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

2025

• Lu, J., & Ganea, P. A. (2025). What Almost Happened? Using Close-Counterfactuals to Prime a Simulation Mindset in Children. In D. Barner, N.R. Bramley, A. Ruggeri and C.M. Walker (Eds.), Proceedings of the 47th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science
  Society. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/10m5b57v
• Grosu, I., Le, D., & Ganea, P. A.  (2025). Backwards counterfactuals and the closest possible world. In D. Barner, N.R. Bramley, A. Ruggeri and C.M. Walker (Eds.), Proceedings of the 47th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Society. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 47. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0q93p7sc
• Nyhout, A., Veall, E. & Ganea, P. A. (2025). The co-construction of counterfactual worlds in parent-child reminiscing. Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0002064
• Lee, R. J, Jarosz, P. & Ganea, P. A. (2025). Young children’s updating of mental representations of story characters and events based on verbal and pictorial information. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 260, 106291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106322
• Strouse, G. A., & Ganea, P. A. (2025). Reinforcement matters: Animated reinforcements disrupt young children’s word learning from a digital book. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 258, 106291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106291

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.