University research labs focusing on education, psychology, and cognitive development have been collaborating with museums more and more over the past decade. Nevertheless, cognitive science labs that primarily engage in basic as opposed to applied research may find it difficult to entice museums to collaborate, and existing collaborations may…

This paper describes a research collaboration with Humber Museums Partnership, which explored family museum visiting and early language. Drawing from ethnographic observations and continuous audio recordings, this article examines how very young children make sense in museum spaces. We activate Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the refrain…

This study investigates how family cultural capital, particularly through museum and theatre attendance, is related to the cognitive and socio-emotional development of preschool children. The study included 1285 preschoolers (M = 70.6 months, SD = 4.43) and their parents. Assessments were conducted on children's executive functions, non-verbal…

This is qualitative action research where an immigrant Muslim mother journaled about her Yemeni-American daughters (ages 7 and 13, born and raised in USA), visiting two museums for the very first time. Her reflective journaling recorded mother-child and sibling interactions, when (1) viewing Islamic visual arts during six museum visits, and (2)…

Although children frequently engage in creative activities (in which they make foods and objects by hand), the development and scope of children's thinking about handmade items is largely unexplored. In the present studies, we examined whether 4- to 12-year-old children at a local children's museum (54% girls, 46% boys; 51% White, 11% Asian/Asian…

To explore the potential contribution of parents' causal talk to preschooler's emerging scientific literacy and related interests, we observed 153 parent-child dyads playing together in a museum and in the lab. As in previous work, the frequency with which parents referenced causal information in their speech predicted the strength of their…

Previous research from in and outside museums suggests that the haptic exploration of surfaces and objects have various educational benefits and can positively influence the museum visit experience. However, there is still a need for more research on the potential effects of object handling on museum learning, especially in science museums. The…

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened on November 11, 2011. Located in Bentonville, Arkansas, it was the first art museum of its size in the region. Since few students had ever been to a museum, this situation provided an opportunity to causally measure the impact of a one-time art museum field trip upon student outcomes through the…

Museum exhibits can be a tool in experiential learning. While instructors have documented various methods of experiential learning, they have not sufficiently explored such learning from museum exhibits. Museum researchers, however, have long found a satisfying cognitive component to museum visits. This paper narrates the author's design to…

This article presents an overview of family learning at the Children's Museum of Houston. Based on educational theory, and designed to support learning literacy and success in school, Museum programs provide parents with tools to help them nurture children's intellectual development. The goal of this work is for parents to become better prepared…

Increasingly, cognitive developmental researchers are forming partnerships with museums as a way to achieve both overlapping and distinctive goals. Such partnerships can further our understanding of cognitive development by providing opportunities to study children's learning within social contexts. At the same time, these collaborations can…

We aimed to identify positive parenting practices that set children on differential weight-trajectories. Parenting practices studied were cognitively stimulating activities, limit-setting, disciplinary practices, and parent warmth. Data from two U.S. national longitudinal data sets and linear and logistic regression were used to examine…

This study examined the development of an understanding of authenticity among 112 children (preschoolers, kindergarten, 1st graders, and 4th graders) and 119 college students. Participants were presented with pairs of photographs depicting authentic and non-authentic objects and asked to pick which one belongs in a museum and which one they would…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2018, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Modern psychology offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and…

Examines the shared cognitive dimensions of cultural institutions like museums, libraries, and parks, suggesting they make similar situations for transmitting information. The article encourages a critical understanding of public cultural institutions to enlarge the potential for discourse about their analysis and criticism. Heuristic questions…