She received a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from University of Washington and was a Fulbright Fellow at University of Oslo and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Severson is Director of the Minds Lab, where she and her research team investigate how children attribute minds and internal states to human and non-human others (non-human animals, inanimate nature, and personified technologies, such as robots) and the social and moral consequences of doing so.