prado, E., Maleta, K. Caswell, B.L., George, M., Oakes, L.M., DeBolt, M.C., Bragg, M.G., Arnold, C.D., Iannotti, L.L., Lutter, C.K., & Steward, C.P. (in press). Early child development outcomes of a randomized trial providing one egg per day to children age 6 to 15 months in Malawi. The Journal of Nutrition.

Oakes, L. M. & Ellis, A. E. (2013). An eye-tracking investigation of developmental changes in infants’ exploration of upright and inverted human faces, Infancy, 18, 134-148. DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00107.x 

Oakes, L. M., & Kovack-Lesh, K. A. (2013). Infants’ visual recognition memory for a series of categorically related items, Journal of Cognition and Development, 14, 63-86.

Kovack-Lesh, K.A., Oakes, L.M., & McMurray, B. (2012). Contributions of attentional style and previous experience to 4-month-old infants’ categorization, Infancy, 3, 324-338. DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00073.x 

Baumgartner, H. A., & Oakes, L. M. (2011). Infants’ developing sensitivity to object function: Attention to features and feature correlations, Journal of Cognition and Development, 12, 275-298.