Maleen Thiele
Senior Scientist | Group Leader
Abteilung für Vergleichende Kulturpsychologie
Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
Telefon: +49 (0) 341 3550 403
E-Mail:
maleen_thiele@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Research Interests
I'm a psychologist interested in the developmental foundations of human social learning. In my doctoral research, I studied how preverbal infants attend to social interactions between others, how their own intrinsic motivations shape their attentional orienting, and how they come to use social partners to learn about their environment. During my postdoc, we initiated a comparative project currently investigating how joint attention influences early memory stages of object-related learning across great ape species.
Since 2023, I am leading the Minerva Fast Track Group "Facets of Early Social Learning", which focuses on observational social learning and visual attention orienting. The methodological focus of the group is on refining eye-tracking technology for its application with non-human great apes and in remote field settings.
Curriculum Vitae
Career
| Since 11/2023 | Senior Scientist | Group Leader |
| 11/2021 - 11/2023 | Postdoctoral Researcher |
| 06/2020 - 11/2021 | Phd Student |
| 08/2018 - 12/2018 | Visiting Researcher |
| 12/2016 - 05/2020 | PhD Student | Research Associate |
Education
| 12/2016 - 11/2021 | Dr. rer. nat. Psychology |
| 10/2014 - 10/2016 | M. Sc. Psychology |
| 10/2010 - 10/2013 | B. Sc. Psychology |
Languages
- German (native speaker)
- English (fluent)
- French (basic)
Research Awards & Funding
11/2023 - 11/2026 | Minerva Fast Track Fellowship |
2022 | Outstanding Dissertation Award |
| 08/2018 - 12/2018 | Scholarship for Guest Researchers |
Publications
Michel, C., & Thiele, M. (2025). Revisiting the object-processing paradigm in the study of gaze cues: What two decades of research have taught us about infant social learning. Infancy, 30(2): e70007. |
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Padberg, M., Hanus, D., Thiele, K. M., Wang, D., Howard, L. H., Grosse Wiesmann, C., Maurits, L., Eckert, J., & Haun, D. B. M. (2025). Social attention increases object memory in adult but not younger great apes. Animal Behaviour, 221: 123081. |
Open AccessStengelin, R., Petrović, L., Thiele, M., Hepach, R., & Haun, D. B. M. (2024). Social reward predicts false belief understanding in Namibian Hai||om children. Social Development, 33(4): e12767. |
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Stengelin, R., Bohn, M., Sánchez Amaro, A., Haun, D. B. M., Thiele, M., Daum, M. M., Felsche, E., Fong, F. T. K., Gampe, A., Giner Torréns, M., Grueneisen, S., Hardecker, D. J. K., Horn, L., Neldner, K., Pope-Caldwell, S. M., & Schuhmacher, N. (2024). Responsible research is also concerned with generalizability: Recognizing efforts to reflect upon and increase generalizability in hiring and promotion decisions in psychology. Meta-Psychology, 8. |
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Steffan, A., Zimmer, L., Arias-Trejo, N., Bohn, M., Ben, R. D., Flores-Coronado, M. A., Franchin, L., Garbisch, I., Grosse Wiesmann, C., Hamlin, J. K., Havron, N., Hay, J. F., Hermansen, T. K., Jakobsen, K. V., Kalinke, S., Ko, E.-S., Kulke, L., Mayor, J., Meristo, M., Moreau, D., Mun, S., Prein, J. C., Rakoczy, H., Rothmaler, K., Oliveira, D. S., Simpson, E. A., Smith, E. S., Strid, K., Tebbe, A.-L., Thiele, M., Yuen, F., & Schuwerk, T. (2024). Validation of an open source, remote web-based eye-tracking method (WebGazer) for research in early childhood. Infancy, 29(1), 31-55. |
Thiele, M., Kalinke, S., Michel, C., & Haun, D. B. M. (2023). Direct and observed joint attention modulate 9-month-old infants’ object encoding. Open Mind, 7, 917-946. |
Farris, K., Kelsey, C. M., Krol, K. M., Thiele, K. M., Hepach, R., Haun, D. B. M., & Grossmann, T. (2022). Processing third-party social interactions in the human infant brain. Infant Behavior and Development, 68: 101727. |
Thiele, M., Hepach, R., Michel, C., & Haun, D. B. M. (2021). Infants’ preference for social interactions increases from 7 to 13 months of age. Child Development, 92(6), 2577-2594. |
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Legg, E. W., Farrar, B., Lazić, A., Thiele, M., Kampis, D., Mani, N., Sesar, K., Klapwijk, E., Schlingloff, L., Reindl, E., Li, K., Birovljević, G., Attwood, M., Tatone, D., Yuniarto, L. S., & Ostojic, L. (2021). Assessing the reporting and interpretation of non-significant results in the study of cognitive development: A systematic review. |
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Astor, K., Thiele, M., & Gredebäck, G. (2021). Gaze following emergence relies on both perceptual cues and social awareness. Cognitive Development, 60: 101121. |
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Thiele, M., Hepach, R., Michel, C., & Haun, D. B. M. (2021). Observing others’ joint attention increases 9-month-old infants’ object encoding. Developmental Psychology, 57(6), 837-850. |
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Thiele, K. M. (2021). The social attentional foundations of infant's learning from third-party social interactions. PhD Thesis, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig. |
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Thiele, M., Hepach, R., Michel, C., Gredebäck, G., & Haun, D. B. M. (2021). Social interaction targets enhance 13-month-old infants' associative learning. Infancy, 26(3), 409-422. |
