Research

Much of children's knowledge is acquired through what they are told.  In one line of research, we study how young children selectively learn from others based on different cues.  Our previous findings have shown that preschoolers are…
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People often prefer members of their own group to members of other groups.  This ingroup favoritism emerges early and is evident in children’s selective learning from others.  In our recent work, we examined whether preschool-aged…
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Can children make meaningful inferences about the social world based on statistical patterns of evidence?  Our previous work has shown that children as young as 2 are able to infer the preferences of others based…
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Ma, L., & Lillard, A. S. (2017). The evolutionary significance of pretend play: Two-year-olds’ interpretation of behavioral cues. Learning & Behavior. doi: 10.3758/s13420-017-0285-y McDonald, K., & Ma, L. (2016). Preschoolers' credulity toward misinformation from ingroup versus outgroup…
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