What made it change?

For 6- to 8-year-olds.

Your child will see different objects that have been changed, and will be asked to choose which of two other objects made it change. For example, if a child sees a lump of play-doh that has been poked/indented, would they be able to pick out whether a hand or a fork made the change?

Children can reason about objects in the world around them. But can they reason about objects that have undergone some kind of change (such as poked, indented, or crushed objects)? Moreover, can they predict what must have caused the objects to change? Previous research has found that young children can "fill-in" a sequence about a changing object from it's beginning stage to end stage, but it is unclear if children can figure out what changed an object just by looking at it. To find out, we ask children to guess which of two objects made another change. This study will help us understand if children can reason about how an object changes, and through what mechanism.

15 minutes

We will provide a $5 USD Amazon gift card for eligible participants. We will send you 1 gift card within 1 week of your first eligible participation. To be eligible for compensation we ask that you 1) provide a valid consent video (we will show you how!), 2) your child must be in the age range specified above and, 3) your child must be present during the recorded videos. Your child does not need to finish the entire study in order to be eligible for compensation.