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In Press

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Gelpi, R., Whalen, A., Griffiths, T., Xu, F. & Buchsbaum, D. (in press) Can children balance majority size with information quality in learning about preferences?  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (pdf)

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Croteau, J., Cheries, E. & Xu, F. (in press) The development of kind concepts: Insights from object individuation.  Psychological Review. (pdf)

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2024​

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Flanagan, T., Zhao, A., Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (2024) Is it personal or is it social? The interaction of knowledge domain and statistical evidence in U.S. and Chinese preschoolers' social generalizations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (pdf)

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Luchkina, E. & Xu, F. (2024) How does social contingency facilitate early vocabulary development? Developmental Science. (pdf)

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Alderete, S., Cao, A., Piantadosi, S. & Xu, F. (2024) The development of conceptual compositionality in children. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2024) Violations of core object principles change adults’ behaviors in maze games. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Tang, M., Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2024) Compositionality in Chinese characters: evidence from English-speaking children. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2023

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Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2023) Not all core knowledge systems are created equal, and they are subject to revision in children and adults. Commentary Spelke (2022), What babies know.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (pdf)

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Bramley, N. & Xu, F. (2023) Active inductive inference in children and adults: A constructivist perspective. Cognition.  DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105471(pdf)

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Foushee, R., Srinivasan, M. & Xu, F. (2023) Active learning in language development.Current Directions in Psychological Science, 32, 250-257. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214221123920 (pdf)

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Alderete, S. & Xu, F. (2023) Three-year-old children’s reasoning about possibilities. Cognition.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027723001063 (pdf)

 

Chai, K., Xu, F., Swaboda, N. & Ruggeri, A. (2023) Preschoolers’ information search strategies: inefficient but adaptive. Frontiers in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1080755. (pdf)

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Xu, F. (2023) Is core knowledge in the format of LOT?  Commentary on Quilty-Dunn, Porot & Mandelbaum, “The best game in town: the re-emergence of the language of thought hypothesis across the cognitive sciences,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (pdf)

 

Liu, R., Diesendruck, G. & Xu, F. (2023) Changing children’s intergroup biases and social stereotypes through statistical counterevidence. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

 

Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2023) Can adults revise their core beliefs about agents? Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

 

Finiasz, Z., Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (2023) Children’s cost-benefit analysis about agents who act for the greater good. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

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2022

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Luchkina, E. & Xu, F. (2022) From social contingency to verbal reference: a constructivist hypothesis. Psychological Review, 129, 890-909. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000320. (pdf)

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Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2022) Learning about others and learning from others: Bayesian probabilistic models of intuitive psychology and social learning. In J. Lockman (Ed.), Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 63 (pp. 309-343). Waltham, MA: Academic Press. (pdf)

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Shu, Y., Hu, Q., Xu, F. & Bian, L. (2022) Gender stereotypes are racialized: a cross-cultural investigation of gender stereotypes about intellectual talents. Developmental Psychology, 58, 1345-1359. (pdf)

Hirsh-Pasek, K., Christie, S., Masters, A., Gibbs, H., Evans, N., Fletcher, K., Pesch, A., Yang, H., Fan, W., Todaro, R., Golinkoff, R. & Xu, F. (2022) Where global science meets playful learning: implications for home, school, and city planning. White paper for the LEGO Foundation and Yidan Foundation. (pdf)

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Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2022) Can adults revise their core beliefs about objects? Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2021

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Foushee, R., Srinivasan, M. & Xu, F. (2021) Self-directed learning by preschoolers in a naturalistic overhearing context. Cognition, 206, 54-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104415

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Lewry, C., Curtis, K., Vasilyeva, N., Xu, F. & Griffiths, T. (2021) Intuitions about magic track the development of intuitive physics. Cognition, 214. (pdf)

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Fedyk, M. & Xu, F. (2021). Creativity as potentially valuable improbable constructions. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 11, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00343-4 (pdf)

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Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2021) Revising core beliefs in young children. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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Meng, Y. & Xu, F. (2021) Naive utility calculus underlies the reproduction of disparities in social groups. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2020

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O'Grady, S. & Xu, F. (2020) The development of non-symbolic probability judgments in children. Child Development, 91, 784-798. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13222 (pdf)

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Hoemann, K., Wu, R., LoBue, V., Oakes, L., Xu, F. & Barrett, L.F. (2020) Developing an understanding of emotion categories: lessons from objects. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24, 39-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.10.010 (pdf)

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Fedyk, M. & Xu. F. (2020) The metaphysics of the development of the cognitive system: Why the brain cannot replace the mind. In A. Lerner, S. Cullen and S. Leslie (Eds.) Controversies in Philosophy of Cognitive Science (pp. 63-82).  Taylor & Francis / Routledge. (pdf)

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Fedyk, M. & Xu, F. (2020) The productive mind: creativity as a source of abstract mental representations. Commentary on Gilead et al. “Above and beyond the concrete: The diverse representational substrates of the predictive brain.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences. (pdf)

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Liu, R., Diesendruck, G. & Xu, F. (2020) Group- and individual-level information affects children’s playmate choice. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2020) Feeling of competence affects children’s curiosity and creativity. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Meng, Y. & Xu, F. (2020) How do disparities reproduce themselves? Ground truth inference from utility-maximizing agent’s sampling behavior. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Luchkina, E., Xu, F., Sobel, D. & Morgan, J. (2020) Sixteen-month-olds comprehend unanchored absent reference. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2019

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Xu, F. (2019) Towards a rational constructivist theory of cognitive development. Psychological Review, 126, 841-864. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000153 (pdf)

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Denison, S. & Xu, F. (2019) Infant statisticians: The origins of reasoning under uncertainty. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14, 499-509. (pdf)

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Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2019) Another look at looking time: surprise as rational statistical inference. Topics in Cognitive Science, 11, 154-163. (pdf)

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Ruggeri, A., Markant, D., Gureckis, T., Bretzke, M., & Xu, F. (2019) Memory enhancements from active control of learning emerge across development. Cognition, 186, 82-94. (pdf)

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Hoemann, K., Xu, F. & Barrett, L. (2019) Emotion words, emotion concepts, and emotional development in children: A constructionist hypothesis. Developmental Psychology, 55, 1830-1849. (pdf​)

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Ruggeri, A., Xu, F. & Lombrozo, T. (2019) Effects of explanation on children's question asking. Cognition, 191. (pdf)

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Fedyk, M., Kushnir, T. & Xu, F. (2019) Intuitive epistemology: children’s theory of evidence. In D. Wilkenfeld and R. Samuels (Eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Science (pp. 122-143). New York: Bloomsbury Academic Publishing. (pdf)

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O'Grady, S., Saxe, G. & Xu, F. (2019) Learning the proportional nature of probability from feedback. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2495-2501). Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Meng, Y. & Xu, F. (2019) Leveraging thinking to facilitate causal learning from intervention. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freksa (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2338-2344). Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2018

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Fedyk, M. & Xu, F. (2018) The epistemology of rational constructivism. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 9, 343-362. (pdf)

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Yu, Y., Shafto, P., Bonawitz, E., Yang, S., Golinkoff, R.M., Corriveau, K., Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Xu, F. (2018) The theoretical and methodological opportunities afforded by guided play with young children. Frontiers in Psychology, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01152 (pdf)

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Ruggeri, A., Vagharchakian, L. & Xu, F. (2018) Icon arrays help younger children's proportional reasoning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 36, 313-333. (pdf)

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O'Grady, S. & Xu, F. (2018)  Whole number bias in children’s probability judgments. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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Meng, Y., Bramley, N. & Xu, F. (2018) Children’s causal interventions combine discrimination and confirmation. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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Bramley, N., Rothe, A., Tenenbaum, J.B., Xu, F. & Gureckis, T.M. (2018)  Grounding compositional hypothesis generation in specific instances. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2017

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Ruggeri, A.*, Sim Z.L.* & Xu, F. (2017) "Why is Toma late to school again?" Preschoolers identify the most information questions. Developmental Psychology, 53, 1620-1632. (Ruggeri and Sim are joint first authors.) (pdf)

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Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2017) Infants preferentially approach and explore the unexpected. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 35, 596-608. (pdf)

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Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2017) Learning higher-order generalizations through free play: evidence from two- and three-year-old children. Developmental Psychology 53, 642-651. (pdf)

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Meng, Y., Griffiths, T. & Xu, F. (2017) Inferring intentional agents from violation of randomness. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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Sim, Z., Mahal, K. & Xu, F. (2017) Learning about causal systems through play. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2016

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Wellman, H., Kushnir, T., Xu, F. & Brink, K. (2016) Infants use statistical sampling to understand the psychological world. Infancy, 21, 668-676. (pdf)

Markant, D., Ruggeri, A., Gureckis, T. & Xu, F. (2016) Enhanced memory as a common mechanism underlying active learning. Mind, Brain, and Education, 10, 142-152. (pdf)

 

Ruggeri, A., Lombrozo, T., Griffiths, T.L. & Xu, F. (2016) Sources of developmental change in the efficiency of information search. Developmental Psychology, 52, 2159-2173. (pdf​)

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Xu, F. (2016) Preliminary thoughts on a rational constructivist approach to cognitive development: primitives, symbols, learning, and thinking.  In D. Barner & A.S. Baron (Eds.), Core knowledge and concept change. Oxford University Press. (pdf)

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Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2016) Probability prediction in children with ASD. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Walin, H., O’Grady, S., & Xu, F. (2016) Curiosity and its influence on children’s memory. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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Ruggeri, A., Markant, D., Gureckis, T. & Xu, F. (2016) Active control of study leads to improved recognition memory in children. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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O’Grady, S., Griffiths, T. & Xu, F. (2016) Does ANS acuity influence judgments of probability based on proportion? Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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Foushee, R. & Xu, F. (2016) Active overhearing. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)​

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2015

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Diesendruck, G., Salzer, S., Kushnir, T. & Xu, F. (2015) When choices aren't personal: The effect of statistical and social cues on children's inferences about the scope of preferences. Journal of Cognition and Development, 16, 370-380. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2013.848870 (pdf)

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Hu, J. Lucas, C., Griffiths, T. & Xu, F. (2015) Preschoolers’ Understanding of Graded Preferences. Cognitive Development 36, 93-102. (pdf)

 

Hu, J., Whalen, A., Buchsbaum, D., Griffiths, T.L. & Xu, F. (2015) Can children balance the size of a majority with the quality of their information? Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Lieder, F., Sim, Z., Hu, J., Griffiths, T.L. & Xu, F. (2015) Children and adults differ in their strategies for social learning. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Ruggeri, A., Lombrozo, T., Griffiths, T.L. & Xu, F. (2015) Children search for information as efficiently as adults, but seek additional confirmatory evidence. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2015)  Toddlers learn from facilitated play, not free play. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

 

Sim, Z., Tanner, M., Alpert, N., & Xu, F. (2015) Children learn better when they select their own data. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2014

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Denison, S. & Xu, F. (2014) The Origins of Probabilistic Inference in Human Infants. Cognition 130, 335-347. (pdf)

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Denison, S., Trikutam, P., & Xu, F. (2014)  Probability versus representativeness in infancy: Can infants use naïve physics to adjust population base rates in probabilistic inference? Developmental Psychology 50, 2009-2019. (pdf)

 

Lucas, C., Griffiths, T., Xu, F., Fawcett, C., Gopnik, A., Kushnir, T., Markson, L., & Hu, J. (2014) The child as econometrician: A rational model of preference understanding in children. PLoS ONE, 9(3):e92160. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0092160. (pdf)

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Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2014)  Acquiring inductive constraints from self-generated evidence. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2013

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Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (2013) Infants are rational constructive learners. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 28-32. (pdf)

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Denison, S., Reed, C. & Xu, F. (2013) The emergence of probabilistic reasoning in very young infants: evidence from 4.5- and 6-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 49, 243-249. (pdf)

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Ma, L. & Xu, F. (2013) Preverbal Infants Infer Intentional Agents From the Perception of Regularity. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1330-1337. (pdf)

 

Hu, J., Buchsbaum, D., Griffiths, T. & Xu, F. (2013) When does the majority rule? Preschoolers’ trust in majority informants varies by task domain. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2013) Infants' early understanding of coincidences. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)

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2012

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Karmiloff-Smith, A., D’Souzaa, D., Dekkera, T.M.,  Van Herwegenb, J., Xu, F., Rodica, M., & Ansari, D., (2012) Genetic and environmental vulnerabilities in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 17261-17265. (pdf)

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Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (Eds.) (2012) Rational Constructivism in Cognitive Development. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 43. Waltham, MA: Academic Press. (pdf)

 

Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (2012) What is rational constructivism?  In F.Xu and T. Kushnir (Eds.), Rational constructivism in cognitive development. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 43.  Academic Press.

 

Denison, S. & Xu, F. (2012) Probabilistic inference in human infants. In F. Xu and T. Kushnir (eds.), Rational constructivism in cognitive development. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 43. Waltham, MA: Academic Press. (pdf)

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2011

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Xu, F. & Griffiths, T.L. (2011) Probabilistic models of cognitive development: Towards a rational constructivist approach to the study of learning and development. Cognition 120, 299-301. (Introduction to the special issue "Probabilistic models of cognitive development"). (pdf)

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Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B., Griffiths, T., & Xu, F. (2011) A tutorial introduction to Bayesian models of cognitive development. Cognition 120, 302-321. (pdf)

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Ma, L. & Xu, F. (2011) Young children’s use of statistical sampling evidence to infer the subjectivity of preferences. Cognition 120, 403-411. (pdf)

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Xu, F. (2011) Rational constructivism, statistical inference, and core cognition (BBS commentary on Carey (2009)). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34(3), 151. (pdf)

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Denison, S., Reed, C., & Xu, F. (2011) The emergence of probabilistic reasoning in very young infants. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 441-446).

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Yuan, S., Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B., & Xu, F. (2011) Learning individual words and learning about words simultaneously. Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3280-3285). (pdf)

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Sim, Z., Yuan, S. & Xu, F. (2011) Acquiring word learning biases. Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 2544-2549). (pdf)

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2010

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Kushnir, T., Xu, F. & Wellman, H. (2010) Young children use statistical sampling to infer the preferences of others. Psychological Science, 21, 1134-1140. (pdf)

 

Denison, S. & Xu, F. (2010) Twelve- to 14-month-old infants can predict single-event probability with large set sizes. Developmental Science, 13, 798-803. (pdf)

 

Denison, S. & Xu, F. (2010) Integrating physical constraints in statistical inference by 11-month-old infants. Cognitive Science, 34, 885-908. (pdf)

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Dewar, K. & Xu, F. (2010) Induction, overhypothesis, and the origin of abstract knowledge: evidence from 9-month-old infants. Psychological Science, 21, 1871-1877. (pdf)
 

2009

Xu, F. & Denison, S. (2009) Statistical inference and sensitivity to sampling in 11-month-old infants. Cognition, 112, 97-104. (pdf)

Xu, F., Dewar, K. & Perfors, A. (2009) Induction, overhypotheses, and the shape bias: Some arguments and evidence for rational constructivism.   In B. M. Hood and L. Santos (Eds.), The origins of object knowledge (pp. 263-284). Oxford University Press. (pdf)
 

2008

Lucas, C., Griffiths, T., Xu, F. & Fawcett, C. (2008) A rational model of preference learning and choice prediction by children. Proceedings of the 22 nd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems. (pdf)

Xu, F. & Garcia, V. (2008) Intuitive statistics by 8-month-old infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105, 5012-5015. (pdf)

 

2007

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Xu, F. & Tenenbaum, J.B. (2007) Word learning as Bayesian inference. Psychological Review, 114, 245-272. (pdf)

 

Xu, F. & Tenenbaum, J.B. (2007) Sensitivity to sampling in Bayesian word learning. Developmental Science, 10, 288-297. (pdf)

 

Xu, F. (2007) Rational statistical inference and cognitive development. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (eds.), The innate mind: foundations and the future (Vol. 3) (pp. 199-215). Oxford University Press. (pdf)
 

2006

Denison, S., Konopczynski, K., Garcia, V., & Xu, F. (2006) Probabilistic reasoning in preschoolers: random sampling and base rate. In R. Sun and N. Miyake (eds.), Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1216-1221). (pdf)

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