Publications

What do we study at the ECC Lab?

Young children are naturally curious, and motivated to learn all about the “hows” and “whys” of the physical, biological, and social world. In fact, children learn a lot like scientists do - by forming and testing hypotheses, gathering evidence, asking questions, and listening to trustworthy sources. In the Early Childhood Cognition Lab, we study the process by which children learn through everyday experiences. This process of learning is inherently active and social: driven by children’s natural curiosity about the world, and supported by knowledgable and helpful adults.

Publications

Flanagan, T., Vesga, A., Kushnir, T., & Nichols, S. (2025). But Why?: Children’s belief in the necessity of explanations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 260, 106317. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106317
Georgiou, N. Flanagan, T., Scassellati, B. & Kushnir, T. (2025) Perceived Morality of Robot and Human Transgressors Varies By Perceived Ability to Feel. HRI 2025. 10.1109/HRI61500.2025.10973927
Li, P.H. and Kushnir, T. (2025), Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Children Appreciate Reasoners Who Approach Moral Dilemmas With Humility. Developmental Science e13565. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13565
Finiasz, Z., Shore, M., Xu, F., & Kushnir, T. (2025). Children's cost-benefit analysis about agents who act for the greater good. Cognition, 256, 106051. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.106051
Williams-Gant, A. J., Weisman, K., Amin, T., Ghossainy, M., Soueidan, G., Nissel, J., … Network, D. B. (2025, May 29). Working across religions, cultures, settings, and development: Protocol for Wave 2 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/vujp3_v1
Kocher, D., Kushnir, T., & Green, K. E. (2024). MAPLE: A Multi-Agent, Prosocial Learning Environment, Engaging and Motivating Children. 2024 7th Iberian Robotics Conference (ROBOT). 10.1109/ROBOT61475.2024.10797392
Carpenter, E., Siegel, A., Urquiola, S., Liu, J., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Being me in times of change: Young children's reflections on their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Children & Society, 38, 1147–1165. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12790
Flanagan, T., Georgiou, N. C., Scassellati, B., & Kushnir, T. (2024). School-age children are more skeptical of inaccurate robots than adults. Cognition, 249, 105814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105814
Flanagan, T., Zhao, X. (A.), Xu, F., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Is it personal or is it social? The interaction of knowledge domain and statistical evidence in U.S. and Chinese preschoolers’ social generalizations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001605
Finiasz, Z., Gelman, S. A., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Testimony and observation of statistical evidence interact in adults' and children's category-based induction. Cognition, 244, 105707. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105707

Katz, T., Kushnir, T., & Tomasello, M. (2024). Children are eager to take credit for prosocial acts, and cost affects this tendency. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 237, 105764
Weisman, K., Ghossainy, M. E., Williams, A. J., Payir, A., Lesage, K. A., Reyes-Jaquez, B., Amin, T. G., Anggoro, F. K., Burdett, E. R. R., Chen, E. E., Coetzee, L., Coley, J. D., Dahl, A., Dautel, J. B., Davis, H. E., Davis, E. L., Diesendruck, G., Evans, D., Feeney, A., . . . on behalf of the Developing Belief, N. (2024). The development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior: Protocol for Wave 1 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network. PloS one, 19(3), e0292755. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292755
Finiasz, Z., Shore, M., Xu, F., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Children’s Cost-Benefit Analysis About Agents who Act for the Greater Good. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 45, No. 45).
Stegall, J., Mikhail, J., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Underdetermination and Obligation Rules: Adult and Children’s use of Closure Principles in Moral Learning. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Kushnir, T., Katz, T., & Stegall, J. (2023). A review of “Becoming Human”. Journal of Cognition and Development, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2023.2226207
Kushnir, T. (2023). How children learn to transcend limits: Developmental pathways to possibility beliefs. Possibility Studies & Society, 27538699231182371. https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231182371
Flanagan, T., Wong, G., & Kushnir, T. (2023, April 10). The Minds of Machines: Children's Beliefs About the Experiences, Thoughts, and Morals of Familiar Interactive Technologies. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0001524
Partington, S., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Rational learners and parochial norms. Cognition, 233, 105366.
Heck, I. A., Kushnir, T., & Kinzler, K. D. (2023). Building representations of the social world: Children extract patterns from social choices to reason about multi-group hierarchies. Developmental Science, 00, e13366. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13366
Zhao, X., & Kushnir, T. (2023). When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness. Developmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13257
Flanagan, T., & Kushnir, T. (2022). Children’s Developing Beliefs About Agency and Free Will in an Increasingly Technological World. HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies, 15(42), 179-204.
Shachnai, R., Kushnir, T., & Bian, L. (2022). Walking in Her Shoes: Pretending to Be a Female Role Model Increases Young Girls’ Persistence in Science. Psychological Science, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221119393
Kushnir, T. (2022). Imagination and social cognition in childhood. WIREs Cognitive Science, e1603. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1603
Liu, J., Partington, S., Suh, Y., Finiasz, Z., Flanagan, T., Kocher, D., Kiely, R., Kortenaar, M., & Kushnir, T. (2021). The Community-Engaged Lab: A Case-Study Introduction for Developmental Science. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 715914. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.715914
Zhao, A., Wente, A., Flecha, M. F., Glavan, D. S., Gopnik, A., & Kushnir, T. (2021). Culture Moderates the Relationship Between Self-Control Abilities and Free Will Belies in Childhood. Cognition, 210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104609
Zhao, A., Zhao, X., Gweon, H., & Kushnir, T. (2021). Leaving a Choice for Others: Children’s Social Evaluations of Considerate Actions. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13480
Partington, S, Nichols, S. & Kushnir, T. (2021). Is children’s norm learning rational? A meta-analysis. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
Heck, I. A., Kushnir, T., & Kinzler, K. D. (2021). Social sampling: Children track social choices to reason about status hierarchies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001008
Kocher, D., Sarmiento, S. Heller, S. Yang, Y., Kushnir, T., & Green, K. E. (2020). No your other left! Language children use to direct robots. Joint IEEE 10th International Conference on Development and Learning. DOI: 10.1109/ICDL-EpiRob48136.2020.9278108
Kocher, D., Kushnir, T., & Green, K. E. (2020). Better together: young children's tendencies to help a non-humanoid robot collaborator. Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference (pp. 243-249).
Partington, S, Nichols, S. & Kushnir, T. (2020). When in Rome, do as Bayesians do: Statistical learning and parochial norms. Proceedings of the 42st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
Wang, Q. & Kushnir, T. (2019) Cultural Pathways in Cognitive Development: Introduction to the special issue. Cognitive Development, 52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100816
Zhao, A, & Kushnir, T. (2019). How US and Chinese children talk to children about moral, conventional, and personal choices. in Cognitive Development, 52. DOI:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100804
Wente, A., Zhao, X, Gopnik, A. Kang, C., & Kushnir, T. (2019). The Developmental and Cultural Origins of Our Beliefs About Self-Control. In Mele, A. (Ed) Surrounding Self Control.
Fedyk, M., Kushnir, T. & Xu, F. (2019) Intuitive Epistemology and Children’s Theory of Evidence. In Samuels, R. & Wilkenfeld, D. Eds) Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Science.
Yu, Y., & Kushnir, T. (2019). The ontogeny of cumulative culture: Individual toddlers vary in faithful imitation and goal emulation. Developmental Science. 23(1). DOI: 10.1111/desc.12862
Chernyak, N., Kang, C., & Kushnir, T. (2019). The cultural roots of free will beliefs: How Singaporean and U.S. children judge and explain possibilities for action in interpersonal contexts. Developmental Psychology, 55(4), 866–876. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000670
Flanagan T. & Kushnir, T. (2019). Individual differences in fluency with idea generation predict children’s beliefs in their own free will. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.) Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society.
Varhol A., Kushnir, T. & Koenig, M. (2019). Preschoolers' Evaluations of Ignorant Agents are Situation-Specific. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.) Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society.
Zhao A. & Kushnir, T. (2019). She Helped Even Though She Wanted to Play: Children Consider Psychological Cost in Social Evaluations. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.) Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society.
Kushnir, T. (2018) Developmental and cultural psychology of free will. Philosophy Compass. DOI:10.1111/phc3.12529
Eason, A. E., Doctor, D., Chang, E., Kushnir, T., & Sommerville, J. A. (2018). The choice is yours: Infants’ expectations about an agent’s future behavior based on taking and receiving actions. Developmental Psychology, 54(5), 829-841. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000482
Van de Vondervoort, J. W., Aknin, L. B., Kushnir, T., Slevinsky, J., & Hamlin, J. K. (2018). Selectivity in toddlers’ behavioral and emotional reactions to prosocial and antisocial others. Developmental Psychology, 54(1), 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000404
Chernyak, N. & Kushnir, T. (2018) The influence of understanding and having choice on children's prosocial behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology. 20, 107-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.043
Zhao, A. & Kushnir, T. (2018). Young Children Consider Individual Authority and Collective Agreement When Deciding Who Can Change Rules. Special Issue: Early Development of the Normative Mind, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 165, 101-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.004
Kushnir, T., & Koenig, M. A. (2017). What I Don’t Know Won’t Hurt You: The Relation Between Professed Ignorance and Later Knowledge Claims. Developmental Psychology. 53(5), 826-835. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000294.
Chernyak, N., Trieu, B. & Kushnir, T. (2017). Preschoolers' selfish sharing is reduced by prior experience with proportional generosity. Open Mind. doi:10.1162/OPMI_a_00004.
Vredenburgh, C., Yu, Y., & Kushnir, T. (2016). Young Children’s Flexible Social Cognition and Sensitivity to Context Facilitates Their Learning. In Sommerville J. & Decety J. (Eds.). Social Cognition: Development Across the Life Span. Taylor & Francis.
Yu, Y & Kushnir, T. (2016). When what’s inside counts: Sequence of demonstrated actions affects preschooler’s categorization by non-obvious properties. Developmental Psychology, 52(3). 400-410. doi:10.1037/dev0000088
Kushnir, T. & Gelman, S. A. (2016). Translating testimonial claims into evidence for category-based induction. Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.) (2016). Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Zhao, A. & Kushnir, T. (2016). Children’s Awareness of Authority to Change Rules in Various Social Contexts. Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.) (2016). Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Wente, A., Ting, T., Aboody, R., Kushnir, T., & Gopnik A. (2016). The Relationship Between Inhibitory Control and Free Will Beliefs in 4-to 6-Year-Old-Children. Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.) (2016). Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Wellman, H. M., Kushnir, T., Xu, F. & Brink, K. (2016). Infants Use Statistical Sampling to Understand the Psychological World. Infancy. 21(5), 668-676. doi:10.1111/infa.12131
Vredenburgh, C. & Kushnir, T. (2016). Young Children’s Help-Seeking As Information Gathering. Cognitive Science. 40(3), 697-722 doi:10.1111/cogs.12245
Josephs, M, Kushnir, T., Gräfenhain, M., & Rakoczy, H. (2016) Children protest moral and conventional violations more when they believe actions are freely chosen. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 141, pp. 247-255. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.08.002
Yu, Y. & Kushnir, T. (2015). Understanding young children’s imitative behavior from an individual differences perspective. Noelle, D. C., Dale, R., Warlaumont, A. S., Yoshimi, J., Matlock, T., Jennings, C. D., & Maglio, P. P. (Eds.) (2015). Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Koenig, M., Cole, C., Meyer, M., Ridge, K., Kushnir, T. & Gelman, S. (2015). Reasoning about knowledge: Children's evaluations of generality and verifiability. Cognitive Psychology, 83, 22-39. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2015.08.007
Kortenaar, M., Sribarra, A. & Kushnir, T. (2015). Engaging parents in early childhood learning: An issue of civic importance. Science Education and Civic Engagement, Summer Issue, 28-30.
Vredenburgh C, Kushnir T, Casasola M. (2015). Pedagogical cues encourage toddlers’ transmission of recently demonstrated functions to unfamiliar adults. Developmental Science 18(4):645-654. DOI: 10.1111/desc.12233
Kushnir, T., Gopnik, A., Chernyak, N., Seiver, E., & Wellman, H. M. (2015). Developing intuitions about free will between ages 4 and 6. Cognition.138, 79-101. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.01.003
Diesendruck, G. Salzer, S., Kushnir, T, & Xu, F. (2015) When choices aren't personal: The effect of statistical and social cues on children's inferences about the scope of preferences. Journal of Cognition and Development. 16(2), 370-380. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2013.84887
Gopnik, A. & Kushnir, T. (2014). The Origins and Development of Our Conception of Free Will. In A. Mele (ed) Surrounding Free Will. Oxford University Press.
Fedyk, M. & Kushnir, T. (2014). Development links psychological causes to evolutionary explanations. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(2), 142-14. doi:10.1017/S0140525X1300201X .
Lucas, C. G., Griffiths, T. L., Xu, F., Fawcett, C., Gopnik, A., Kushnir, T. Markson, L. (2014). The child as econometrician: A rational model of preference understanding in children. PLOS ONE, 9(3). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092160
Chernyak, N., Kushnir, T. (2014). The self as a moral agent: Preschoolers behave morally but believe in the freedom to do otherwise. Journal of cognition and development, 15(3), 453-464. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2013.77784
Yu, Y. & Kushnir, T. (2014). Social Context Effects in 2- and 4-year-olds' Selective Versus Faithful Imitation. Developmental Psychology, 50(3), 922–933. doi: 10.1037/a0034242
Chernyak, N. & Kushnir, T. (2013). Giving preschoolers choice increases sharing behavior. Psychological Science, 24 (10), 1971-1979. doi:10.1177/0956797613482335
Chernyak, N., Kushnir, T., Sullivan, K., & Wang, Q. (2013). A comparison of American and Nepalese children's concepts of freedom of choice and social constraint. Cognitive Science, 37 (7), 1343-55. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12046 .
Sobel, D. M. & Kushnir, T. (2013). Knowledge matters: How children evaluate the reliability of testimony as a process of rational inference. Psychological Review, 120 (4), 779-797. doi:10.1037/a0034191
Kushnir, T. (2013). How children learn from and about people: The fundamental link between social cognition and statistical evidence. In M. Banaji and S. Gelman (eds). The development of social cognition. Oxford University Press.
Kushnir, T., Vredenburgh, C., & Schneider, L. A. (2013). “Who can help me fix this toy?:” The distinction between causal expertise and conventional knowledge guides preschoolers’ causal learning from informants. Developmental Psychology. 49(3), 446-453. doi:10.1037/a0031649
Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (2013). Infants are rational constructivist learners. Current directions in psychological science. 22(1) 28–32. doi:10.1177/0963721412469396
Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. Eds (2012). Advances in Child Development and Behavior Volume 43: Rational Constructivism in Cognitive Development. Waltham, MA: Academic Press.
Kushnir, T. (2012). Developing a concept of choice. In Xu, F. & Kushnir, T (eds), Advances in Child Development and Behavior: Rational Constructivism in Cognitive Development. Waltham, MA: Academic Press.
Kortenaar, M., Kushnir, T. and Trautmann. C. (2012) The Curiosity Corner: A Place for Young Scientists to Explore and Learn. Informal Learning Review.
Yu, Y. & Kushnir T. (2011). It’s all about the game: Infants’ action strategies during imitation are influenced by their prior expectations. Proceedings of the 33rd annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Chernyak, N., Kushnir, T., Wang, Q. & Sullivan, K. (2011). A Comparison of Nepalese and American Children’s Concepts of Free Will. Proceedings of the 33rd annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Kushnir, T. & Chernyak, N. (2010). Understanding the adult moralist requires first understanding the child scientist. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33 (4), 343-344. doi:10.1017/S0140525X10002037
Chernyak, N., Kushnir, T., Wellman, H. M. (2010). Developing notions of free will: Preschoolers understanding of how intangible constraints bind their freedom of choice. In Camtrabone, R. and Ohlsson, S. (Eds), Proceedings of the 32nd annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2601-2606.
Kushnir, T., Xu, F. & Wellman, H. M. (2010). Young children use statistical sampling to infer the preferences of other people. Psychological Science, 21, 1134-1140. doi:10.1177/0956797610376652
Kushnir, T., Gopnik, A., Lucas, C., & Schulz, L. E. (2010). Inferring hidden causal structure. Cognitive Science, 34, 148-160. doi:10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01072.x
Kushnir, T., Wellman, H. M. & Chernyak, N. (2009). Preschoolers' Understanding of Freedom of Choice. In Taatgen, N. and van Rijn, H. (Eds), Proceedings of the 31st annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. 87-92.
Kushnir, T., Wellman, H. M. & Gelman, S. A. (2009). A self-agency bias in children’s causal inferences. Developmental Psychology, 45 (2), 597-603. doi:10.1037/a0014727
Kushnir, T., Wellman, H. M. & Gelman, S. A.(2008). The role of preschoolers’ social understanding in evaluating the informativeness of causal interventions. Cognition. 107 (3), 1084-1092. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.10.004
Kushnir, T. & Gopnik, A. (2007). Conditional probability versus spatial contiguity in causal learning: Preschoolers use new contingency evidence to overcome prior spatial assumptions. Developmental Psychology, 44, 186-196. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.1.186
Schulz, L. E., Kushnir, T., & Gopnik, A. (2007). Learning from doing: Interventions and causal inference. In A. Gopnik & L. E. Schulz (Eds.), Causal Learning; Psychology, Philosophy and Computation, 67-86. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sobel, D. M. & Kushnir, T. (2006). The importance of decision-making in causal learning from interventions. Memory & Cognition, 34. 411-419.
Kushnir T. & Gopnik, A., (2005). Children infer causal strength from probabilities and interventions. Psychological Science, 16, 678-683.
Gopnik, A., Glymour, C., Sobel, D., Schulz, L.E., Kushnir, T., & Danks, D. (2004). A theory of causal learning in children: Causal maps and Bayes nets. Psychological Review, 111 (1), 3-32.

Publications

Flanagan, T., Vesga, A., Kushnir, T., & Nichols, S. (2025). But Why?: Children’s belief in the necessity of explanations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 260, 106317. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106317

Georgiou, N. Flanagan, T., Scassellati, B. & Kushnir, T. (2025) Perceived Morality of Robot and Human Transgressors Varies By Perceived Ability to Feel. HRI 2025. 10.1109/HRI61500.2025.10973927

Li, P.H. and Kushnir, T. (2025), Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Children Appreciate Reasoners Who Approach Moral Dilemmas With Humility. Developmental Science e13565. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13565

Finiasz, Z., Shore, M., Xu, F., & Kushnir, T. (2025). Children's cost-benefit analysis about agents who act for the greater good. Cognition, 256, 106051. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.106051

Kocher, D., Kushnir, T., & Green, K. E. (2024). MAPLE: A Multi-Agent, Prosocial Learning Environment, Engaging and Motivating Children. 2024 7th Iberian Robotics Conference (ROBOT). 10.1109/ROBOT61475.2024.10797392

Carpenter, E., Siegel, A., Urquiola, S., Liu, J., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Being me in times of change: Young children's reflections on their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Children & Society, 38, 1147–1165. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12790

Flanagan, T., Georgiou, N. C., Scassellati, B., & Kushnir, T. (2024). School-age children are more skeptical of inaccurate robots than adults. Cognition, 249, 105814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105814

Flanagan, T., Zhao, X. (A.), Xu, F., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Is it personal or is it social? The interaction of knowledge domain and statistical evidence in U.S. and Chinese preschoolers’ social generalizations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001605

Finiasz, Z., Gelman, S. A., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Testimony and observation of statistical evidence interact in adults' and children's category-based induction. Cognition, 244, 105707. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105707

Katz, T., Kushnir, T., & Tomasello, M. (2024). Children are eager to take credit for prosocial acts, and cost affects this tendency. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 237, 105764

Finiasz, Z., Shore, M., Xu, F., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Children’s Cost-Benefit Analysis About Agents who Act for the Greater Good. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 45, No. 45).

Stegall, J., Mikhail, J., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Underdetermination and Obligation Rules: Adult and Children’s use of Closure Principles in Moral Learning. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

Kushnir, T., Katz, T., & Stegall, J. (2023). A review of “Becoming Human”. Journal of Cognition and Development, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2023.2226207

Kushnir, T. (2023). How children learn to transcend limits: Developmental pathways to possibility beliefs. Possibility Studies & Society, 27538699231182371. https://doi.org/10.1177/27538699231182371

Flanagan, T., Wong, G., & Kushnir, T. (2023, April 10). The Minds of Machines: Children's Beliefs About the Experiences, Thoughts, and Morals of Familiar Interactive Technologies. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0001524

Partington, S., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Rational learners and parochial norms. Cognition, 233, 105366.

Heck, I. A., Kushnir, T., & Kinzler, K. D. (2023). Building representations of the social world: Children extract patterns from social choices to reason about multi-group hierarchies. Developmental Science, 00, e13366. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13366

Zhao, X., & Kushnir, T. (2023). When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness. Developmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13257

Flanagan, T., & Kushnir, T. (2022). Children’s Developing Beliefs About Agency and Free Will in an Increasingly Technological World. HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies, 15(42), 179-204.

Shachnai, R., Kushnir, T., & Bian, L. (2022). Walking in Her Shoes: Pretending to Be a Female Role Model Increases Young Girls’ Persistence in Science. Psychological Science, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221119393

Kushnir, T. (2022). Imagination and social cognition in childhood. WIREs Cognitive Science, e1603. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1603

Liu, J., Partington, S., Suh, Y., Finiasz, Z., Flanagan, T., Kocher, D., Kiely, R., Kortenaar, M., & Kushnir, T. (2021). The Community-Engaged Lab: A Case-Study Introduction for Developmental Science. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 715914. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.715914

Zhao, A., Wente, A., Flecha, M. F., Glavan, D. S., Gopnik, A., & Kushnir, T. (2021). Culture Moderates the Relationship Between Self-Control Abilities and Free Will Belies in Childhood. Cognition, 210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104609

Zhao, A., Zhao, X., Gweon, H., & Kushnir, T. (2021). Leaving a Choice for Others: Children’s Social Evaluations of Considerate Actions. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13480

Partington, S, Nichols, S. & Kushnir, T. (2021). Is children’s norm learning rational? A meta-analysis. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

Heck, I. A., Kushnir, T., & Kinzler, K. D. (2021). Social sampling: Children track social choices to reason about status hierarchies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001008

Kocher, D., Sarmiento, S. Heller, S. Yang, Y., Kushnir, T., & Green, K. E. (2020). No your other left! Language children use to direct robots. Joint IEEE 10th International Conference on Development and Learning. DOI: 10.1109/ICDL-EpiRob48136.2020.9278108

Kocher, D., Kushnir, T., & Green, K. E. (2020). Better together: young children's tendencies to help a non-humanoid robot collaborator. Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference (pp. 243-249).

Partington, S, Nichols, S. & Kushnir, T. (2020). When in Rome, do as Bayesians do: Statistical learning and parochial norms. Proceedings of the 42st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

Wang, Q. & Kushnir, T. (2019) Cultural Pathways in Cognitive Development: Introduction to the special issue. Cognitive Development, 52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100816

Zhao, A, & Kushnir, T. (2019). How US and Chinese children talk to children about moral, conventional, and personal choices. in Cognitive Development, 52. DOI:10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100804

Wente, A., Zhao, X, Gopnik, A. Kang, C., & Kushnir, T. (2019). The Developmental and Cultural Origins of Our Beliefs About Self-Control. In Mele, A. (Ed) Surrounding Self Control.

Fedyk, M., Kushnir, T. & Xu, F. (2019) Intuitive Epistemology and Children’s Theory of Evidence. In Samuels, R. & Wilkenfeld, D. Eds) Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Science.

Yu, Y., & Kushnir, T. (2019). The ontogeny of cumulative culture: Individual toddlers vary in faithful imitation and goal emulation. Developmental Science. 23(1). DOI: 10.1111/desc.12862

Chernyak, N., Kang, C., & Kushnir, T. (2019). The cultural roots of free will beliefs: How Singaporean and U.S. children judge and explain possibilities for action in interpersonal contexts. Developmental Psychology, 55(4), 866–876. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000670

Varhol A., Kushnir, T. & Koenig, M. (2019). Preschoolers' Evaluations of Ignorant Agents are Situation-Specific. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.) Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society.

Zhao A. & Kushnir, T. (2019). She Helped Even Though She Wanted to Play: Children Consider Psychological Cost in Social Evaluations. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.) Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society.

Kushnir, T. (2018) Developmental and cultural psychology of free will. Philosophy Compass. DOI:10.1111/phc3.12529

Eason, A. E., Doctor, D., Chang, E., Kushnir, T., & Sommerville, J. A. (2018). The choice is yours: Infants’ expectations about an agent’s future behavior based on taking and receiving actions. Developmental Psychology, 54(5), 829-841. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000482

Van de Vondervoort, J. W., Aknin, L. B., Kushnir, T., Slevinsky, J., & Hamlin, J. K. (2018). Selectivity in toddlers’ behavioral and emotional reactions to prosocial and antisocial others. Developmental Psychology, 54(1), 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000404

Chernyak, N. & Kushnir, T. (2018) The influence of understanding and having choice on children's prosocial behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology. 20, 107-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.043

Zhao, A. & Kushnir, T. (2018). Young Children Consider Individual Authority and Collective Agreement When Deciding Who Can Change Rules. Special Issue: Early Development of the Normative Mind, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 165, 101-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.004

Kushnir, T., & Koenig, M. A. (2017). What I Don’t Know Won’t Hurt You: The Relation Between Professed Ignorance and Later Knowledge Claims. Developmental Psychology. 53(5), 826-835. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000294.

Chernyak, N., Trieu, B. & Kushnir, T. (2017). Preschoolers' selfish sharing is reduced by prior experience with proportional generosity. Open Mind. doi:10.1162/OPMI_a_00004.

Vredenburgh, C., Yu, Y., & Kushnir, T. (2016). Young Children’s Flexible Social Cognition and Sensitivity to Context Facilitates Their Learning. In Sommerville J. & Decety J. (Eds.). Social Cognition: Development Across the Life Span. Taylor & Francis.

Yu, Y & Kushnir, T. (2016). When what’s inside counts: Sequence of demonstrated actions affects preschooler’s categorization by non-obvious properties. Developmental Psychology, 52(3). 400-410. doi:10.1037/dev0000088

Kushnir, T. & Gelman, S. A. (2016). Translating testimonial claims into evidence for category-based induction. Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.) (2016). Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Zhao, A. & Kushnir, T. (2016). Children’s Awareness of Authority to Change Rules in Various Social Contexts. Papafragou, A., Grodner, D., Mirman, D., & Trueswell, J.C. (Eds.) (2016). Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

Wellman, H. M., Kushnir, T., Xu, F. & Brink, K. (2016). Infants Use Statistical Sampling to Understand the Psychological World. Infancy. 21(5), 668-676. doi:10.1111/infa.12131

Vredenburgh, C. & Kushnir, T. (2016). Young Children’s Help-Seeking As Information Gathering. Cognitive Science. 40(3), 697-722 doi:10.1111/cogs.12245

Josephs, M, Kushnir, T., Gräfenhain, M., & Rakoczy, H. (2016) Children protest moral and conventional violations more when they believe actions are freely chosen. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 141, pp. 247-255. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.08.002

Koenig, M., Cole, C., Meyer, M., Ridge, K., Kushnir, T. & Gelman, S. (2015). Reasoning about knowledge: Children's evaluations of generality and verifiability. Cognitive Psychology, 83, 22-39. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2015.08.007

Kortenaar, M., Sribarra, A. & Kushnir, T. (2015). Engaging parents in early childhood learning: An issue of civic importance. Science Education and Civic Engagement, Summer Issue, 28-30.

Vredenburgh C, Kushnir T, Casasola M. (2015). Pedagogical cues encourage toddlers’ transmission of recently demonstrated functions to unfamiliar adults. Developmental Science 18(4):645-654. DOI: 10.1111/desc.12233

Kushnir, T., Gopnik, A., Chernyak, N., Seiver, E., & Wellman, H. M. (2015). Developing intuitions about free will between ages 4 and 6. Cognition.138, 79-101. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.01.003

Diesendruck, G. Salzer, S., Kushnir, T, & Xu, F. (2015) When choices aren't personal: The effect of statistical and social cues on children's inferences about the scope of preferences. Journal of Cognition and Development. 16(2), 370-380. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2013.84887

Gopnik, A. & Kushnir, T. (2014). The Origins and Development of Our Conception of Free Will. In A. Mele (ed) Surrounding Free Will. Oxford University Press.

Fedyk, M. & Kushnir, T. (2014). Development links psychological causes to evolutionary explanations. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(2), 142-14. doi:10.1017/S0140525X1300201X .

Lucas, C. G., Griffiths, T. L., Xu, F., Fawcett, C., Gopnik, A., Kushnir, T. Markson, L. (2014). The child as econometrician: A rational model of preference understanding in children. PLOS ONE, 9(3). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092160

Chernyak, N., Kushnir, T. (2014). The self as a moral agent: Preschoolers behave morally but believe in the freedom to do otherwise. Journal of cognition and development, 15(3), 453-464. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2013.77784

Yu, Y. & Kushnir, T. (2014). Social Context Effects in 2- and 4-year-olds' Selective Versus Faithful Imitation. Developmental Psychology, 50(3), 922–933. doi: 10.1037/a0034242

Chernyak, N. & Kushnir, T. (2013). Giving preschoolers choice increases sharing behavior. Psychological Science, 24 (10), 1971-1979. doi:10.1177/0956797613482335

Chernyak, N., Kushnir, T., Sullivan, K., & Wang, Q. (2013). A comparison of American and Nepalese children's concepts of freedom of choice and social constraint. Cognitive Science, 37 (7), 1343-55. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12046 .

Sobel, D. M. & Kushnir, T. (2013). Knowledge matters: How children evaluate the reliability of testimony as a process of rational inference. Psychological Review, 120 (4), 779-797. doi:10.1037/a0034191

Kushnir, T. (2013). How children learn from and about people: The fundamental link between social cognition and statistical evidence. In M. Banaji and S. Gelman (eds). The development of social cognition. Oxford University Press.

Kushnir, T., Vredenburgh, C., & Schneider, L. A. (2013). “Who can help me fix this toy?:” The distinction between causal expertise and conventional knowledge guides preschoolers’ causal learning from informants. Developmental Psychology. 49(3), 446-453. doi:10.1037/a0031649

Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (2013). Infants are rational constructivist learners. Current directions in psychological science. 22(1) 28–32. doi:10.1177/0963721412469396

Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. Eds (2012). Advances in Child Development and Behavior Volume 43: Rational Constructivism in Cognitive Development. Waltham, MA: Academic Press.

Kushnir, T. (2012). Developing a concept of choice. In Xu, F. & Kushnir, T (eds), Advances in Child Development and Behavior: Rational Constructivism in Cognitive Development. Waltham, MA: Academic Press.

Kortenaar, M., Kushnir, T. and Trautmann. C. (2012) The Curiosity Corner: A Place for Young Scientists to Explore and Learn. Informal Learning Review.

Yu, Y. & Kushnir T. (2011). It’s all about the game: Infants’ action strategies during imitation are influenced by their prior expectations. Proceedings of the 33rd annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

Chernyak, N., Kushnir, T., Wang, Q. & Sullivan, K. (2011). A Comparison of Nepalese and American Children’s Concepts of Free Will. Proceedings of the 33rd annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

Kushnir, T. & Chernyak, N. (2010). Understanding the adult moralist requires first understanding the child scientist. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33 (4), 343-344. doi:10.1017/S0140525X10002037

Chernyak, N., Kushnir, T., Wellman, H. M. (2010). Developing notions of free will: Preschoolers understanding of how intangible constraints bind their freedom of choice. In Camtrabone, R. and Ohlsson, S. (Eds), Proceedings of the 32nd annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2601-2606.

Kushnir, T., Xu, F. & Wellman, H. M. (2010). Young children use statistical sampling to infer the preferences of other people. Psychological Science, 21, 1134-1140. doi:10.1177/0956797610376652

Kushnir, T., Gopnik, A., Lucas, C., & Schulz, L. E. (2010). Inferring hidden causal structure. Cognitive Science, 34, 148-160. doi:10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01072.x

Kushnir, T., Wellman, H. M. & Chernyak, N. (2009). Preschoolers' Understanding of Freedom of Choice. In Taatgen, N. and van Rijn, H. (Eds), Proceedings of the 31st annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. 87-92.

Kushnir, T., Wellman, H. M. & Gelman, S. A. (2009). A self-agency bias in children’s causal inferences. Developmental Psychology, 45 (2), 597-603. doi:10.1037/a0014727

Kushnir, T., Wellman, H. M. & Gelman, S. A.(2008). The role of preschoolers’ social understanding in evaluating the informativeness of causal interventions. Cognition. 107 (3), 1084-1092. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.10.004