My research program focuses on the development of children’s empirical reasoning. I investigate how and when children develop the empirical reasoning skills necessary to navigate this information-rich, complex world, and how this development is shaped and fostered by often subtle aspects of the social context in which it occurs. My research program comprises two interrelated lines of investigation. First, in much of my work I have investigated how children engage in the empirical process themselves. This includes investigating what factors influence how children identify the specific learning opportunities presented in a given situation, how they use social cues to guide the process of making inductive inferences, and how this varies across contexts and domains. Second, in new lines of work I have begun investigating how children evaluate others’ empirical practices. This includes investigating how children evaluate whether others’ empirical claims are based on sufficient evidence, how that empirical reasoning is integrated with and affected by their understanding of other people and their goals, motives, and social connections, and children’s understanding of scientific principles such as transparency, integrity, and reproducibility.
