Asia’s Rising Scientists: Peipei Setoh

Are babies a tabula rasa or do they have an inbuilt moral compass? Peipei Setoh, an assistant professor at NTU hopes to find out.

Leonard Chng | August 5, 2015 | Editorials

Peipei Setoh
Assistant professor at the Division of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore

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AsianScientist (Aug. 5, 2015) - Assistant professor Peipei Setoh’s research focuses on infants and toddlers, looking at their development and how they make sense of the world around them. Some areas of research include the biological, psychological and socio-moral reasoning of toddlers.

In July, Setoh and her team signed an agreement with the Science Center Singapore to conduct a study on moral reasoning in young children. We catch up with her to find out more about her latest findings.

1. How would you summarize your research in a tweet (140 characters)?

Your baby is a little scientist! Did you know she uses basic principles of biology, psychology and morality to make sense of the world?

2. Describe a completed research project that you are proudest of.

In one area of my research, I study what babies know about animals. My collaborators and I wanted to test our theory that, when an entity is identified as an animal, infants will have biological expectations about it. In four experiments, we demonstrate one such biological expectation: 8-month-olds expect animals to have filled insides. This is analogous to a baby seeing a crawling tortoise for the first time and being surprised that it is hollow and has no insides when you pick the tortoise up and flip it over!

This is remarkable because even before they can speak, babies reason about animals differently from inanimate objects, suggesting that perhaps a rudimentary form of biological knowledge is present early in life, which may serve as a foundation for the development of more advanced knowledge about biology.

3. What do you hope your research will accomplish in the next decade?

I hope my research program will make lasting contributions to our understanding of cognitive, social and moral development of children. I hope to share with parents what their babies are thinking about and produce research findings that will positively impact our society, such as improving our understanding of moral and pro-social behavior. This line of research will help us understand what principles guide human moral cognition and may have educational and clinical implications.

4. Who (or what) motivated you to go into your field of study?

Ever since I took my first class in Developmental Psychology as an undergraduate, I was hooked. That was when I first heard about the fascinating field of baby research and the cool experiments conducted by my adviser, Professor Renée Baillargeon. I love creating studies to find out what babies and young children are thinking!

5. What is the biggest adversity that you experienced in your research?

I study young children between three months to five years of age, so the biggest adversity I experience is in finding participants. When I tell parents about the kinds of questions we research and our findings, they are very interested and want to learn more. Our studies are short, fun and parents and children enjoy taking part.

My aim is to promote citizen science–public participation in scientific research, in Singapore. I am very lucky to have found partners who share the same vision. My lab, the Early Cognition Lab, will be partnering with KidsSTOP at the Singapore Science Center to carry out research studies at KidsSTOP to reach out to parents so that they can find us easily.

Setoh at a study with a mother and her toddler. Credit: Peipei Setoh.
Setoh at a study with a mother and her toddler. Credit: Peipei Setoh.

6. What are the biggest challenges facing the academic research community today and how can we fix it?

In the field of developmental and cognitive psychology, it would be great if our research findings were disseminated more so that we could help people engage in informed decisions and inform societal debates about policies that affect our children.

7. If you had not become a scientist, what would you have become instead?

I love talking to students and sharing knowledge, so I probably would have been an educator. This answer is kind of cheating, because that is the other part of what I’m doing now! :)

8. What do you do outside of work to relax? Do you have any interests and hobbies?

I love experimenting with new recipes, sharing meals with friends and family and traveling. This summer we visited Italy and had a wonderful time dining at a winery.

Setoh taking a break from research! Credit: Peipei Setoh.
Setoh taking a break from research! Credit: Peipei Setoh.

9. If you had the power and resources to eradicate any world problem using your research, which one would you solve?

I would like to find out how to improve pro-sociality and care for humankind. The outcome would be that everyone would treat each other better, with more kindness and compassion. My hope is that we would also think about the future of the earth, help to reduce waste and improve lives for future generations.

10. What advice would you give to aspiring researchers in Asia?

Science is cumulative; we build on the efforts of those who came before us. I hope we can focus on the applications of our research and through our work we can add bricks to the structure of science while also making a real difference in the world.

This article is from a monthly series called Asia's Rising Scientists. Click here to read other articles in the series.

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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Peipei Setoh.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.











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