The aim of this study was to summarize evidence about the relations between parent math support in children aged 3-5 years (from several countries in America, Asia, and Europe) and concurrent and longitudinal math outcomes. The (bio)ecological model of human development guided our hypotheses. The design and reporting of this meta-analysis used the…

Superstitious behaviors persist across time, culture, and age. Although often considered irrational and even potentially harmful, superstitions have recently been shown to have positive effects on stress levels, confidence, and ultimately, performance. However, it remains unclear how people conceive of superstitious behaviors, specifically,…

One way to support young children's factual learning is through shared book reading (reading books with a knowledgeable other). Many books that teach factual content are narrative in structure, in which factual content is embedded within a fictional storyline. However, there are gaps in our understanding of factors influencing children's factual…

As children get older, they become better able to discriminate between impossible and improbable statements and they realize that improbable events can occur in reality while impossible ones cannot. However, when children hear about extraordinary events from fictional entities (e.g., popular characters from children's media), they may be more…

Striking weight biases emerge early in development, yet cognitive-developmental research has largely ignored weight as a social characteristic of interest. How do children conceive of weight? In particular, do children hold essentialist views of weight (i.e. do they view weight as natural, stable, inductively meaningful, and reflective of people's…

Children's storybooks often contain fantasy elements, from dragons and wizards to anthropomorphic animals that wear clothes, talk, and behave like humans. These elements can impact children's learning from storybooks both positively and negatively, perhaps due in part to their ability to capture children's interest and attention. Prior research…

This research investigates positive future expectancies, particularly hope in children, which is comprised of agency thinking, perceiving oneself as capable of achieving goals, and pathways thinking, perceiving oneself as capable of discovering methods toward the desired goals. Two studies (n = 82) were conducted in the United States to examine…

Children's ability to save emerges during the preschool years, but little is known about the different forms saving takes (and whether these relate) and the mechanisms driving its development. Because research with adults suggests that different aspects of future orientation increase adults' propensity to save, we explored whether, in a sample of…

We investigated the role of distinct inhibitory processes as 4- to 6-year-olds from the Northeastern United States (N = 48, M[subscript age] = 68.27 months, 22 boys, 26 girls; 63% White, 6% Black, 4% Asian, 2% Hispanic, 8% more than one race, with 17% not reporting) and adults evaluated accurate or deceptive information from human or non-human…

Previous research suggests that children's ability to label visual features (e.g. "red") and dimensions (e.g. "color") impacts attention to visual dimensions. The goal of this study is to investigate variations in the quality of the neural system supporting dimensional label comprehension and production in relation to…

Children's understanding of the stability of gender over time has long been recognized as a hallmark of early childhood cognitive development. Prior research has argued that until roughly age 6, children do not understand that a person's gender identity remains consistent if the person undergoes a change in gendered behavior or appearance.…

Eighty-six 4- and 5-year-old children were assigned to one of four conditions, three experimental conditions, in which children read a story about a famous scientist, and one baseline condition. In the "Achievement" condition: the scientist was described as receiving awards and recognition through their lifetime, with no discussion of…

Young children tend to behave more generously when their actions are identified than when they are anonymous, yet we know little about the cognitive foundations required for anonymity to impact generosity. In three studies we examined Canadian children's understanding of anonymity and its impact on sharing in anonymous and identified contexts.…

Recent research has highlighted the critical role in children's cognitive development of the metacognitive support parents give their children during everyday interactions. Our main goal was to examine whether parents made consistent use of metacognitive talk across different parent - child interaction contexts and to document the effect of this…

Children hold rich essentialist beliefs about natural and social categories, representing them as discrete (mutually exclusive with sharp boundaries) and stable (with membership remaining constant over an individual's lifespan). Children use essential categories to make inductive inferences about individuals. How do children determine what…