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 …

An examination of children's causal reasoning capacities and how those capacities serve as
the foundation of their scientific thinking. Young children have remarkable capacities for …

We look at the effect of evidence and prior beliefs on exploration, explanation and learning.
In Experiment 1, we tested children both with and without differential prior beliefs about …

Scientific reasoning encompasses the reasoning and problem-solving skills involved in
generating, testing and revising hypotheses or theories, and in the case of fully developed …

This study investigates scientific reasoning abilities in 3-to 6-year-old children (N= 67)
focusing on their understanding of the relation between causal hypotheses and evidence …

Analogies between scientific theories and children's folk theories have been central to the
study of cognitive development for decades. In support of the comparison, numerous studies …

This study examines first graders' epistemic reasoning, in tacit “practical epistemologies”
reflected in thinking about an investigation of their own design. I analyzed children's …

Scientific reasoning involves a person's ability to think and act in ways that help advance
their understanding of the natural world. Young children are naturally inclined to engage in …

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

What events trigger causal explanatory reasoning in young children? Children's
explanations could be triggered by either consistent events (suggesting that explanations …