Space Adventures: Solve Critical Thinking Puzzles with Alien Friends

For 8- and 9-year-olds

This study takes place over a video call with one of our researchers! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you.

Your child will take on a few fun space-themed challenges where they get to make decisions and share their thinking. The challenges range from card games to reveal how children think about probabilities, and logic puzzles to assess the strategies they use to search for information, to making decisions in hypothetical scenarios presented as interactive stories. For instance, in one task, children will observe alien gardeners plant tulip bulbs and they will be asked to make predictions about the color of the tulips based on past harvests. In another, they'll flip cards to figure out whether a rule is being followed or broken (for example, checking whether only tall aliens are riding the rollercoaster).
Children will be encouraged to express their opinions about the decisions they make and explain their decision process.

This study is part of a larger project developing the first comprehensive tool to measure decision-making in primary school children. While a lot of research exists on older adolescents, we still know surprisingly little about how younger children reason and make decisions, and there are limited tools to assess it.
We're interested in whether the reasoning patterns that shape adult decisions, like looking for evidence that confirms a rule rather than challenges it, already show up in young children. Understanding this could help researchers track how decision-making develops, and give educators better ways to assess programs designed to help children make better decisions.
Your child will complete three or four tasks from a larger set we're developing. This session will help us fine-tune the tasks themselves, making sure the instructions are clear, the games feel engaging, and children this age can meaningfully participate.

40 minutes

After you participate, we’ll email you a $10 Amazon.com gift code within five days to thank you for your time (only one per child). To be eligible for compensation we ask that you (1) provide a valid consent video at the start of the session (2) make sure your child is in the age range specified above and (3) ensure that your child is visible during the consent video. Your child does not need to finish the entire study in order to be eligible for compensation.