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Associate Professor Jordy Kaufman

Associate Professor
PhD, Duke University, United States; Bachelor of Science, Carnegie Mellon University, United States

Biography

Dr Jordy Kaufman is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Swinburne University of Technology. His research focuses on the intersection of child development and technology, exploring how children interact with and learn from various technologies such as virtual reality, touchscreens, video chat, and robots.

Dr Kaufman's studies, which employ a range of methods, including behavioural studies, event-related high-density EEG, neuroimaging, and surveys, provide a nuanced understanding of children's engagement with technology. This research contributes to our understanding of child development in the digital age and informs educational practices and policy.

In addition to his academic research, Dr. Kaufman has led multiple projects for the Australian Department of Education and Training, focusing on enhancing children's learning experiences through technology. These projects exemplify the integration of academic research with real-world applications, a hallmark of Swinburne's approach to education.

Dr. Kaufman's work, while rooted in the field of psychology, extends beyond traditional boundaries to engage with technology and education. This interdisciplinary approach reflects Swinburne's commitment to innovation and its vision for the future of education in a tech-led world.

Background I earned my BSc in Cognitive Science at Carnegie Mellon University and my PhD in Psychology at Duke University with Prof. Amy Needham. From there, I took a postdoctoral position with Prof. Mark Johnson at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at the University of London, studying infant brain development. In 2007, I moved to Swinburne University of Technology, where my group established Australia's first infant cognitive neuroscience laboratory. 

Keywords: developmental-psychology; child-psychology; human-computer-interaction; virtual-reality, child-robot-interaction, cognitive-neuroscience

Research interests

Developmental Psychology; Neuroscience; Human Computer Interactions; Education

PhD candidate and honours supervision

Higher degrees by research

Accredited to supervise Masters & Doctoral students as Principal Supervisor.

PhD topics and outlines

Developmental Psychology: Swinburne's move to reduce normal PhD candidature time to 3 years means that in most cases I can only take on PhD students that first do a research masters degree (here or elsewhere).  

Honours

Available to supervise honours students.

Honours topics and outlines

Children's learning from digital play: This project focuses on the question: What features of digital play facilitate or interfere with young children's learning and developennt?

Cognitive and brain development in infants: We are interested in projects that will use behavioural and/or EEG methods to help us determine how babies understand their visual worlds and how this understanding develops over the first year of life. Projects could relate to object processing, face processing, spatial cognition etc.

Development of goodness and selfishness in young children: This project focues on the question: In what ways do young children undertand and engage in proscial behaviour? What drives young children to act altruistically or selfishly? 

Motor activity and learning in young children: Studies with adults have shown that motor activity (e.g. note taking, gesturing) can have a positive influence on learning in adults. We are interested in assessing the extent to which motor activity influences learning in young children.

Fields of Research

  • Applied And Developmental Psychology - 520100
  • Biological Psychology - 520200
  • Clinical And Health Psychology - 520300
  • Cognitive And Computational Psychology - 520400
  • Social And Personality Psychology - 520500

Teaching areas

Cognitive Psychology;Developmental Psychology;Neuroscience

Publications

Also published as: Kaufman, Jordy; Kaufman, J.
This publication listing is provided by Swinburne Research Bank. If you are the owner of this profile, you can update your publications using our online form.

Recent research grants awarded

  • 2021: (Student) - Improving Children's Water Safety Knowledge through Extended Reality Technologies *; Life Saving Victoria - Fund Scheme
  • 2020: Get Talking *; Medical Device Partnering Program
  • 2019: Evaluation of the Early Learning Languages Australia Foundation to Year 2 trial *; Commonwealth Department of Education and Training
  • 2019: Safety at Work: an applied research project to integrate immersive experiential learning with positive behaviour support training in the disability sector (PAVE) *; Workforce Training Innovation Fund
  • 2017: Dietary patterns, inflammatory salivary biomarkers, stool characterization among healthy toddlers aged 15-36 months old in Australia *; Danone Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd
  • 2010: Examining auditory processing as a potential risk indicator in infants with a genetic risk for autism *; Fred P Archer Charitable Trust
  • 2009: New frontiers in infant cognitive neuroscience *; Equity Trustees Eric Ormond Baker Charitable Fund
  • 2009: The Swinburne autism baby siblings project *; Bennelong Foundation

* Chief Investigator


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