Previous research shows that children effectively extract and utilize causal information, yet we find that adults doubt children's ability to understand complex mechanisms. Since adults themselves struggle to explain how everyday objects work, why expect more from children? Although remembering details may prove difficult, we argue that exposure…

As a causal attribution, attributing academic success to giftedness might influence students' academic achievement. According to previous studies, students' self-regulated learning and negative learning emotions may mediate the association between achievement attribution and academic achievement. Therefore, the present study employed structural…

Background: Observation Studies, Unmeasured Confounding, and Sensitivity Analysis: An important part of educational research is identifying important, potentially causal, factors that influence children's learning from observational studies. However, it is well-known that discovering such factors from observational studies can be biased due to…

The application of the formal framework of causal Bayesian Networks to children's causal learning provides the motivation to examine the link between judgments about the causal structure of a system, and the ability to make inferences about interventions on components of the system. Three experiments examined whether children are able to make…

Summarizes prominent research-based perspectives on children's thinking about their own achievement. Identifies effective tactics for classroom intervention and teacher influence. (RJC)

Proposes causal field theory as a model of causal reasoning. Suggests that anomaly detection through comparison with natural events triggers causal reasoning. This anomaly is interpreted in terms of agency; therefore, natural phenomena can be understood through an appeal to agency. The mechanism proposed never changes with development, whereas…

Metacognitive knowledge is the concern of this paper; specifically children's knowledge of factors, such as their ability and effort, which affect their performance and their awareness of the integration of these factors. How a young child's familarity with his or her own mind might facilitate reasoning competence with respect to aspects--such as…