Mary Gauvain is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and past secretary/treasurer of Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) of APA. She is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Society for Research in Child Development. Gauvain is currently an associate editor of Child Development and on the editorial board of the journals Child Development Perspectives and Cognitive Development. She is the author of The Social Context of Cognitive Development and coauthor of Readings on the Development of Children (with Michael Cole). She is well known for her research on cognitive development, in particular, for her research on social and cultural contributions to the development of planning skills and spatial thinking. Gauvain obtained her M.A. degree in sociology of education from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Utah. She has held postdoctoral positions in developmental psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the Oregon Social Learning Center. Her current research focuses on the ecology of children's everyday lives, including how experiences in the family and cultural community provide opportunities for the development of cognitive skills.
