🚀What motivates children to persist through challenges? @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social looks back on her top 10 piece: “I hope readers connected personally with these questions: How do we figure out what is worth our effort? And how can we help children push through difficulties to reach their goals?”

Come check out the lab's work at CDS!

A new Teaching Current Directions highlights a paper from @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social and @reutshachnai.bsky.social and offers an opportunity to teach students about cutting‑edge research on #parenting. #Psychology #Teaching

I love my lab

5th year PhD student Brandon Carrillo got second place in the Yale 3 minute thesis competition! Congrats Brandon!!!

Are you attending @cogdevsoc.bsky.social 2026? Come join us for an afternoon pre-conference workshop on motivation in development! We'll bring together developmental, educational, and computational perspectives to ask: Can we build a unified account of motivation across the lifespan? ✨

💰Economic inequality is on the rise, and children will bear its burden. Yet children’s perspectives are rarely considered. We urgently need research to understand economic inequality from children's perspectives. (1/4) rdcu.be/e3Qlb

💥New paper alert! Dyadic Decisions About Effort: How Caregivers Shape Young Children’s Persistence (with @reutshachnai.bsky.social) One of my favorites! If you’re curious about what we’ve been up to in @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social, take a look! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Like a parent, AI can guide or smother. It's time to think about how we build this relationship. Check out my new essay with Brett Smith www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/deve...

Hiring a part-time Design & Research Associate! Details here: tinyurl.com/TangleDesign... Apply here: forms.gle/46twwHFJPKXx... What you'll do: ✨ Design prototypes for math activities 🔬 Coordinate experiments in education contexts 🤖 Explore AI tools, educational applications

I’ve been talking with the phenomenal NYTimes reporter @susandominus.bsky.social about my research since 2018, and her new book *The Family Dynamic* is finally out!

Thrilled to share our new @NatureComms paper: "Exploration is associated with socioeconomic disparities in learning and academic achievement in adolescence." www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵1/7

Is research, in fact, me-search? In the latest issue of @psychscience.bsky.social Observer, @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social and I go toe-to-toe on this age-old question.

The Learning Lab is heading to CogSci 2025 (@cogscisociety.bsky.social) to share our latest research! Come say hello!

Just 1 week left to apply! 🙏 Pls share with anyone you think might be interested. If there are any Q's, get in touch! 👉 3x PhD position: hmc-lab.com/ERC_PhDs.html 👉 2yr Postdoc position: hmc-lab.com/ERC_Postdoc....

Wirecutter crowned Ben & Jerry’s the best vanilla ice cream. I scoffed. Our lab managers Surya and Nat ran a blind taste test. Guess what won? Ben & Jerry’s. Science is brutal.

Amazing opportunity!!!!!!!

On 6/21, come to @amant-arts.bsky.social for the exhibition On Education and a screening of Baby Group by Emanuel Almborg — with commentary by me! A joyful blend of art and science, the film explores how a group of babies behave in the absence of adults. www.amant.org/programs/115...

Honored to win the 2025 APS Janet Taylor Spence Award! You can read more about my research and journey here www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...

New preprint! Despite ongoing efforts to combat gender bias in education, our work reveals a striking and under-explored challenge: By the time children enter elementary school, children already expect adults to hold gender stereotypes and approve when adults act on them. osf.io/preprints/ps...

@leonardlearnlab.bsky.social had a great time at @srcdorg.bsky.social

We just had our last lab meeting with @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social seniors. 🥺 Some of these folks have been in the lab for as long as I have! A true honor to work with these brilliant and wonderful people!

Check out our symposium on *parents' lay theories of cognitive development* at #SRCD2025! Ft. work by @reutshachnai.bsky.social, @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social, @dominicgibson.bsky.social, and yours truly, discussed by @andrewshtulman.bsky.social !

Come check out the lab's research at @srcdorg.bsky.social this week! @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social

Congrats to my first PhD student Dr Flora Zhang!!!!! Make sure to check out her amazing work on intuitive theories of acquisition (and why they matter) @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social

The platform I run, Children Helping Science, is supported almost entirely by US government science funding, both directly and in collaboration with CHS researchers. Here's the note we sent to users today - we need help gathering your stories and citations! Submit here: forms.gle/zFnzrVURntdZ...

So excited for @relbelluck.bsky.social to be joining the lab!!!!

Overparenting can hold kids back—but our research shows that framing tasks as learning opportunities helps parents step back and foster kids' independence! ✨ Read more in our latest Psychology Today piece: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/deve... @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social @mika-asaba.bsky.social

Overparenting is on the rise and hurts children’s motivation starting in early childhood. How can we help parents step back? Our new paper in Child Dev shows that pointing out learning opportunities reduces overparenting. srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

For decades, developmental psychologists have noticed that optimism declines with age. Why does this presumably good thing decrease across development? In this Nature Reviews Psych article, @jessicas.bsky.social and I draw from prior hypotheses to offer an integrated account.