Since 2009, Peter Krøjgaard has been employed as a professor at the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at Aarhus University. In this position, he has – among other things – helped establish experiment-based research in developmental psychology in Denmark. Experimental methodologies have long been central to modern international developmental psychology, but until about 25 years ago, there was no experiment-based research in developmental psychology at the departments of psychology in Denmark. Peter Krøjgaard was the driving force behind establishing a BabyLab at the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences in Aarhus, and thus in Denmark as such. This lab enabled researchers to study the psychological competencies of small children systematically by deploying experimental methods such as violation-of-expectation and the use of eye tracking. The main areas of research have been small children’s perceptions of the physical world and, in later years, in particular preschool children’s episodic memory.

Experimental research is a team sport

“I was surprised as well as pleased and honoured to receive the Cross of Honour of the Order of Dannebrog,” says Peter Krøjgaard, who would like to take this opportunity to thank his colleagues:

“Experimental research is a 'team sport', and without my talented colleagues Osman Kingo, Trine Sonne and Dorthe Berntsen as well as a number of very talented PhD students, we would never have achieved the same results. I would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to all the bright minds who have helped make this possible through the years. Besides my fellow researchers and a department more than willing to provide us with lab facilities, I also offer my heartfelt thanks to the large number of parents who have agreed to let their children participate in our experiments with a teddy bear as their only payment!”

Not surprisingly, Peter Krøjgaard primarily teaches the basic subject developmental psychology. In addition to a number of lectures, this subject also includes compulsory visits to BabyLab, so that all students are given the opportunity to see for themselves the challenges that accompany experiments with children, some of which are so young that they have not yet developed any language skills.

In addition to his research and teaching obligations, Peter Krøjgaard has for a number of years served as the chair of the PhD programme in psychology and is currently the deputy head of the department.