If you would like to read any of the articles below, please contact us byemail (childresearch@uwaterloo.ca) and we would be happy to send you a copy.
Ju, N., San Juan, V., Nilsen, E., & Graham, S. (2025). Feedback from a speaker improves 5-year-olds’ communicative perspective-taking.Journal of Cognition and Development, 1 – 23.
Bowman-Smith, C. K., Aitken, C., Mahenthiran, T., Law, E. & Nilsen, E. S. (2025).Teaching social robots: The effect of robot mistakes on children's learning-through teaching.Frontiers – Developmental Psychology.
Van Kessel, K., Aitken, C., & Nilsen, E. S. (2024). Parental factors moderate the association between COVID-19 disruption and adolescent emotional and behavioural difficulties.Journal of Early Adolescence.
Rasouli, S., Ghafurian, M., Nilsen, E. S., & Dautenhahn, K. (2023). University students’ opinion on intelligent agents to cope with stress and anxiety in social situations.Computers in Human Interactions,108072l.
Sosa-Hernandez, L., Aitken, C., Heintzman, S., Nilsen, E. S., & Henderson, H. A., (2023). Temperamental shyness and children’s communication in a goal-oriented task: A dyadic perspective. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 87, 101566. .
Lee, K. J., Davila, A., Cheng, H., Goh, J., Nilsen, E., & Law, E. (2023). “We need to do more ... I need to do more”: Augmenting Digital Media Consumption to Promote Compassion and Prosocial Attitudes and Behaviours via Critical Reflection. Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23), April 23-28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany.
Valcke, A., & Nilsen, E. S. (2022). The Influence of Context and Player Comments on Preschoolers’ Social and Partner-Directed Communicative Behavior.Journal of Cognition and Development, 1-27. .
Bacso, S. A., & Nilsen, E. S. (2022). Children’s use of verbal and nonverbal feedback during communicative repair: Associations with executive functioning and emotion knowledge.Cognitive Development,63, 101199. DOI:10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101199. .
Bowman-Smith, C. Sosa-Hernandez, L., & Nilsen, E. S., (2021). The other side of the screen: The impact of perspective-taking on adolescents’ online communication. Journal of Adolescence, 90, 46 - 56.ٰ:10.1016/.DZԳ.2021.08.006. .
Lee, K. J., Chauhan, A., Goh, J., Nilsen, E., Law, E. (2021). Curiosity Notebook: The design of a research platform for learning by teaching. In Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 5, CSCW (October 23-27, 2021), Article 394 (pp. 1-26). DOI: 10.1145/3479538 .
Ceha, J., Lee, K. J., Nilsen, E., Goh, J., & Law, E. (2021). Can a humorous conversational agent enhance learning experience and outcomes? In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21), May 8–13, 2021, Yokohama, Japan. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 14 pages. DOI:10.1145/3411764.3445068. .
Bacso, S., Nilsen, E. S., & Silva, J. (2021). How to turn that frown upside down: Children make use of a listener’s facial cues to detect and (attempt to) repair miscommunication. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 207. DOI:10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105097. .
Nilsen, E. S., Silva, J., McAuley, T. & Floto, S. (2020). Executive functioning moderates the associations between shyness and pragmatic language. Social Development.ٰ:10.1111/ǻ.12485. .
Gevaux, N., Nilsen, E. S., Bobocel, R., & Gault, S., (2020). Children’s reactions to inequality: Associations with empathy and parental teaching. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. ٰ:10.1016/..2020.101189. .
Mewhort-Buist, T. A., Nilsen, E. S., & Bowman-Smith, C. K. (2020). Children's Communicative Decisions Are Influenced by Gender, Shyness, and Peer Experiences.Merrill-Palmer Quarterly,66(1), 1-33. DOI:10.13110/merrpalmquar1982.66.1.0001. .
White, K. S., Nilsen, E. S., Deglint, T., & Silva, J. (2019). That’s thee, uuh blicket! What do children learn from disfluent speakers? First Language. DOI:/10.1177/0142723719873499. .
Varghese, A. & Nilsen, E. S., (2019).Is that how you should talk to her? Using appropriate prosody for listeners affects adults’, but not children’s, judgments of communicators’ competence.Journal of Language and Social Psychology. ٰ:10.1177/026192719871692. .
Gillis, R. L., Nilsen, E. S., & Gevaux, N. S. (2019). Children accept information from incongruent speakers when the context explains the communicative incongruence.Cognitive Development,52, 100813. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100813. .
Mewhort-Buist, T. A., & Nilsen, E. S., (2019). Shy children’s understanding of irony: Better comprehension does not always mean better outcomes. Infant and Child Development, e2131. DOI: 10.1002/icd.2131. .
Nilsen, E. S., & Valcke, A., (2018). Children’s sharing with collaborators versus competitors: Relations with executive functioning and mentalizing ability. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 58, 38 - 48. DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2018.08.001. .
Lenton-Brym, A., Moscovitch, D., Vidovic, V., Nilsen, E. S., & Friedman, O. (2018).Theory of mind ability in high socially anxious individuals. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 31, 487 - 499. DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2018.1483021. .
Bacso, S. & Nilsen, E. S., (2017). What’s that you’re saying? Children with better executive functioning are more able to successfully produce and repair referential statements.Journal of Cognition and Development,18(4), 441-464. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2017.1336438..
Huyder, V., Nilsen, E., & Bacso, S. (2017). The relationship between children's executive functioning, theory of mind, and verbal skills with their own and others' behaviour in a cooperative context: Changes in relations from early to middle school-age.Infant and Child Development, 26(6), e2027.DOI: 10.1002/icd.2027..
Mewhort-Buist, T. A., & Nilsen, E. S. (2017). Shy individuals’ interpretations of counterfactual verbal irony.Metaphor and Symbol,32(4), 262-275. DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2017.1384275. .
Nilsen, E. S., & Bacso, S. (2017). The cognitive and behavioural predictors of adolescents’ communicative perspective-taking and social competence.Adolescence, 56,52-63. DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.01.004..
Nilsen, E. S., Rints, A., Ethier, N., & Moroz, S. (2016). Mother-child communication style: The influence of executive functioning and ADHD symptomatology on paralinguistic style.Frontiers in Psychology,7,Article 1203. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01203..
Nilsen, E. S., Huyder, V., McAuley, T., & Liebermann, D. (2016). Ratings of Everyday Executive Functioning: A parent-report measure of preschoolers’ executive functioning skills.Psychological Assessment,29(1), 50. DOI: 10.1037/pas0000308..
Varghese, A., & Nilsen, E. S., (2016). Guess who? Children use prosody to infer intended listeners.British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 34,306 – 312. DOI: 10.111/bjdp.12135. DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12135..
Gillis, R., & Nilsen, E. S., (2017). Consistency between verbal and non-verbal affective cues: A clue to speaker credibility.Cognition and Emotion, 31(4), 645-65.DOI:10.1080/02699931.2016.1147422..
Nilsen, E. S., Varghese, A., Xu, Z., Fecica, A., (2015). Children with stronger executive functioning and fewer ADHD traits produce more effective referential statements.Cognitive Development,36, 68-82. DOI:10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.09.001..
Nilsen, E. S., Lizdek, I., & Ethier, N. (2015). Mother-child interpersonal dynamics: The influence of maternal and child ADHD symptoms.Journal of Experimental Psychopathology,6(4), 313-329. DOI: 10.5127/jep.047015. .
Rints, A., McAuley, T. A., & Nilsen, E. S. (2014). Social communication is predicted by inhibitory ability and ADHD traits in preschool-age children: A mediation model.Journal of Attention Disorders,19(10), 901-911. DOI:10.1177/1087054714558873..
Graham, S.,Nilsen, E. S.,Mah,J.,Morison, S.,MacLean,K., & Fisher,L., Brooks, B., Ames, E. (2014). Communicative interactions between children from Romanian orphanages and their adoptive mothers.Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science,46, 9-19.DOI:10.1037/a0033916..
Gillis, R., &Nilsen, E. S., (2014). The role of cognitive flexibility in children’s ability to detect communicative ambiguity.First Language,34,58 – 71.DOI:10.1037/a0033916..
Glenwright,M.,Parackel,J.,Cheung,K., &Nilsen, E. S., (2014). Intonation influences how children and adults interpret sarcasm.Journal of Child Language,41(2), 472-484.DOI:10.1017/S0305000912000773..
Varghese, A., &Nilsen, E. S., (2013). Incentives improve the clarity of school-age children’s referential statements.Cognitive Development, 28,364 - 373.DOI:10.1016/j.cogdev.2013.07.001..
Neath,K.,Nilsen, E.S.,Gittovitch,K.,Itier, R.J. (2013). Attention orienting by gaze and facial expressions across development. Emotion, 13,397 - 408.DOI:10.1037/a0030463..
Nilsen, E. S.,Mangal,L., &MacDonald,K. (2013). Referential communication in children withADHD: The role of a listener.Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56,590 - 603. DOI:10.1044/1092-4388(2012/12-0013)..
Nilsen, E. S., &Duong, D. (2013). Depressive symptoms and perspective-taking within a communicative context.Cognition & Emotion, 27,335 - 344.DOI:10.1080/02699931.2012.708648..
Gillis, R., &Nilsen, E. S., (2013). Children’s use of information quality to establish speaker preferences.Developmental Psychology. 49, 480 – 490.DOI:10.1037/a0029479. .
Mewhort-Buist,T. A., &Nilsen, E. S., (2013). What are youreallysaying? Associations between shyness and verbal irony comprehension.Infant and Child Development, 22,180 - 197.DOI: 10.1002/icd.1769..
Nilsen, E. S.,Mewhort-Buist,T.,Gillis, R., &Fugelsang,J. (2013). Communicative perspective-taking performance of adults withADHDsymptoms.Journal of Attention Disorders, 17,589 - 597.DOI:10.1177/1087054711428947..
Huyder, V., &Nilsen, E., S., (2012). A dyadic data analysis of executive functioning and children’s socially competent behaviours.Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 33,197 - 208.DOI:10.1016/j.appdev.2012.05.002..
Nilsen, E. S., & Graham, S. A. (2012). The development of preschoolers’ appreciation of communicative ambiguity.Child Development, 83, 1400 – 1415.DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01762..
Nilsen, E. S., &Mangal,L., (2012). Which is important for preschoolers’ production and repair of statements: What the listener knows or what the listener says?Journal of Child Language, 39,1121-1134.DOI:10.1017/S0305000911000432. .
Nilsen, E. S., &Fecica, A. (2011). A model of communicative perspective-taking for typical and atypical populations of children.Developmental Review, 31,55 – 78. DOI:10.1016/j.dr.2011.07.001..
Graham, S. A.,Nilsen, E. S.,Friesen,C.K., & Johnson,J. (2011). Examining the role of attention and intention in two-year-olds’ acquisition of novel words.Enfance, 3,311 - 328.DOI:10.4074/S0013754511003041..
Nilsen, E. S.,Glenwright,M., &Huyder, V. (2011). Children and adults understand that verbal irony interpretation depends on listener knowledge.Journal of Cognition and Development, 12,374 – 409.DOI:10.1080/15248372.2010.544693..
Graham, S.,Nilsen, E. S., Collins, S., &Olineck,K. (2010). The role of gaze direction and mutual exclusivity in guiding 24-month-olds’ word learning.British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28,449-465. DOI: 10.1348/026151009X424565..
Nilsen, E. S., Graham, S., &Pettigrew,T. (2009). Preschoolers’ word mappings: The interplay between labelling context and quality of speaker attention. Journal of Child Language, 36,673-684.DOI: 10.1017/S0305000908009021..
Nilsen, E. S., & Graham, S. (2009). The relations between children’s communicative perspective-taking and executive functioning.Cognitive Psychology, 58,220-249.DOI:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2008.07.002..
Nilsen, E. S., &Bourassa, D. (2008). Word learning performance in beginning readers.Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62:2,110-116.DOI:10.1037/1196-1961.62.2.110..
Nilsen, E. S., Graham, S., Smith, S., & Chambers,C. (2008). Preschoolers’ sensitivity to referential ambiguity: Evidence for a dissociation between implicit understanding and explicit behavior.Developmental Science, 11:4,556-562. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00701..