Martha Pelaez

Martha Pelaez received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Florida International University in 1992, winning the International Dissertation Award from the International Society for Infant Studies for her research on infant social referencing. She subsequently completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Miami Medical School before taking a position in the Department of Educational and Psychological Studies at Florida International University, where she is an Associate Professor. Her post-doctoral work studied the behavior of depressed mothers and the effects on infants' social and cognitive development. Dr. Peláez has conducted numerous investigations on infant learning phenomena, including attachment, social referencing, fear of strangers, fear of dark, moral development, rule-governed behavior, and stimulus equivalence. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a past Program Chair of APA Division 25. She has also served as a program co-chair for the Association for Behavior Analysis. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.