Looking at the works cited by an author is called backward citation searching. The author's bibliography gives you a snapshot of the thinking and research available at the time of publication. It tells you what ideas or theories have influenced the author.
For example, this image shows the backward citations for Sherman, Haidt, and Coan's (2009) article "Viewing cute images increases behavioral carefulness."
To use Google Scholar as a resource for citation searching:
The resulting list will include articles and websites that cite the original work as well as books scanned through the Google Books project.
If you have linked Google Scholar to Williams Libraries: