Publications

Books and Edited Journal Issues

• Redshaw, J. & Ganea P. A. (Eds.) (2022). Thinking about possibilities: Mechanisms, ontogeny, functions, and phylogeny. Co-editor of peer-reviewed themed issue in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 377.

• Saylor, M. M. & Ganea, P. A. (Eds.) (2018). Active Learning from Infancy to Childhood: Social Motivation, Cognition, and Linguistic Mechanisms. Springer International. New York, NY.
  

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Journal Articles

2024

• Venkadasalam, V. P., Larsen, N. E., & Ganea, P. A. (2024). Promoting scientific understanding and conceptual change in young children using explanations and guidance. Developmental Psychology, 60, 729–746. DOI: 10.1037/dev0001672

2023

• Borairi S., Ozdemir B., Jenkins J., Shah P. S., Kingdom J., Ganea P. A. (2023) A follow up investigation of placental pathology, responsive parenting, and preschool children’s executive functioning and language development. Child Neuropsychology: Journal on Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence. 1-18. PMID 37811813. DOI: 10.1080/09297049.2023.2264535 

• Nyhout, A., Sweatman, H., & Ganea, P. A. (2023). Children’s hypothetical reasoning about complex and dynamic systems. Child Development, 00, 1-16. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13931

2022

• Redshaw, J. & Ganea. P. A. (2022). Thinking about possibilities: Mechanisms, ontogeny, functions, and phylogeny. Introduction to themed issue in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 377: 20210333.

• Grigoroglou, M., & Ganea, P. A. (2022). Language as a mechanism for reasoning about possibilities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 377: 20210334.

• Venkadasalam, V., Jenkins, J., Ganea, P. A., & Wade, M. (2022). Linking early maternal input during shared reading to later theory of mind through receptive language and executive function: A within- and between-family design. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 223, 105469.

• Lee, R., Chambers, C. G., Huettig, F., & Ganea, P. A. (2022). Children’s and adults’ use of fictional discourse and semantic knowledge for prediction in language processing. PLOS ONE.

• Nyhout, A., & Ganea, P. A. (2022). Learning science concepts through prompts to consider alternative possible worlds. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 222, 105466.

2021

• Strouse, G. A., and Ganea, P. A. (2021).  Learning to learn from video? 30-month-olds benefit from continued use of supportive scaffolding. In Digital Media and Children under 3 Years of Age. Vol. 64, 101574. Infant Behavior and Development, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101574

• Ganea, P. A., Larsen, N., & Venkadasalam, V. (2021). The role of alternative theories and anomalous evidence in children’s scientific belief revision. Child Development, 92(3), 1137-1153.

• Strouse, G. A. & Ganea, P. A. (2021). The effect of object similarity and alignment of examples on children’s learning and transfer from picture books. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 203, 105041.   

2020

• Larsen, N. E., Venkadasalam, V. P., & Ganea, P. A. (2020). Prompting children’s belief revision about balance through primary and secondary sources of evidence. Frontiers in Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01503

• Özdemir, B. & Ganea, P.A. (2020). Variability in toddlers’ ability to verbally update their mental representations of absent objects.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104843

• Nyhout, A. & Ganea, P. A. (2020). What is and what never should have been: Children’s causal and counterfactual judgments about the same events. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104773

2019

• Nyhout, A. & Ganea, P. A. (2019). The development of the counterfactual imagination. Child Development Perspectives. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12348

• Nyhout, A., Henke, L., & Ganea, P. A. (2019). Children’s counterfactual reasoning about causally overdetermined events. Child Development, 90, 610-622. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12913

• Larsen, N.E., Venkadasalam, V.P., & Ganea, P.A. (2019). Without Conceptual Information Children Miss the Boat: Examining the role of Explanations and Anomalous Evidence in Scientific Belief Revision. In A. Goel, C. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, CA: Cognitive Science Society.

• Nyhout, A., Iannuzziello, A., Walker, C.M., & Ganea, P.A. (2019). Thinking counterfactually supports children’s ability to conduct  a controlled test of a hypothesis. In A. Goel, C. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, CA: Cognitive Science Society.

• Grigoroglou, M., Chan, S., & Ganea, P. A. (2019). Toddlers’ understanding and use of verbal negation in inferential reasoning search tasks. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 183, 222-241, doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.02.004

• Nyhout, A. & Ganea, P. A. (2019). Mature counterfactual reasoning in 4- and 5-year olds. Cognition, 183, 57-66. doi: 10.1016/jcognition.2018.10.027

2018

• Fitch, A., Valadez, A., Ganea, P. A., Carter, A. S., & Kaldy, Z. (2018). Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder can use language to update their expectations about the world. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-3706-7

• Osina, M. A., Saylor, M. M., & Ganea, P. A. (2018). Infants use category label knowledge to interpret absent reference. Infancy, 1-24, doi: 10.1111/infa.12241

• Strouse, G. A., Nyhout, A., & Ganea, P. A. (​2018). The role of book features in young children’s transfer of information from picture books to real-world contexts. Frontiers in Psychology, 9:50.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00050

• Wade, M., Jenkins, J. M., Venkadasalam, V., Binnoon-Erez, N., & Ganea, P. A. (​2018). The role of maternal responsiveness and linguistic input in pre-academic skill development: A longitudinal analysis of pathways. ​​Cognitive Development. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.01.005

• Venkadasalam, V. P. & Ganea, P. A. (2018). Do objects of different weight fall at the same time? Updating naive beliefs about free falling objects from fictional and informational books in young children.  Journal of Cognition and Development. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2018.1436058

2017

• Larsen, N. E., Lee, K., & Ganea, P. A. (2017). Do storybooks with anthropomorphized animal characters promote prosocial behaviours in young children? Developmental Science, doi: 10.1111/desc.12590

• Lee, R., Chambers, C. G., Huettig, F., & Ganea, P. A. (2017). Children’s semantic and world knowledge overrides fictional information during anticipatory language processing. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39^thAnnual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

• Strouse, G. A., & Ganea, P. A. (2017). A print book preference: Caregivers report higher child enjoyment and more adult-child interactions when reading print than electronic books. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 12, 8-15. doi: 0.1016/j.ijcci.2017.02.001

• Strouse, G. A. &  Ganea, P. A (2017). Are prompts provided by electronic books as effective for teaching preschoolers a biological concept as those provided by adults? In Marshall, J. P. & Brenneman, K. (Eds.), Young Children’s Developing Understanding of the Biological World. Routledge, London, UK.

• Strouse, G. A., & Ganea, P. A. (2017). Parent-toddler behavior and language differ when reading electronic and print picture books. Frontiers in Psychology, 8:677.doi: 10.3389/ fpsyg.2017.00677

• Strouse, G. A., & Ganea, P. A. (2017). Toddlers’ word learning and transfer from electronic and print books.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 156, 129-142. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.12.001 0022-0965

2016

• Galazka, M. A., Gredebäck, G., & Ganea, P. A. (2016). Mapping language to the mind: Toddlers’ online processing of language as a reflection of speaker’s knowledge and ignorance. Cognitive Development, 40, 1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2016.07.003 0885-2014

• Ganea, P. A., Fitch, A., Harris, P. L., & Kaldy, Z. (2016). Sixteen-month-olds can use language to update their expectations about the visual world. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 151, 65-76. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.12.005 0022-0965

• Osina, M., Saylor, M., & Ganea, P. A. (2016). Out of reach, out of mind? Infants’ comprehension of references to hidden inaccessible objects. Child Development. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12656

• Saylor, M. M., Osina, M., Tassin, T., Rose, R., & Ganea, P. A. (2016). Creature feature: preschoolers use verbal descriptions to identify referents.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2016.07.005

• Strouse, G. A., & Ganea, P. A. (2016). Are prompts provided by electronic books as effective for teaching preschoolers a biological concept as those provided by adults? Early Education and Development, 8, 1190-1204. Special Issue: Young Children’s Developing Understanding of the Biological World. doi: 10.1080/10409289.2016.1210457

2014

• Canfield, C. F., Saudino, K. J., & Ganea, P. A. (2014). The role of temperament in children’s reliance on others as sources of information. Infant and Child Development. doi: 10.1002/icd.1892

• Canfield, C.F. & Ganea, P. A. (2014). ‘You could call it magic’: What parents and siblings tell preschoolers about unobservable entities. Journal of Cognition and Development, 5(2), 269-286. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2013.777841

• Galazka, M.A., & Ganea, P. A. (2014). The role of representational strength in verbal updating: Evidence from 19- and 24-month-olds. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 121, 156-168. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.12.002 0022-0965

• Ganea P. A., Canfield, C. F., Simons-Ghafari, K., & Chou, T. (2014). Do cavies talk?: The effect of anthropomorphic books on children’s knowledge about animals. Front. Psychol. 5:283. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283

• Keates, J., Graham, S., & Ganea, P. A. (2014). Infants transfer nonobvious properties from pictures to real-world objects. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 125, 35-47. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2014.02.003

• Kelemen, D., Emmons, N. A., Seston Schillaci, R., & Ganea, P.A. (2014). Young children can be taught basic natural selection using a picture-storybook intervention. Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/0956797613516009

• Khu, M., Graham, S.A., & Ganea, P.A., (2014). Learning from picture books: Infants’ use of naming information. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:144. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00144

• Walker, C., Gopnik, A., & Ganea, P. A. (2014). Learning to learn from stories: children’s developing sensitivity to the causal structure of fictional worlds. Child Development, 00(0), 1-9. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12287

2013

• Ganea, P. A. & Saylor, M. M. (2013). Representational constraints on language development: Thinking and learning about absent things. Child Development Perspectives. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12045

• Ganea, P. A. & Saylor M. M. (2013). Talking about the near and dear: Infants’ comprehension of displaced speech. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1299-1307. doi: 10.1037/a0030086

• Osina, M. A., Saylor, M. M. and Ganea, P. A. (2013), Object locations, identity and absent reference understanding at 12 Months.  Infancy, 19(1), 65-81. doi: 10.1111/infa.12031

• Osina, M. A., Saylor, M. M., & Ganea, P. A. (2013). When familiar is not better: 12-month-old infants respond to talk about absent objects. Developmental Psychology, 49, 138-145. doi: 10.1037/a0027903

2012

• Blake, P., Ganea, P. A., & Harris, P. L. (2012). Possession is not always the law: With age, preschoolers increasingly use verbal information to identify who owns what. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 113, 259-272. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2012.06.008

• Ganea, P. A. & Harris, P. H. (2012). Early limits on the verbal updating of an object’s location. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114, 89-101. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2012.04.013

• Walker, C. M., Ganea, P. A., Gopnik, A. (2012). Children’s causal learning from fiction: Assessing the proximity between real and fictional worlds. In N. Miyake, D. Peebles, & R. P. Cooper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, pp. 1108 – 1113.  Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. 

• Walker, C., Walker. L., & Ganea, P. A. (2012). The role of symbol-based experience in early learning and transfer from pictures- Evidence from Tanzania. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1315-1324. doi: 10.1037/a0029483

2011

• Ganea, P. A., Koenig, M. M., & Gordon-Millet, K. (2011). Changing your mind about things unseen: Toddlers’ sensitivity to prior reliability. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109, 445-453. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.011

• Ganea, P. A., Ma, L., & DeLoache, J. S. (2011). Young children’s learning and transfer of biological information from picture books to real animals. Child Development, 82, 1421-1433. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01612.x

• Saylor, M. M., Ganea, P. A., & Vasquez, M. D. (2011). What’s mine is mine: Twelve month-olds use possessive pronouns to identify referents. Developmental Science, 14, 859-864.  doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01034.x

2010

• Ganea, P. A. & Harris, P. L. (2010). Not doing what you are told: Early perseverative errors in updating mental representations via language. Child Development, 81, 457-463. doi: 0009-3920/2010/8102-0003

• Ma, L. & Ganea, P. A. (2010). Dealing with conflicting information: Young children’s reliance on what they see versus what they are told. Developmental Science, 13, 151-160. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00878.x

• Tare, M., Chiong, C., Ganea, P. A., & DeLoache, J. S. (2010). Less is more: The effect of manipulative features on children’s learning from picture books. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2010.06.005

2009

• Ganea, P. A., Allen, M., Butler, L., Carey, S. & DeLoache, J. S. (2009). Toddlers’ referential understanding of pictures. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 283-295. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2009.05.008

2008

• Ganea, P. A., Bloom-Pickard, M. & DeLoache, J. S. (2008). Transfer between picture books and the real world by very young children. Journal of Cognition and Development, 9, 46-66. doi: 10.1080/15248370701836592

2007

• Ganea, P. A., & Saylor, M. M. (2007). Infants’ use of shared linguistic information to clarify ambiguous requests. Child Development, 78(2), 493-502. doi: 0009-3920/2007/7802-0009

• Ganea, P. A., Shutts, K., Spelke, E., & DeLoache, J, S. (2007). Thinking of things unseen: Infants’ use of language to update object representations. Psychological Science, 18(8), 734-739.

• Saylor, M. M., & Ganea, P. A. (2007). Infants interpret ambiguous requests for absent objects. Developmental Psychology, 43(3), 696-704. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.43.3.696

2005

• Ganea, P. A. (2005). Contextual factors affect absent reference comprehension in 14-month olds. Child Development, 76(5), 989-998. doi: 0009-3920/2005/7605-0004

2004

• Ganea, P. A., Lillard, A. S., Turkheimer, E. (2004). Preschooler’s understanding of the role of mental states and action in pretense. Journal of Cognition and Development, 5, 213-238.
  
  

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Book Chapters

• Nyhout, A. & Ganea, P. A (2021). Scientific reasoning and counterfactual reasoning in development. Chapter in Lockman, J. (Eds). Advances in Child Development and Behavior. Academic Press Cambridge MA.

• Saylor, M. M. & Ganea, P. A. (2018). How Children Propel their Development. Chapter in Saylor, M. M. & Ganea, P.  A. (Eds). Active Learning from Infancy to Childhood: Social Motivation, Cognition, and Linguistic Mechanisms. Springer International New York, NY.

• Nyhout, A. & Ganea, P. A. (2018). Symbolic representation. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development.

• Strouse, G. A. &  Ganea, P. A (2017). Are prompts provided by electronic books as effective for teaching preschoolers a biological concept as those provided by adults? In Marshall, J. P. & Brenneman, K. (Eds.), Young Children’s Developing Understanding of the Biological World. Routledge, London, UK.

• Ganea, P. A., & Canfield, C. (2015). Learning from picture books: From infancy to early school days. In B. Kummerling-Meibauer, J. Meibauer, K. Nachtigaller, & K. Rohlfing (Eds.), Learning from picturebooks: New perspectives in child development and literacy studies. New York: Routledge.

• DeLoache, J. S. & Ganea, P. A. (2009). Symbol-based learning in infancy. In A. Needham & A. Woodward (Eds.), Learning and the infant mind. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

• DeLoache, J. S., Ganea, P. A., & Jaswal, V. (2008). Early learning through language. In Colombo, J., McCardle, P., Freund, L. (Eds.), Infant Pathways to Language Methods, Models, and Research Disorders. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

• DeLoache, J. S., & Ganea, P. A. (2007). The early growth of symbolic understanding and use: A tribute to Ann Brown. In Campione, J. C., Metz, K. E., & Palincsar, A. S.(Eds.), Children’s learning in the laboratory and in the classroom: Essays in honor of Ann Brown. New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.