Students reveal a variety of alternative conceptions that are substantially different from the
scientifically accepted explanations for a multitude of science concepts. A rich literature …

In this article, the main studies on the development of conditions underlying achievement
motivation are revised, conditions such as: the perception of outcomes as successes or …

Analyses of naive causal explanations have a long and venerable history in both social and
developmental psychology (Heider, 1944; Piaget, 1930). Heider (1944) postulated that any …

Causal reasoning is the core and basis of cognition about the objective world. This
experiment studied the development of causal reasoning in 86 3.5–4.5-year-olds using a …

The temporal priority principle states that all causes must precede their effects. It is widely
assumed that children's causal reasoning is guided by this principle from early in …

Early developmental changes in children's understanding of causality were examined in 2
studies of 3-and 5-year-olds' causal judgments. In both studies, children were asked to …

People relish thinking about coincidences—we puzzle over their meanings and delight in
conveying our experiences of them to others. But whereas some research has begun to …

The scheme for multiple sufficient causes implies that either of 2 causes is sufficient to
produce an effect. Given information that an effect has occurred and that 1 possible cause is …

This study investigated causal and moral reasoning in children 5, 7, 9, and 11 years old. The
first of two experiments looked at judgements of causality, responsibility, and punishment as …

Young children distinguish between the physical and biological domains of knowledge. The
current study examines how this distinction is expressed in a story construction task. Three …