Emily F. Coyle, Ph.D.
Developmental Scientist
Research
Research Interests
I am interested in how social group membership (e.g., gender), family, and society-level influences shape children’s developing interests, aspirations, and achievements. I am particularly interested in how these forces promote or detract from children’s interest and participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Informal learning contexts like play are of particular personal interest because humans spend so much more of their time outside of formal academic settings. Finally, I am interested in the role of individual differences in personal social group membership salience (e.g., gender salience) as moderators of cognition.
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You can find publications indexed on my Google Scholar page, and open-education resources for teaching child development with Sesame Street here.
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In addition to my topical interests, I am interested in statistics and methods more generally. I am available for consulting on project design, data collection, data analysis, and program evaluation, among other areas. Please contact me for more information about consulting, including current availability and rates: ECoyle [at] stmartin.edu
Current
Projects​
Curriculum Vitae
You can download my CV here.
(Last updated 10/17/23)
Join the lab!
Interested in joining my lab? Students are able to work on all aspects of my research, from project design to data collection to dissemination of results at conferences and in papers.
Interested students should complete this application
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Applications are considered on a first-come, first-served basis and the lab is limited in size (varies by semester). Priority is given to students interested in graduate school, students who are able to commit more than one semester to the lab, and students who are still in need of an internship for the Psychology major.
There are always multiple projects in different stages in the Studying Emerging Attitudes and Learning (SEAL) lab! You can read more about current projects and how to get involved in the lab at www.seallabsmu.com.
Some recent projects include:
Families in Quarantine
Since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been surveying families about their coping and how they spend their time. I'm particularly interested in how the shift in work, education, and childcare impacts family dynamics and roles in and out of the home, especially for mothers and for daughters.
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Family interaction at a community science exhibit
I recently collected data about parents and children interacting at a community science exhibit. I am interested in how boys versus girls navigate the exhibit and how parents and peers assist them. Preliminary results suggest that with age, boys and girls diverge in the methods they use to explore the exhibit.
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The SEAL lab is now developing a related project to further probe the differences we found in the community science exhibit. This study utilizes Foldscopes - $1 paper microscopes - to examine how children test hypotheses about the appearance of macroscopic and microscopic images. Foldscopes are paper microscopes that are meant to make science more accessible to those who typically do not have access to mechanical microscopes. Examples of some Foldscope images can be found at http://microcosmos.foldscope.com/.
Gender & STEM intervention meta-analysis
I am currently finishing a meta-analysis that evaluates the effectiveness of interventions aimed to increase girls’ and women’s interest and participation in STEM. I am interested in empirically evaluating the impact of STEM intervention programs in order to understand what works well, what does not work, and what might even be harmful.
Parent-child play with a STEM toy
My dissertation examined how parents and children use a toy designed to teach mechanical still and promote STEM interest, and how that varies based on the gender marketing of the toy. These video-taped sessions offer ample opportunity to code for various aspects of parent-child interaction in a STEM play task. SEAL lab RAs recently coded for parental praise/encouragement vs. criticism/discouragement to examine how those might relate to children's persistence in the STEM task and a later independently completed mechanical transfer task. We are now coding for the more subtle ways that parents teach about STEM while interacting with their child and the toy.
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Instruction in construction (LEGO)
In collaboration with Dr. Megan Fulcher at Washington and Lee University and Kingsley Schroeder at Penn State, I am currently investigating how adults teach about LEGO construction to boys versus girls. In the SEAL lab at SMU, we are playing audio instructions created in Dr. Fulcher's lab to assess how successfully adults and children can assemble the described LEGO constructions.
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Experiencing Homelessness in Puyallup
I collaborated with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty to survey homeless adults in the Puyallup, WA area about their experiences living homeless in the area. This project examined key area concerns around shelter and safety, as well as positive and negative interactions with police, and experiences of discrimination more generally.