Who will do the puzzle?

For 4- to 5-year-olds. One child per caretaker may participate (i.e. you may not participate with more than one child)

Your child will hear stories about characters doing activities like making a sandwich or doing a puzzle. Your child will learn about two possible endings to the story: In one ending the character's parent helps the character finish the activity, and in one ending the character finishes the activity on their own. Your child will choose how the story ends, to help us learn what children expect parents to do. At the beginning of the study you will answer some questions about what you would do as a parent if your child were doing different activities.

When children are doing a hard task like zipping a jacket, sometimes parents help their children by finishing the task for them, and sometimes parents have their children keep trying on their own. We are curious about what children think parents will do. Do children always think parents will help, or do they think it depends on the type of activity? This study will help us understand how children think about the parent-child relationship.

20 minutes

After you finish the study, we will email you a $5 Amazon.com gift card within a week of participation. To be eligible for the gift card and certificate: (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. Each child is eligible to participate to receive a gift card only once; participants cannot do the study more than once for compensation.