Michael Goldstein

Michael Goldstein is a Professor of Psychology and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell University. Michael is also a trombone player but asks that you do not hold that against him. He received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology and animal behaviour from Indiana University. Michael studies the development and evolution of vocal communication and social learning. He takes a comparative approach, investigating vocal communication and social development in human infants and songbirds. His research on the developmental processes by which knowledge of speech and song are acquired has revealed new mechanisms by which the social environment influences the learning of species-typical adaptive skills. By studying social interaction and learning as it occurs in moment-to-moment interactions between infants and social partners, Michael’s research connects our knowledge of social influences on developmental outcomes with specific processes of learning. A major finding from his work is that immature vocal behaviour, such as babbling in humans and plastic song in songbirds, has crucial functional significance for learning, but only when studied in a social context. Michael received the David Kucharski Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology and the Distinguished Early Career Contribution Award from the International Society on Infant Studies. His research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.