Children Use Teachers' Beliefs About Their Abilities to Calibrate Explore-Exploit Decisions.

Models of the explore-exploit problem have explained how children's decision making is weighed by a bias for information (directed exploration), randomness, and generalization. These behaviors are often tested in domains where a choice to explore (or exploit) is guaranteed to reveal an outcome. An often overlooked but critical component of the assessment of explore-exploit decisions lies in the expected success of taking actions in the first place-and, crucially, how such decisions might be carried out when learning from others.

The impact of household pets on children's daily lives: Differences in parent-child conversations and implications for children's emotional development.

Living with a pet is related to a host of socioemotional health benefits for children, yet few studies have examined the mechanisms that drive the relations between pet ownership and positive socioemotional outcomes. The current study examined one of the ways that pets may change the environment through which children learn and whether childhood pet ownership might promote empathy and prosocial behavior through parent-child conversations about emotions and mental states in the presence of a pet dog. Participants included 123 parent (118 mothers, four fathers) and child (65 female, 58 male, = 39.

"It bites!": The transmission of negative information about snakes and spiders through a naturalistic picture book interaction.

Snakes and spiders are two of the most commonly feared animals worldwide, yet we know very little about the mechanisms by which such fears are acquired. We explored whether negative information about snakes and spiders from parents shapes children's fear beliefs. Study 1 included 27 parents (22 mothers, five fathers) and children (12 female, 15 male, = 5.