Do You Promise?
The phrase “pinky promise” is highly common among young children, but it begs the question: under what conditions do children keep their promises? We are especially interested if the nature of the activity and whether the child is working with someone or parallel to someone has an effect on children’s promise keeping.
This study is conducted in-person.
We are currently recruiting children of the following ages to participate in this study: 5 year-olds!
Perspective-Taking
Children’s ability to take other people’s perspectives is a key part of their development! It is what enables kids to collaborate with others on tasks. We are interested to see if having kids coordinate with an adult might facilitate their perspective-taking! In this study, children will either play a collaborative or solo game with an experimenter and we are curious to see if this encourages young children’s perspective-taking.
This study is conducted in-person
We are currently recruiting children of the following ages to participate in this study: 3-year-olds!
May I Please Be Excused?
Excuses are an ever-present social norm in an attempt to lessen the blow of failing to show up or perform for a task. However, even as adults, there are certain types of excuses that we sympathize with and let it slide, and others that can deliver a significant blow to one’s social standing. In this study, we are interested to see what kids think about different types of excuses and how that impacts their perception of others.
This study is conducted online via zoom.
We are currently recruiting children of the following ages to participate in this study: 3- & 5-year-olds!
Objective Reality vs. Subjective Beliefs
By the age of 4, children understand that people can have perspectives different from their own and that people can maintain false beliefs. However, can children differentiate subjective beliefs from objective reality? That is, do children think that a person’s beliefs correspond to objective reality? In this study, children will hear six stories involving characters changing their beliefs, and whether children are able distinguish these beliefs from reality.
This study is conducted online via zoom.
We are currently recruiting children of the following ages to participate in this study: 4- to 5-year-olds!
The Emergence of Children’s Collaboration
Between 2 and 3 years of age, there is a shift in the way in which children collaborate with one another. This study is interested in age differences in children’s collaboration in groups of 2’s and 3’s. In this study, children will work together in order to achieve a common goal.
This study is conducted in-person.
We are no longer recruiting for this study!
Have My Favorite
In this study, we are exploring whether reciprocity in children is sensitive to the cost a benefactor incurred to share. More specifically, we are curious whether children perceive an obligation to reward those who give up a highly-valued vs. lesser valued resource. And critically, the “value” in this study is subjective, one puppet says that a sticker he shares with the child was “his very favorite”, and the other puppet says, “I like this sticker, but it’s not my favorite.” Will children prefer to reward the puppet who gave up something he valued? And if so, will this behavior vary across ages?
This study is conducted in-person at local children’s museums!
Cooperation vs. Competence
In this study, we are asking whether children are willing to pay a high cost to engage in self-promotion. In the study, children first choose three dog stickers that they like, and the stickers are kept in a bag for them. Children then engage in an animal sorting task and are praised for being either helpful or smart. Afterwards, children are shown a white and black stick figure sticker that supposedly is either a “smartie” or “helper sticker.” As a measure of children’s ‘willingness-to-pay’ for self-promotion, children are given an opportunity to trade in 2/3 dog stickers for either the “smartie” or “helper sticker”. Our goal with this study is to learn more about costly reputation management across development.
This study is conducted in-person at local children’s museums!
