Check out some of our published work below. But, please do not distribute without permission. PDFs have only been provided as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly work. Copyrights are maintained.

2024

Price, K., DeJesus, J. M., & Nancekivell, S. E. (2024). She made it with her friend: How social object history influences children’s thinking about the value of digital objects. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14093

2023

Sun, X., Norton, O., & Nancekivell, S.E. (2023) Beware the myth: Learning style information affects parents’, children’s, and teachers’ thinking about student potential. npj: Science of Learning. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-023-00190-x

Sun, X., Nancekivell, S. E., Shah, P. & Gelman, S.A. (2023). Language essentialism: What it is and how it relates to educational myths and policy endorsements. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 8 (1), 1-15.

Nancekivell S.E. & Blake, P.R., (2023) Introduction to the Special Issue: Mapping Development of our Social-Cognition of Resources. Cognitive Development.

Nancekivell, S.E., Davidson, N. S., Noles, N., & Gelman, S. A. (2023) Preliminary evidence for progressions in ownership reasoning over the preschool period. Developmental Psychology. Preprint

Nancekivell, S.E., & Pesowski, M.L., (2023) Ownership as an extension of self: An alternative to a minimalist model. Commentary on Boyer in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Preprint

Nancekivell, S.E., Davidson, N. S., Noles, N., & Gelman, S. A. (2023) “She should get her own cat”: Parent-child conversations about ownership and sharing. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 63, 434-445.

2022

Nancekivell, S.E., Farrow, T., & Maurer, B.A., (2022) Who is a thinker? With age, American higher SES children increasingly associate social status with divisions in labor. Infant and Child Development, e2379.

Nancekivell, S.E. & Fahey, J. (2022). Who owns your information? Young children’s judgments of who owns the general and personal information users share with apps. In J. Culberston, A. Perfors, H. Rabagliati, & V. Ramenzoni (Eds.), Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

Pesowski, M.L., Nancekivell, S.E., Tasimi, A., & Friedman, O. (2022) Ownership and value in childhood. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 4, 161-183.

Weatherhead, D.W., Nancekivell, S.E., & Baron, A.S. (2022). Wearing your knowledge on your sleeve: Young children’s reasoning about clothing as a marker of group-specific knowledge. Cognitive Development, 62, 101177

Nancekivell, S.E. & Maurer, B.A., (2022) When does ownership matter?: Parents’ reasoning about children’s conflicts over their possessions. Social Development, 31, 1157-1175.

Attisano, E., Nancekivell, S.E., Tran, S. & Denison, S. (2022). “So, what is it?” Examining parent-child interactions with artifacts in a museum. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 60, 187-200. Pre-print

2021

Nancekivell, S.E., Sun, X., Gelman, S.A. & Shah, P. (2021). A slippery myth: How learning style beliefs shape reasoning about multimodal instruction and related scientific evidence. Cognitive Science, e13047.

Sun, X., Nancekivell, S.E., Gelman, S.A. & Shah, P. (2021). Growth mindset and academic outcomes: A comparison of US and Chinese students. npj: Science of Learning.

Attisano, E., Nancekivell, S.E., & Denison, S. (2021). Components and mechanisms: How children talk about machines in museum exhibits. Frontiers in Psychology: Special Topic Cognitive Development in Informal Learning Institutions.

Sun, X., Nancekivell, S. E., Gelman, S.A. & Shah, P., (2021). Perceptions of the malleability of fluid and crystallized intelligence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(5), 815–827.

2020

Nancekivell, S.E., Ho, V., & Denison, S., (2020) Who knows what? Preschoolers appreciate the link between ownership and knowledge. Developmental Psychology, 56, 880-887.

Nancekivell, S.E., Denison, S., & Friedman, O. (2020). Preschoolers recognize that losses loom larger than gains. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.

Nancekivell, S.E., Shah, P., & Gelman, S.A. (2020). Maybe they’re born with it or maybe it’s experience: Towards a deeper understanding of the learning style myth. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112, 221-235.

Nancekivell, S. E. & Friedman, O. (2020). I owe you an explanation: Children’s beliefs about when people are obligated to explain their actions. In T. Lombrozo, J. Knobe, & S. Nichols (Eds.), Oxford studies in experimental philosophy (Vol. 3). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2019

Nancekivell, S.E., Friedman, O., & Gelman, S.A. (2019). Ownership Matters: People possess a naive theory of ownership. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23, 102-113.

2018

Nancekivell, S.E., & Friedman, O. (2018). Spoiled for choice: Identifying the building blocks of folk-economic beliefs. Commentary on Boyer and Peterson in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Weatherhead, D.W., & Nancekivell, S.E. (2018). Brungarians use it differently! Children’s understanding of artifact function as a cultural convention. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 18, 89-103.

2017

Nancekivell, S.E., & Friedman, O. (2017). She bought the unicorn from the pet store: Six-to-seven-year-olds are strongly inclined to generate natural explanations. Developmental Psychology, 53, 1079-1087.

Nancekivell, S.E., & Friedman, O. (2017). “Because it’s hers”: When preschoolers use ownership in their explanations. Cognitive Science, 41, 827-843.

2016

Nancekivell, S.E., Millar, J.C., Summers, P.C., & Friedman, O. (2016). Ownership rights. In J. Sytsma & J.W. Buckwalter (Eds.). A Companion to Experimental Philosophy. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

2014

Nancekivell, S.E., & Friedman O. (2014). Mine, yours, no-one's: Children’s understanding of how ownership affects object use. Developmental Psychology, 50, 1845-1853.

Nancekivell, S.E., & Friedman, O. (2014). Preschoolers selectively infer history when explaining outcomes: Evidence from explanations of ownership, liking, and use. Child Development, 85, 1236-1247.

2013

Nancekivell, S.E., Van de Vondervoort, J.W., & Friedman, O. (2013). Young children’s understanding of ownership. Child Development Perspectives, 7, 243-247.

Technical Reports

This is work we have produced for our community partners about informal learning. PDFs are for personal use only. Please do not distribute without permission. This work was created with and for our partners.

Attisano, E., Nancekivell, S.E., & Denison, S. (November, 2020) How Children Talk About Machines at the Waterloo Region Museum. Report prepared for the Waterloo Region Museum, Region of Waterloo.

Attisano, E., Tran, S, Nancekivell, S.E., & Denison, S. (April, 2020) Discussions about Artifacts at the Waterloo Region Museum. Report prepared for the Waterloo Region Museum, Region of Waterloo.

Ho, V., Attisano, E., Nancekivell, S.E., & Denison, S. (February, 2019) Day in the Life: Waterloo Region Museum. Report prepared for the Waterloo Region Museum, Region of Waterloo.