Krista M CaslerSenior Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology

Dr. Krista Casler, a developmental psychologist, joined the F&M faculty in 2005, first as an Assistant Professor and then as Associate Professor. She served as Chair of Psychology from 2018 to 2020. Today, Dr. Casler is a "free agent," working and serving in a variety of roles outside of F&M. She remains closely connected with the College and the Psychology department, regularly coming back to teach courses or serve on honors thesis committees.

During her tenure as a fulltime faculty member, Dr. Casler directed the Child Development Lab, the founding lab of the Development and Experience (DAX) Center.  She conducted research on the development of children's cognition, particularly relating to the social side of object use (why is it so silly when Ariel uses a fork to comb her hair?). She also had a special interest in parenting and culture. 

Dr. Casler teaches courses is child development, cognitive development, and research methods in developmental psychology, as well as introductory psychology. For several summers, she led an intensive travel course called Child Development in Cultural Context, bringing cohorts of students to Copenhagen Denmark.

Ph.D., Psychology, Boston University, 2006.
M.A., Psychology, Boston University, 2002.
B.A. (summa cum laude), Psychology, English, Eastern Nazarene College, 1999.

Casler, K. (2019). Function is not the sum of an object’s parts.  Thinking & Reasoning, 25, 300-323.  

Casler, K., Hoffman, K.,* & Eshleman, A.* (2014). Do adults make scale errors too? How function sometimes trumps size. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1690-1700.

Casler, K. (2014). Toddlers’ use of mutual exclusivity when mapping information to objects. Infancy, 19, 162-178.

Casler, K., Bickel, L.,* & Hackett, E.* (2013). Separate but equal? A comparison of participants and data gathered via Amazon’s MTurk, social media, and face-to-face behavioral testing. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2156-2160.

Casler, K., Eshleman, A.*, Greene, K.*, & Terziyan, T.* (2011). Children’s scale errors with tools. Developmental Psychology, 47, 857-866.

Casler, K., Terziyan, T.*, & Greene, K.* (2009). Toddlers view artifact function normatively. Cognitive Development, 24, 240-247.

Casler, K. & Kelemen, D. (2008). Developmental continuity in teleo-functional explanation: Reasoning about nature among Romanian Romani adults. Journal of Cognition and Development, 9, 340-362.

Casler, K. & Kelemen, D. (2007). Reasoning about artifacts at 24 months: The developing teleo-functional stance. Cognition, 103, 120-130.

Casler, K. & Kelemen, D. (2005). Young children’s rapid learning about artifacts. Developmental Science, 8, 472-480.

Kelemen, D., Callanan, M., Casler, K., & Pérez-Granados, D. R. (2005). Why things happen: Teleological explanation in parent-child conversations. Developmental Psychology, 41, 251-264.

* = F&M student co-author

Casler, K. (March 2019). In scale errors, practice doesn’t make perfect. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development biennial meeting, Baltimore, MD. 

Casler, K. & Kaplan, M.* (October 2017). Tool learning and use: Different patterns of strengths for children with and without autism? Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Portland, OR.

Chirls, J.*, Benitez, R.*, Casler, K. (October 2017). Your trip around Mexico! A storybook study exploring the effect of helping and outgroup exposure on children’s empathy development. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Portland, OR.

Casler, K., Bickel, L.,* & Hackett, E.* (April 2013). Tool use is less than the sum of its parts: How children and adults fix functions to objects. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.

Casler, K. & Mantz, L.* (April 2013). Children’s scale errors: Does experience matter? Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.

Franklin, A.,* Carroll, C.,* Armstrong, S.,* & Casler, K. (April 2013). Can iPads facilitate symbolic understanding in toddlers? Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.

Casler, K. (March 2013). Children’s scale errors. Invited colloquium talk, Department of Psychology, Point Loma Nazarene University.

Casler, K. & Eshleman, A.* (April 2011). The perils of purposeful thinking: A version of scale errors in adults. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Casler, K. (2011). Scale errors: The trouble with separating fact from function. Invited talk, Department of Psychology, Furman University.

* = F&M student co-author