Kathie teaches courses in introductory psychology, statistics, and her specialties are developmental and cognitive psychology. She helped establish the Cognitive Studies concentration at Carleton. She is the author of Cognitive Psychology In and Out of the Laboratory, a textbook, Making Decisions in Everyday Life, a trade book, and over two dozen journal articles. Her research, focusing on reasoning and decision making and the development of these skills, has been supported by the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.