In accumulating knowledge, direct modes of learning are complemented by productive processes, including self-generation based on integration of separate episodes. Effects of the number of potentially relevant episodes on integration were examined in 4- to 8-year-olds (N = 121; racially/ethnically heterogeneous sample, English speakers, from large…

This article aims to account for the impact of the interactional setting on adults' referential uses by determining if telling a story to/with a child impacts the referential strategies of adults. The long-term goal of this study is to better understand the models of reference in narratives children are exposed to in order to account for young…

Like scientists, children seek ways to explain causal systems in the world. But are children scientists in the strict Bayesian tradition of maximizing posterior probability? Or do they attend to other explanatory considerations, as laypeople and scientists--such as Einstein--do? Four experiments support the latter possibility. In particular, we…

Group ownership is ubiquitous-property is owned by countries, corporations, families, and clubs. However, people cannot understand group ownership by simply relying on their conceptions of ownership by individuals, as group ownership is subject to complexities that do not arise when property is individually owned. We report 6 experiments…

This study examined young children's deception in a conflict situation. A puppet show was prepared involving a protagonist who went into hiding, an enemy who wanted to catch the protagonist, and a friend who was looking for the protagonist. In the no-conflict condition, the enemy asked the children about the location of the protagonist. In the…

Previous research has shown that bilingual children outperform their monolingual peers on a wide variety of tasks measuring executive functions (EF). However, recent failures to replicate this finding have cast doubt on the idea that the bilingual experience leads to domain-general cognitive benefits. The present study explored the role of…

The ability to act jointly with another person is a fundamental requirement for participation in social life. The current study examines the development of action planning in a joint action context. In 4 experiments, 3-, 5-, and 7-year-old children as well as a group of adults (n = 196) interacted with another person to operate a novel apparatus.…

Two experiments with preschoolers (36 to 78 months) and 8-year-old children (Experiment 1, N = 173; Experiment 2, N = 132) investigated the development of children's resource distribution in dominance contexts. On the basis of the distributive justice literature, 2 opposite predictions were tested. Children could match resource allocation with the…

The ability to judge the limits of one's own knowledge may play an important role in knowledge acquisition. The current study tested the prediction that preschoolers would judge the limits of their lexical knowledge more accurately if they were first exposed to a few objects of contrasting familiarity. Such preexposure was hypothesized to increase…

Across a series of four experiments with 3- to 4-year-olds we demonstrate how cognitive mechanisms supporting noun learning extend to the mapping of actions to objects. In Experiment 1 (n = 61) the demonstration of a novel action led children to select a novel, rather than a familiar object. In Experiment 2 (n = 78) children exhibited long-term…

The literature on human and animal learning suggests that individuals attend to and act on cues differently based on the order in which they were learned. Recent studies have proposed that one specific type of learning outcome, the highlighting effect, can serve as a framework for understanding a number of early cognitive milestones. However,…

These two studies explored 3- and 5-year-olds' evaluation of noncircular and circular explanations, and their use of such explanations to determine informant credibility. Although 5-year-olds demonstrated a selective preference for noncircular over circular explanations (Experiment 1: Long Explanations; Experiment 2: Short Explanations),…

We conducted two experiments to evaluate the effects of errors of omission and commission during alternative reinforcement of compliance in young children. In Experiment 1, we evaluated errors of omission by examining two levels of integrity during alternative reinforcement (20 and 60%) for child compliance following no treatment (baseline) versus…

Children recognize that people who know more are better informants than those who know less. How does an individual's prior knowledge affect children's decisions about whom to inform? In 3 experiments, 3- to 6-year-old children were invited to share a novel piece of information with 1 of 2 potential recipients who differed in their recent history…

The aim of this study was to explore preschool children's perceptions of their performance under competitive and non-competitive conditions (NCC) and their satisfaction. Eighty preschool children (40 boys, 40 girls) aged 4-6 years (M age?=?5.48, SD?=?0.57) took part in this study. Preschool children built a tower under competitive and NCC and…