Professor Patricia Marks Greenfield

1988 Faculty Prize Recipient

Image of Patricia Greenfield

Patricia Greenfield received her B.A. summa cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1961. In 1971, her Ph.D. was earned with a prize-winning thesis at Harvard University. She joined the faculty of the UCLA Psychology Department in 1974. Her work as a cognitive psychologist has impacted the fields of linguistics, communications, anthropology, and education, as well as psychology. She is a pioneer in the analysis of complex cognitive functions, studying how language, learning, and thinking are linked in the development of infants, children, young adults, and even chimpanzees. She was one of the founders of a now active linguistic field called developmental pragmatics. Her cross-cultural studies have led to collaborative work on chimpanzee language as well as to the examination of the impact of culture on cognitive functions with the Wolof in Senegal and the Zinacantecos of Southern Mexico.

Professor Greenfield serves on numerous editorial boards including the Journal of Mental Imagery and the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. She participates in national and international panels, often as Chair. She is in great demand as a lecturer and as a consultant on child development and child care. She was closely involved in the development of the UCLA Child Care Center and the Infant Development Program of the Psychology Department. The latter is a center designed for research, teaching, and service to parents.

Professor Greenfield’s students use glowing terms to describe her warm, welcoming teaching environment, even in very large classes. In 1985, she received the UCLA Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award and in 1986, she was the recipient of the top national award for teaching in a four-year college from the American Psychological Association Division on Teaching.

As a Faculty Prize Recipient, Patricia Greenfield has designed and taught two Faculty Prize Courses open to all undergraduates. The first was in the 2001 Spring quarter and was entitled Culture, Ethnicity, Race, and Development: A Multi-Media and Multi-Disciplinary Approach. She also taught a similar course in the Spring quarter of 2003.