David S. Moore

Pitzer College (Psychology Field Group); Claremont Graduate University (Division of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences)

Moore has worked as a professor of psychology at Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University since 1989. A developmental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in the development of perception and cognition in fetuses and infants, he has published widely on infants’ cognitive abilities and on how genetic and environmental factors contribute to development. Moore has criticized the modern synthesis for being a theory that simply ignores the role of development in evolutionary processes.

David S. Moore received his B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University in 1983 and his Ph.D. in Psychology (Developmental Psychology and Psychobiology) from Harvard University in 1988. He did a post-doctoral fellowship at the City University of New York from 1988-1989 and has been at Pitzer College (in the Psychology Field Group) and Claremont Graduate University (in the Division of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences) since 1989.

Moore’s empirical research focuses on the development of perception and cognition in human infants; he has published numerous articles and book chapters on infants’ abilities to rotate visual images in their minds, to perceive numerical quantities, to categorize infant-directed speech, and to integrate information detected in the visual and auditory modalities. His theoretical work has explored the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to human development, and his book, The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of “Nature vs. Nurture,” was nominated for the Cognitive Development Society’s Best Authored Volume award in 2002-2003, and was translated for publication in Japan. His newest book, The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics, was published by Oxford University Press in February, 2015.

Moore has served on the consulting editorial board for Child Development Perspectives, and has served as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals and for granting agencies in Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United States. He has given invited lectures at The International Champalimaud Neuroscience Doctoral Programme in Portugal, The University of British Columbia in Canada, The University of Cambridge in England, and Kumamoto University in Japan, as well as many other universities across North America.

Quote

"The problem with the modern synthesis is that, at its core, it is strictly a nondevelopmental theory of genes, because it views genes alone as the ‘material basis of evolutionary change.’ … The modern synthesis has to be a nondevelopmental theory, since it was built on fundamental assumptions that are irreconcilably at odds with the fundamental realities of biological development…While the modern synthesis allows that inheritable traits can be determined by genes alone, the data of developmental biology affirm that all traits emerge from epigenetic co-actions of genetic and nongenetic factors. Clearly, something has to give."

(The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of “Nature vs. Nurture”, p.167)

The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics

Why do we grow up to look, act, and feel as we do? Through most of the twentieth century, scientists and laypeople answered this question by referring to two factors alone: our experiences and our genes. But recent discoveries about how genes work have revealed a new way to understand the developmental origins of our characteristics. These discoveries have emerged from the new science of behavioral epigenetics—and just as the whole world has now heard of DNA, “epigenetics” will be a household word in the near future.

Behavioral epigenetics is important because it explains how our experiences get under our skin and influence the activity of our genes. Because of breakthroughs in this field, we now know that the genes we’re born with don’t determine if we’ll end up easily stressed, likely to fall ill with cancer, or possessed of a powerful intellect. Instead, what matters is what our genes do. And because research in behavioral epigenetics has shown that our experiences influence how our genes function, this work has changed how scientists think about nature, nurture, and human development. Diets, environmental toxins, parenting styles, and other environmental factors all influence genetic activity through epigenetic mechanisms; this discovery has the potential to alter how doctors treat diseases, and to change how mental health professionals treat conditions from schizophrenia to post-traumatic stress disorder. These advances could also force a reworking of the theory of evolution that dominated 20^th century biology, and even change how we think about human nature itself.

In spite of how important this research is, behavioral epigenetics is still relatively unknown to non-biologists. The Developing Genome is an introduction to this exciting new discipline; it will allow readers without a background in biology to learn about this work and its revolutionary implications.
The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of “Nature vs. Nurture”

The Dependent Gene offers an antidote to genetic determinism, revealing how all traits—even characteristics like eye and hair color—are caused by complex interactions between genes and the environment at every stage of biological and psychological development, from the single fertilized egg to full-grown adulthood. The fact that genes cannot dictate the final form of our characteristics has extremely important implications, influencing how we think about evolution, as well as basic issues such as parenting, education, crime, and social policy.

Selected Publications

Moore, D. S. (2013). Behavioral genetics, genetics, & epigenetics. In P. D. Zelazo (Ed.), Oxford handbook of developmental psychology (pp. 91 – 128). New York: Oxford University Press.

Moore, D. S. (2013). Current thinking about nature and nurture. In K. Kampourakis (Ed.), The philosophy of biology: A companion for educators (pp. 629 – 652). New York: Springer.

Moore, D. S. (2013). Big B, little b: Myth #1 is that Mendelian genes actually exist. In S. Krimsky & J. Gruber (Eds.), Genetic explanations: Sense and nonsense (pp. 43 – 50). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Moore, D. S. (2009). Probing predispositions: The pragmatism of a process perspective. Child Development Perspectives, 3, 91 – 93.

Moore, D. S. (Ed.). (2008). Integrating development and evolution in psychology: Looking back, moving forward [Special issue]. New Ideas in Psychology, 26(3).

Moore, D. S. (2008). Individuals and populations: How biology’s theory and data have interfered with the integration of development and evolution. New Ideas in Psychology, 26, 370 – 386.

Moore, D. S. (2008). Espousing interactions and fielding reactions: Addressing laypeople’s beliefs about genetic determinism. Philosophical Psychology, 21, 331 – 348.

Moore, D. S. (2006). A very little bit of knowledge: Re-evaluating the meaning of the heritability of IQ. Human Development, 49, 347 – 353.
Complete list of publications

For a complete list of publications, please click here.

David S. Moore

Pitzer College (Psychology Field Group); Claremont Graduate University (Division of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences)

Quote

Books

The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics

The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of “Nature vs. Nurture”

Publications

Selected Publications

Complete list of publications

Websites