Imac Zambrana

Education
2019 General University Pedagogy training program, University of Oslo
2012 Ph.D., Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway
2007 MA, Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway
2004 BA, Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway

Positions
2023- Associate Professor, Oslo Nye Høyskole
2016-2024 Associate Professor, University of Oslo
2022-2023 Chief Scientific Officer, Nordic Neurotech AS
2022 Research Leader, ComPros research group 
2021-2022 Researcher, ComPros research group
2016-2023 Researcher, The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development
2017-2018 Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Scholar), Harvard University
2013 Post doc visiting fellow, Harvard University
2012-2016 Post doc fellow, The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development
2012 Researcher, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
2009-2012 PhD fellow, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
2007-2009 Researcher, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
2005-2007 Research assistant, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
 

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Language development 
• Learning processes
   

• Cognitive psychology
• Cognitive development
• Learning 
• Information processing
• Language and communication 

• Zappa, A., Osokina, P., Fargier, R., Cerda-Company, X., Panisello, S., Zambrana, I.M., Rodriguez-Fornells, A. & Slater, M. (accepted, 2026). Gaze guides language comprehension in adults in a simulated social environment. Cortex.
   
• Laeng, B., Zambrana, I.M., Hou, J., Martinsen, Ø. G., & Holm, K. (2026). Machine learning classification of emotional videos via autonomic arousal based on pupil diameters, electrodermal activity and heart rate. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 113455.
   
• Hermansen, T. K., Viana, K. M. P., Harris, P. L., Engel, S., Zambrana, I. M., & Ronfard, S. (2024). Checking out the unexplained: With age, children become increasingly skeptical of surprising claims. Developmental Psychology, 60(10), 1761–1774. 
   
• Røe-Indregård, H., Brinchmann, E.I., Rydland, V., Rowe, M.L., Hagtvet, B., & Zambrana, I.M. (2024). Teacher–Child Interactions during Toy Play and Book Sharing. Early Education and Development, 35(2), 234-249.
   
• Viana, K.M.P., Zambrana, I.M., Karevold, E.B. and Pons, F. (2023). “Are we both right?” relations between theory of mind and epistemic humility in dyadic cooperative problem-solving in 5- to 9-year-old children, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 87(2), 101548
   
• Baier, T, Eilertsen, E. M., Ystrom, E, Zambrana, I. M., & Lyngstad, T. H. (2022). An anatomy of the intergenerational correlation of educational attainment: Learning from the educational attainments of Norwegian twins and their children. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 79, 100691.
   
• Røe-Indregård, H., Rowe, M., Rydland, V., & Zambrana, I.M. (2022). Features of Communication in Norwegian Parent-Child Play Interactions. First Language, 42, 383–404.
   
• Hermansen, T. K., Ronfard, S., Harris, P. L., & Zambrana, I. M. (2021). Preschool children rarely seek empirical data that could help them complete a task when observation and testimony conflict. Child Development, 92(6), 2546-2562.
   
• Hermansen, T. K., Ronfard, S., Harris, P. L., Pons, F. & Zambrana, I. M. (2021). Young children update their trust in an informant’s claim when experience tells them otherwise. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 205.
   
• Prendergast, C. & Zambrana, I.M. (2021). Relational Needs and Belonging in Conditions of Social Exclusion: A Critical Discourse Analysis. Language, Discourse & Society, 9, 121-143.
   
• Zambrana, I.M., Verena, S., Jacobsson, B., Vollrath, M. & Ystrom, E. (2021). Language delays in preterm born children diminish before school entry: a sibling cohort study. Development and Psychopathology, 33, 47-52.
   
• Charafeddine  R., Zambrana, I.M., Triniol, B., Mercier, H. Clément, F., Kaufmann, L., Reboul, A., Pons, F. & Van der Henst, J.-B. (2020). How Preschoolers Associate Power with Gender in Male-Female Interactions: A Cross-Cultural Investigation. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 83, 453-473.
   
• Viana, K.M.P., Zambrana, I.M., Karevold, E.B. and Pons, F. (2020). Emotions in motion: impact of emotion understanding on children’s peer action coordination. Cognition and Emotion, 34, 831-838.
   
• Zambrana, I.M., Ogden, T. & Zachrisson, H.D. (2020). Can pre-academic activities in Norway's Early Childhood Education and Care program boost later academic achievements in preschoolers at risk? Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 64, 440-456.
   
• Ronfard, S., Zambrana, I.M. Hermansen, T., & Kelemen, D. (2018). Question Asking in Childhood: A review of the literature and a framework for understanding its development. Developmental Review, 49, 101-120.
   
• Gjerde, L.C., Eilertsen, E.M., Reichborn-Kjennerud, T., McAdams, T.A., Zachrisson, H.D., Zambrana, I.M., Røysamb, E., Kendler, K.S. & Ystrom, E. (2017). Maternal Perinatal and Concurrent Depressive Symptoms and Child Behavior problems: A Sibling Comparison Study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58, 779-78.
   
• Viana, K.P., Zambrana, I.M., Karevold, E.B. and Pons, F. (2016). Beyond Conceptual Knowledge: The Impact of Children’s Theory-of-Mind on Dyadic Spatial Tasks. Frontiers in  Psychology, 7, 1635.
   
• Nordahl, K.B., Zambrana, I.M., & Forgatch, M.S. (2016). Risk and protective factors related to fathers’ positive involvement and negative reinforcement with one-year-olds. Parenting: Science and Practice, 16, 1-21.
   
• Zambrana, I.M., Verena, S., Jacobsson, B., Vollrath, M. & Ystrom, E. (2016). Preterm delivery and risk for early language delays: A sibling-control cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45, 151-159.
   
• Zambrana, I.M., Dearing, E., Nærde, A., &. Zachrisson, H.D. (2016). Time in ECEC and Language Competence in Norwegian 4-year-old Girls and Boys. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 24, 793-806.
   
• Zambrana, I. M., Pons, F., Eadie, P. and Ystrom, E. (2014), Trajectories of language delay from age 3 to 5: persistence, recovery and late onset. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 49, 304-316.
   
• Zambrana I.M., Ystrom E., Schjølberg, S., Pons F. (2013). Action imitation at 1 ½ years is better than pointing gesture in predicting late development of language production at 3 years of age. Child Development, 8, 560-567.
   
• Zambrana, I.M., Ystrom, E., Pons, F. (2012). Impact of gender, maternal education, and birth order on the development of language comprehension: A longitudinal study from 18 to 36 months of age. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 33, 146-55.