Derek Montgomery

Biography

Dr. Derek Montgomery received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. His doctoral dissertation at Florida earned the APA Division 7 Dissertation Award. He has been at Bradley since 1993. 

Teaching

Courses taught by Dr. Montgomery include Principles of Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Experimental Psychology, and Cognitive Development.

Scholarship

Dr. Montgomery’s research addresses the influence of language on young children’s understanding of the thoughts and feelings of themselves and others.

Student research assistants gain experience testing and assessing young children, developing testing material, coding and interpreting data, reading pertinent research literature, and presenting research at conferences.  Dr. Montgomery’s students have pursued master’s and doctoral degrees across a range of disciplines and professions. These areas of school psychology, clinical psychology, cognitive science, medical school, social psychology, sport psychology, epidemiology, and legal psychology.

Recent Publications:

Montgomery, D. E. (2017). The meaning of hope: Developmental origins in early childhood, pgs. 1-23. Human Development. 60(5), 239-261. https://doi.org/10.1159/000480342

Tompkins, V., Farrar, M. J., & Montgomery, D. E. (2019). Speaking your mind: Language and narrative in young children's theory of mind development. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 56, 109-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acdb.2018.11.003

Tompkins, V., Montgomery, D. E., & Blosser, M. K. (2021). Mother-child talk about mental states: The what, who, and how of conversations about the mind. Social Development, 1– 22. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12551

Service

Dr. Montgomery serves on several college and university committees.   He also serves his discipline by reviewing manuscripts for many developmental psychology journals.