Ph.D., 1992, Florida International University
M.S.,  1989, Florida International University
Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1994, University of Miami

Academic
Rank & Title:

Professor of Psychology

"Infant learning to reference maternal emotional cues." Dissertation Award Recipient by the International Society for Infant Studies (ISIS) 1992.

Program(s) Affiliation:

Biographical Note:

Martha Peláez is a Professor of Psychology at the College of Education, Florida International University since 1998.  She received her Ph.D. in 1992 in Developmental Psychology, winning the International Dissertation Award from the International Society for Infant Studies (ISIS) for her research on  "Infant learning to reference maternal emotional expressions." In 1994, after completing a postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Miami, School of Medicine, she became Assistant Professor of Psychology at FIU.  She has supervised students doctoral dissertations and master theses, teaches courses in Educational Psychology and Child Development, Life-span Human Development, Applied Behavior Analysis, and directs the Infant & Early Childhood  Laboratory at the College of Education.   

Dr. Peláez has been visiting professor at the University of Nevada-Reno (1997), University of Oviedo-Spain (2000 & 2001); University of Almería-Spain (1998); National University of Ireland-Maynooth (2001); University of Veracruz-México (1998-2001); University of Guadalajara–México  (1996) where she has taught seminars on child learning and development.  She has delivered invited addressed and papers at universities including Harvard University-William James Hall, University of Notre Dame, Trinity College-Dublin; Fordham University–New York, and papers at conferences of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA), the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD) and other societies held in Washington, San Francisco, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas, Seattle, Boston, London, Brighton-UK,  Paris, Amiens,-France, Taipei–Taiwan, Yokohama–Japan, Toronto, Montreal, Venice, Palermo, Seville, Sao Carlos-Brazil, Engelberg, Switzerland, Linköping-Sweden, La Habana-Cuba, and several cities in México. 

Her research has been supported by NIH and other grant agencies and she has studied mother-infant interactions and early social learning processes, as well as designed applied interventions with children at-risk of language delays and developmental and learning problems.  Dr. Peláez’s theoretical contributions include the creation of taxonomy of rule-governed behavior, which has been empirically validated in children--the findings were published this year.  She is currently conducting basic-experimental research on transfer of learning processes and instructional control in collaboration with the National University of Ireland in Maynooth where she works in the summers. Dr. Peláez has published more than 40 articles in refereed journals (including the American Psychologist and the journal of Child Development); co-authored 10 chapters (included in books where Albert Bandura, L. Kohlberg, Reese and others have published) and 1 textbook (with G. Novak) and one edited monograph.

She was the past Program Chair for the American Psychological Association, for Division 25 and past Program Co-Chair for the Association for Behavior Analysis.  She is the founder of the Behavior Development Bulletin and has served as its editor since 1990 and currently serves in nine editorial boards of refereed journals, including The Behavior Analyst. 

In1997, she was the recipient of the Faculty Research Award, Florida International University, Honorary Degree & Awards Committee; a formal recognition for research excellence.  In 2001, she received the NationalResearch Award from the National Council for Teaching and Research in Psychology (Consejo Nacional para la Enseñanza e Investigación Psicológica-CNEIP), recognition for excellence in research and teaching in México.  In 2003, Dr. Peláez was awarded Fellowship status by the American Psychological Association (APA) on the basis of evaluated evidence of outstanding and unusual contributions to the field of psychology. In 2005, she was the recipient of the Faculty Service Award, Florida International University, Honorary Degree & Awards Committee.

Dr. Peláez has served as the Vice-Chair of the Faculty Senate of Florida International University and as Legislative Liaison with the Florida Legislature.  She is the Chair of the Advisory Council of Faculty Senates of Florida (ACFS) and member of numerous program review and search & screen committees.  She is also member of the ACC (Articulation Coordinating Committee) of the Florida department of Education and member-elect by ACFS to the Florida Board of Governors for 2005.

Some Recent International Presentations:

Pelaez,  M. (2004, March).  Responding task Predicts Performance on Verbal Sub-tests of the WAIS-III.  In L. Fields (Chair), Invited Colloquium delivered at the City University of New York (CUNY), Queens, NY.

Peláez, M. (2004, February). The role of maternal responding on infant language learning.  In J. Howard (Chair), Invited Colloquium delivered at California State University, Stanislaus, CA.

Peláez, M. (2003, August).  Language  and cognition. Discussant of symposium conducted at the ACT, RFT and The New Behavioral Psychology Conference, Linköping, Sweden.

Peláez, M. O’Hora, D., &  Barnes-Holmes, D. (2003, August).  Relational frame theory and language: Evidence form the experimental analysis of human behaviour. In D. Barnes-Holmes (Chair & Discussant), RFT, Language and Learning.  Symposium conducted at the ACT, RFT and The New Behavioral Psychology Conference, Linköping, Sweden.

O’Hora, D. Peláez, M., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2003, August).  A comparison between performance on a relational framing task and performance on verbal ability subscales of the WAIS-III.   In D. Barnes-Holmes (Chair & Discussant), RFT, Language and Learning.  Symposium conducted at the ACT, RFT and The New Behavioral Psychology Conference, Linköping, Sweden.

Peláez, M., O’Hora, D., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2003, July). Theoretical underpinnings of “derived relational responding” and “equivalence relations” and their role on language performance. In M. Peláez (Chair), symposium conducted at the First conference of the European Association for Behavior Analysis, Parma, Italy.

Peláez, M. (2002, May).  Why sex differences in human behavior? Genetic and socio-environmental influences.  In M. Peláez (Chair) and J. Marr (Discussant), The Nature-Nurture of Human Sexuality.  International sympoisum conducted at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA), Toronto, Canada.

Peláez, M. (2001, November).  The onset of language development:  Natural selection, adaptation, and primary reinforcers.  In P. Harzem (Cahir & Discussant), Language Acquisition:  Natural Selection and Language Disabilities.  Symposium conducted at the First International Conference of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Venice, Italy.

Peláez, M.  (November, 2000).  Early Behavior-Analytic Interventions with Infants At- Risk of Developmental Delays.  Invited Address to be deliver at the Special International Congress on Behaviorism and the Sciences of Behavior, Taipei, Taiwan.

Peláez, M., & Paneque, O. (October, 2000).  Reducing language mixing among preschool age children raised in bilingual environments.  Paper presented at the International Congress on Behaviorism and the Sciences of Behavior, Xalapa, Ver, México.

Peláez, M. & Gewirtz, J. L. (2000, July).  Infant social referencing due to respondent and operant learning processes.  Poster to be presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies (ICIS), Brighton, UK.

Peláez, M. (2000, July).  Discrimination learning processes in infancy.  In J. L. Gewirtz (Chair), symposium titled: Respondent and Operant Learning, and Their  Interactions, in Human Infants. Symposium conducted at the 4th European Meeting for the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour (EMEAB), Amiens, France.

Peláez, M. (2000, July).  Aspectos del desarrollo infantil: Avances recientes en el desarrollo infantil y aspectos fundamentales del desarrollo implicados en niños con problemas de aprendizaje.  In L. Pérez-González (Chair), workshop to be delivered as par of a summer course at the University of Oviedo, Spain.

Peláez, M. (2000, August).  Early behavior-analytic interventions with infants at-risk of language disorders.  In J. M. Marr (Chair), Invited Address delivered at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.

Personal Philosophy:

"Students are angels who lift us to our feet, when our wings have
trouble remembering how to fly."

PowerPoint presentations on:

Novak, G., & Peláez, M. (2004):

Ch. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Sternberg, R., & Williams (2005):

Ch. 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14

Shaffer, D. R. (2005):

Ch. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Courses-Syllabi

EDP 6505 Human Development: Child and Adolescence
EDP 6506 Human Development: Across The Life-Span
EDP 7057 Educational Psychology Syllabus
EEX 4601 Applied Behavior Analysis in the Classroom
EDP 6506 Human Development: Across the Life-Span
EDP 3004 Educational Psychology
EDF 6211 Psychological Foundations of Education Syllabi
EDP 3218: Classroom Management AND EDP 5219 Classroom Management
EDP 3004 Educational Psychology

Autism

Autism English Presentation
AutismoPresentationPadres
Autism Handouts
Sintesis Informativa Calendario 2005
Language Development

Shaffer, D. R. 2006-Pelaez's notes

Ch. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

EEX 4601 Instructor's Notes

Unit. 1 2 3

EDP 3218 Classroom Managment- Instructor's notes

Unit. 1 2 3 5 6 7

Novak&Pelaez(2004)-Instructor's notes(2006

Ch. 1 2 4 7 8 5 6 10 14

Santrock J. W.

Ch. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16