Rate My Professor Ben Lorimer

Benjamin Joseph Lorimer completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at the University of Otago in 2020. His doctoral thesis, entitled 'An empirical test of the minimalism theory of theory of mind development,' provided an empirical evaluation of the minimalism perspective on how children acquire theory of mind, contrasting it with mentalist views. As a researcher in the Department of Psychology, Lorimer collaborated extensively with Professor Ted Ruffman, contributing to studies on infant and early childhood social cognitive development. His work examined factors such as everyday behavioral exposures, pattern recognition abilities, maternal linguistic input, and emotional responses in shaping young children's understanding of mental states.

Lorimer co-authored several publications in prominent developmental psychology journals. Key papers include 'Exposure to repeated behaviors in everyday life and pattern recognition ability predict preschoolers' subsequent theory of mind' (2026, British Journal of Developmental Psychology), demonstrating that preschoolers' exposure to repetitive behaviors and their pattern recognition skills longitudinally predict theory of mind performance; 'Exposure to behavioral regularities in everyday life predicts infants' acquisition of mental state vocabulary' (2023, Developmental Science), which found that infants' observation of consistent actions in daily routines supports their learning of mental state terms; 'Use of a head camera to examine maternal input and its relation to 10- to 26-month-olds’ acquisition of mental and nonmental state vocabulary' (2020, Journal of Child Language), utilizing innovative head-mounted cameras to quantify maternal speech relevance; and 'Do Infants Really Experience Emotional Contagion?' (2017, Child Development Perspectives), questioning traditional interpretations of emotional mimicry in infants. These contributions have advanced understanding of environmental and perceptual influences on theory of mind development. In 2020, he presented related research at the Department of Psychology's Psycolloquy series. Currently, Ben Lorimer holds the position of Administrator in the Divisional Services & Administration, Academic and Central Operations at the University of Otago.