Rechele Brooks

University of Washington, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Researcher

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Rechele is a research scientist at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS).

Rechele received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Boston University in 1999.

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Robert Lickliter

Florida International University

Steven Pinker

Harvard University

Na'ama Pat-El

The University of Texas at Austin

Georg Theiner

Villanova University

David Pierre Leibovitz

Carleton University

Adrian Cussins

Universidad Nacional de Colombia (National University of Colombia)

Sonja Eisenbeiss

University of Cologne

David Seamon

Kansas State University

John Johnson

Pennsylvania State University

Joel Krueger

University of Exeter

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Papers by Rechele Brooks

Enhanced gaze-following behavior in Deaf infants of Deaf parents

by Rechele Brooks and Andrew Meltzoff

Developmental Science, 2019

Gaze following plays a role in parent-infant communication and is a key mechanism by which infant... more Gaze following plays a role in parent-infant communication and is a key mechanism by which infants acquire information about the world from social input. Gaze following in Deaf infants has been understudied. Twelve Deaf infants of Deaf parents (DoD) who had native exposure to American Sign Language (ASL) were gender-matched and age-matched (±7 days) to 60 spoken-language hearing control infants. Results showed that the DoD infants had significantly higher gaze-following scores than the hearing infants. We hypothesize that in the absence of auditory input, and with support from ASL-fluent Deaf parents, infants become attuned to visual-communicative signals from other people, which engenders increased gaze following. These findings underscore the need to revise the 'deficit model' of deafness. Deaf infants immersed in natural sign language from birth are better at understanding the signals and identifying the referential meaning of adults' gaze behavior compared to hearing infants not exposed to sign language. Broader implications for theories of social-cognitive development are discussed.

Re-examination of Oostenbroek et al. (2016): Evidence for neonatal imitation of tongue protrusion

by Mikael Heimann, Rechele Brooks, Leonardo De Pascalis, and Francys Subiaul

Developmental Science, 2017

The meaning, mechanism, and function of imitation in early infancy have been actively discussed s... more The meaning, mechanism, and function of imitation in early infancy have been actively discussed since Meltzoff and Moore's (1977) report of facial and manual imitation by human neonates. Oostenbroek et al. (2016) claim to challenge the existence of early imitation and to counter all interpretations so far offered. Such claims, if true, would have implications for theories of social-cognitive development. Here we identify 11 flaws in Oostenbroek et al.'s experimental design that biased the results toward null effects. We requested and obtained the authors' raw data. Contrary to the authors' conclusions, new analyses reveal significant tongue-protrusion imitation at all four ages tested (1, 3, 6, and 9 weeks old). We explain how the authors missed this pattern and offer five recommendations for designing future experiments. Infant imitation raises fundamental issues about action representation, social learning, and brain–be-havior relations. The debate about the origins and development of imitation reflects its importance to theories of developmental science.

Rechele Brooks

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