Assistant Professor
Email: dcwither@unm.edu
Office: Logan 112
Office Hours: Mondays, 1-3 p.m.
Phone: 277-4805

Degree Received
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1998

Research Interests
Emotional development; perception-action development; development of intentionality and self in infancy. Current research focus in emotional development centers on the development of anger in infancy, longitudinally charting transformation in the organization of infant anger and investigating the processes by which transitions in infant anger occur. Current research focus in perception-action development centers on the early development of prospective control, or future-oriented action, with emphasis on how experience with newly developing motor skills facilitates new levels of future-orientation in infant action. Specific projects involve study of visually-guided reaching in relation to anticipatory grasping and study of independent walking in relation to anticipatory postural adjustments during standing. In addition, new projects on the psychological consequences of walking experience and on the mechanisms underlying young infants' preference for attractive faces are now underway. Work in both emotional development and perception-action development targets the nature of intentional action in infancy and the development of an “ecological self” more broadly.

• Camras, L. A., & Witherington, D. C. (in press). Dynamical systems approaches to emotional development. Developmental Review.
• Lejeune, L., Anderson, D. I., Campos, J. J., Witherington, D. C., Uchiyama, I., & Barbu-Roth, M. (in press). Responsiveness to terrestrial optic flow in locomotor and prelocomotor infants. Human Movement Science.
• Saarni, C., Campos, J. J., Camras, L., & Witherington, D. C. (in press). Emotional development: Action, communication, and understanding. In W. Damon (series ed.) and N. Eisenberg (vol. ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. 6; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Witherington, D. C., Campos, J. J., Anderson, D. I., Lejeune, L., & Seah, E. (2005). Avoidance of heights on the visual cliff in newly walking infants. Infancy, 7, 285-298.
• Witherington, D. C. (2005). The development of prospective grasping control between 5 and 7 months: A longitudinal study. Infancy, 7, 143-161.
• Lillard, A. S., & Witherington, D. C. (2004). Mothers' behavior modifications during pretense snacks and their possible signal and value for toddlers. Developmental Psychology, 40, 95-113.
• Witherington, D. C., von Hofsten, C., Rosander, K., Robinette, A., Woollacott, M. H., & Bertenthal, B. I. (2002). The development of anticipatory postural adjustments in infancy. Infancy, 3, 495-517.
• Anderson, D. I., Campos, J. J., Anderson, D. E., Thomas, T. D., Witherington, D. C., Uchiyama, I., & Barbu-Roth, M. A. (2001). The flip side of perception-action coupling: Locomotor experience and the ontogeny of visual-postural coupling. Human Movement Science, 20, 461-487.
• Witherington, D. C., Campos, J. J., & Hertenstein, M. J. (2001). Principles of emotion and its development. In G. Bremner & A. Fogel (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of infant devlopment (pp. 427-464). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
• Anderson, D. I., Hubbard, E. M., Campos, J. J., Barbu-Roth, M. A., Witherington, D., & Hertenstein, M. J. (2000). Probabilistic epigenesis, experience, and psychological development in infancy. Infancy, 1, 245-251.
• Campos, J. J., Anderson, D. I., Barbu-Roth, M. A., Hubbard, E. M., Hertenstein, M. J., & Witherington, D. (2000). Travel broadens the mind. Infancy, 1, 149-219.