We investigated whether children preferentially select informative actions and make
accurate inferences from the outcome of their own interventions in a causal learning task …

Self-directed learners are described as “intuitive scientists,” yet they often struggle in
assessments of their scientific reasoning skills. We investigate a novel explanation for this …

Four-year-olds were more accurate at learning causal structures from their own actions
when they were allowed to act first and then observe an experimenter act, as opposed to …

We assessed whether an artifact's design can facilitate recognition of abstract causal rules.
In Experiment 1, 152 three-year-olds were presented with evidence consistent with a …

Novel causal systems pose a problem of variable choice: How can a reasoner decide which
variable is causally relevant? Which variable in the system should a learner manipulate to …

Intervening on causal systems can illuminate their underlying structures. Past work has
shown that, relative to adults, young children often make intervention decisions that appear …

Like scientists, children have a sharp sense of when and how to seek evidence, but when it
comes to generating causal interventions, their performance often falls short of normative …

To improve upon their current knowledge, learners must be able to generate informative
data and accurately evaluate this evidence. However, there is substantial disagreement …

Both explanation and exploration can foster causal learning, yet the mechanisms underlying
these effects are largely unknown, especially in early childhood. In this article, I provide an …

Changing one variable at a time while controlling others is a key aspect of scientific
experimentation and a central component of STEM curricula. However, children reportedly …