
Dr. Bennett I. Bertenthal
Rudy Professor of Psychology
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Contact Information
Office:Office Phone: (812) 855-8693
Lab: PY A304
Lab Phone: (812) 855-6961
E-mail:
Web site: Dr. Bertenthal's Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Educational Background
- 1978-9 - Postdoctoral fellow, Brain Research Institute of UCLA Medical School
- 1978 - Ph.D., University of Denver
- 1976 - M.A., University of Denver
- 1971 - B.A., Brandeis University
Areas of Study
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Neuroscience
Research Topics
- Perceptual, motor, and cognitive developments
- Action observation and execution
- Perception of biological motion
- Implicit and explicit knowledge
Research Summary:
My research focuses on the origins, development, and basic processing mechanisms involved in action understanding. Recent neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and behavioral findings reveal that planning, observation, and imaging of actions share a common neural substrate. Our investigations involve behavioral, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging approaches for studying the functional implications of this common substrate in infants, children and adults. Experimental tasks involving imitation, response priming, search for hidden objects, predictive tracking and reaching, change blindness, and the effects of authorship and expertise on knowledge of results are used for investigating the links between the observation and execution of actions.
Representative Publications
Longo, M. R. & Bertenthal, B. I. (2009). Attention modulates the specificity of automatic imitation to human actors. Experimental Brain Research, 192, 739-744.
Longo, M.R., Kosobud, A., & Bertenthal, B.I. (2007). Automatic imitation of biomechanically possible and impossible movements: Effects of priming movements vs. goals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 34, 489-501.
Bertenthal, B. I., Longo, M. R., & Kenny, S. (2007). Phenomenal permanence and the development of predictive tracking in infancy. Child Development, 78, 350-363.
Bertenthal, B.I. (2007). Dynamical systems: Its about time! In S. Boker (Ed.), Data analytic techniques for dynamical systems. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Longo, M.R. and Bertenthal, B.I. (2006). Common coding of observation and execution of action in 9-month-old infants. Infancy, 10: 43-60.
Bertenthal, B.I., Longo, M.R., and Kosobud, A. (2006). Imitative response tendencies following observation of meaningless actions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 32: 210-225.
Grezes, J., Fonlupt, P., Bertenthal, B., Delon-Martin, C., Mazoyer, P., and Decety, J. (2001). Does perception of biological motions rely on specific brain regions? NeuroImage, 13: 775-785.




