Dr. Shanna Williams
Title:
Assistant Professor
Division:
School/Applied Child Psychology Supervisors
Department:
Educational and Counselling Psychology (ECP)
Areas of expertise:
- Lie-Telling
- Commercial Sexual听 Exploitation of Children
- Moral Development
- Cognitive Development
- Eye Witness Testimony
- Child Sexual Abuse
- Child Maltreatment
Biography:
Dr. Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at 51吃瓜网. Prior to joining the Department, she was a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law. As a registered psychologist in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, Dr. Williams has clinical experience in hospital, school and community agencies. She has worked with maltreated populations while conducting forensic interviews for various law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles. Her research has been supported through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Link(s):
Degree(s):
- Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow, University of Southern California
- Ph.D., 51吃瓜网: School/Applied Child Psychology
- M.A., 51吃瓜网: Educational Psychology
- B.A., 51吃瓜网: Major Psychology
Awards, honours, and fellowships:
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016-2017)
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Fellowship (2010-2013)
- Fonds de Recherch茅 Soci茅t茅 et Culture (FRQSC) Doctoral Research Scholarship - Declined (2010)
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand Bombardier Master鈥檚 Scholarship (2008)
Selected publications:
- Williams, S., McWilliams, K., & Lyon, T. D. (2020). Children鈥檚 recall disclosure of a minor transgression: The role of age, maltreatment, and executive functioning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Advanced online publication.
- McWilliams, K., Soltzenberg, S. N., Williams, S., & Lyon, T. D. (2019). Increasing maltreated and nonmaltreated children鈥檚 recall disclosures of a minor transgression: The effects of back-channel utterances, a promise to tell the truth, and an incremental putative confession. Child Abuse & Neglect (Special Issue). Advance online publication.
- Stolzenberg, S. N., Williams, S., McWilliams., Liang, C., & Lyon, T. D. (2019). 鈥淲hat did you think?鈥� 鈥淗ow did you feel?鈥� Encouraging Evaluative Content in Children鈥檚 Disclosures of Abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect (Special Issue). Advance online publication.
- Nagar, P., Williams, S., & Talwar, V. (2019). The influence of an older sibling on preschoolers鈥� lie鈥恡elling behavior. Social Development. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/sode.12367
- Williams, S., Ahern, E., & Lyon, T. D. (2019). The Relation Between Young Children鈥檚 False Statements and Response Latency, Executive Functioning, and Truth Lie Understanding. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly., 65, 81-100. doi: 10.13110/merrpalmquar1982.65.1.0081
- Leduc, K., Williams, S., Gomez-Garibello, C., & Talwar, V. (2017). The contributions of mental state understanding and executive functioning to preschool-aged children's lie-telling. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 35, 288-302. doi:10.1111/bjdp.12163
- Williams, S., Leduc, K., Crossman, A., & Talwar, V. (2017). Young Deceivers: Executive Functioning and Antisocial Lie鈥恡elling in Preschool Aged Children. Infant and Child Development, 26, e1956. doi: 10.1002/icd.1956
- Talwar, V., Williams, S., Renaud, S. J., Arruda, C., & Saykaly, C. (2016). Children鈥檚 Evaluations of Tattles, Confessions, Prosocial and Antisocial Lies. International Review of Pragmatics, 8, 334-352. doi:10.1163/18773109-00802007
- Williams, S., Moore, K., Crossman, A. M., & Talwar, V. (2016). The role of executive functions and theory of mind in children鈥檚 prosocial lie-telling. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 141, 256-266. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2015.08.001
- Williams, S., Talwar, V., Lindsay, R. C. L., Bala, N., & Lee, K. (2014). Is the truth in your words? Distinguishing children鈥檚 deceptive and truthful statements. Journal of Criminology, 2014.
- Williams, S., Kirmayer, M., Simon, T., & Talwar, V. (2013). Children鈥檚 antisocial and prosocial lies to familiar and unfamiliar adults. Infant and Child Development, 22, 430-438. doi:10.1002/icd.1802
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Graduate supervision:
Accepting students (supervisees) for the 2026-27 academic year.
