Teal's day in the garden!

For 5 & 6 year-olds and 9 & 10 year-olds

Children are introduced to a cartoon character named Teal, who is at the garden. Teal really likes to pick one color plant, but is assigned to be the "Picker" for the day, which is supposed to pick a different color plant. Children observe Teal pick one color plant or another, and answer questions about Teal's motivations to pick that color plant.

This study helps us understand how children figure out what motivates someone to act a certain way. In everyday life, many of the people we interact with occupy roles such as bus drivers, teachers, and janitors. For people in these roles, their behavior can either tell you something about the individual person (what they want to do personally) or the role they occupy (what they have to do in that role). Understanding which of these is motivating a person's behavior, and what that means for other people, is an important way we learn about the social world. For example, if children learn that teachers are supposed to help them learn, they can expect a new teacher to help them learn, even if it's a new person they just met.

10 minutes

We will email you a $5 Amazon.com gift card within a week of participation. To be eligible for the gift card: (1) your child must be in the age range for this study, (2) English is (one of) your child's first language(s), (3) you need to submit a valid consent statement, and (4) we need to see that there is a child with you during the experiment. You must start the study to receive compensation, but you may stop at any time and still receive compensation. Each child is eligible to participate to receive a gift card only once; participants cannot do the study more than once for compensation.