Publications
Please Note: These electronic articles are posted for individual, noncommercial use to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly work. They are intended for teaching and training purposes only. Articles may not be reposted or disseminated without permission by the copyright holder. Copyright holders retain all rights as indicated within each article.
2024
Flanagan, T., Zhao, A., Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (in press) 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.
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.
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.
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.
2023
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)
Bramley, N. & Xu, F. (2023) Active inductive inference in children and adults: A constructivist perspective. Cognition. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105471(pdf)
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)
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)
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.
2022
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)
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)
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)
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)
2021
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
Lewry, C., Curtis, K., Vasilyeva, N., Xu, F. & Griffiths, T. (2021) Intuitions about magic track the development of intuitive physics. Cognition, 214. (pdf)
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)
Liu, R. & Xu, F. (2021) Revising core beliefs in young children. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)
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)
2020
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
2019
Xu, F. (2019) Towards a rational constructivist theory of cognitive development. Psychological Review, 126, 841-864. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000153 (pdf)
Denison, S. & Xu, F. (2019) Infant statisticians: The origins of reasoning under uncertainty. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14, 499-509. (pdf)
Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2019) Another look at looking time: surprise as rational statistical inference. Topics in Cognitive Science, 11, 154-163. (pdf)
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)
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)
Ruggeri, A., Xu, F. & Lombrozo, T. (2019) Effects of explanation on children's question asking. Cognition, 191. (pdf)
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)
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)
2018
Fedyk, M. & Xu, F. (2018) The epistemology of rational constructivism. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 9, 343-362. (pdf)
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)
Ruggeri, A., Vagharchakian, L. & Xu, F. (2018) Icon arrays help younger children's proportional reasoning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 36, 313-333. (pdf)
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)
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)
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)
2017
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)
Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2017) Infants preferentially approach and explore the unexpected. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 35, 596-608. (pdf)
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)
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)
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)
2016
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Foushee, R. & Xu, F. (2016) Active overhearing. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)
2015
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)
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)
2014
Denison, S. & Xu, F. (2014) The Origins of Probabilistic Inference in Human Infants. Cognition 130, 335-347. (pdf)
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)
Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2014) Acquiring inductive constraints from self-generated evidence. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)
2013
Xu, F. & Kushnir, T. (2013) Infants are rational constructive learners. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 28-32. (pdf)
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)
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)
Sim, Z. & Xu, F. (2013) Infants' early understanding of coincidences. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pdf)
2012
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)
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)
2011
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)
Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J.B., Griffiths, T., & Xu, F. (2011) A tutorial introduction to Bayesian models of cognitive development. Cognition 120, 302-321. (pdf)
Ma, L. & Xu, F. (2011) Young children’s use of statistical sampling evidence to infer the subjectivity of preferences. Cognition 120, 403-411. (pdf)
Xu, F. (2011) Rational constructivism, statistical inference, and core cognition (BBS commentary on Carey (2009)). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34(3), 151. (pdf)
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).
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)
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)
2010
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)
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
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)