

Culture and Child Development Lab
Culture and Child Development Lab
East China Normal University
East China Normal University
Welcome to the Culture and Child Development Lab @ ECNU!
Here, we are studying how children across cultures reason about and learn from the social world. Our current work focuses on these questions:
1) How do children reason about their own and others' choices and constraints?
2) How do children understand others' socially mindful actions?
3) How do children reason about academic achievements?
Research
Here are some projects we are working on!
Children's Views about Choice
To successfully navigate the world, we must identify the choices we can make as well as the constraints on our choices. Our views about choice can be influenced by multiple factors, some of which originate from the external world (e.g., physical laws, socio-moral norms) and some of which originate from the internal world (e.g., desires, goals, motivations etc). We study how views about choice develop throughout childhood and across cultures, as well as their implications on children’s own choosing behaviors.
Children's Social Mindfulness
Living in a highly interdependent world, what we do by ourselves can often have an impact on others even if we don’t directly interact with others. For instance, taking away the last chocolate mousse from the dessert plate can leave the next person only fruit tarts to choose from. Do children evaluate people’s self-oriented actions based on the potential impact on others? Are children themselves considerate of others when performing their own actions?
Children's Reasoning about Rules and Group Decision-making
Rules play an important role in children’s daily life. In the preschool years, children become very interested in learning and reasoning about rules. They are also increasingly involved in group decision-making. What are children’s views about creation of rules? How do they think decisions should be made in a group? How do they think rules can be changed and updated? We study these questions in this project.
The Team
P.I.: Dr. Xin (Alice) Zhao
Dr. Xin (Alice) Zhao is an Associate Professor in Department of Educational Psychology at East China Normal University . She is broadly interested in how children across cultures reason about and learn from the social world. Specifically, her current research centers around children's developing understanding of choice and constraints across cultures, as well as its implications on children's behavioral regulation and social evaluations. She received her B.S. from Tsinghua University in 2014 and then her PhD from Cornell University in 2019.
Xinyue Liu
Xinyue Liu is an undergraduate in School of Psychology and Cognitive Science at East China Normal University. She is interested in the influence of parenting style on the formation of children’s personality and the negative impact from childhood trauma on children’s communication patterns. She wants to improve the upbringing of common families through studies to make children live a healthier life. In her spare time, she likes watching movies and listening to music.
Wenhui Wang
Wenhui Wang is an undergraduate in School of Psychology and Cognitive Science at East China Normal University. She is keen on child developmental psychology. She wants to improve the way how parents and children get along to make children live healthier.
Zhongwei Feng
Zhongwei Feng is an undergraduate student in the school of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University. She is interested in the formation and influencing factors of children's social cognition, and hopes to better understand the changes of parent-child communication, so as to help parents find appropriate way to communicate with children in anytime.
Ying Hu
Ying Hu is an undergraduate majoring in psychology in the class of 2018 at East China Normal University. She’s interested in the development and education of children and their spiritual world. She hopes to help children better adapt to society and live a healthy and happy life through child development research.
Sixian Li
Sixian Li is an undergraduated student in the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science at East China Normal University. She wants to learn children's understanding of the world and how children develop their social skills during interaction with others.
Yichu Li
Yichu Li is an undergraduate of Psychology at East China Normal University. She wants to know the influence of family environment and parental education on children's personality building and social ability, as well as the influence of childhood trauma on children's postnatal development. She likes reading and writing in her spare time.
Wenqing Wu
Wenqing Wu is an undergraduate majoring in psychology at East China Normal University. She is interested in the aggression and prosocial behavior of children in social interactions. She hopes to learn more about the mysteries of children through the psychology. In her spare time, she likes reading, movie, music and playing guitar.
Yichen Wu
Yichen Wu is an undergraduate in the school of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University. She is interested in how the children construct views of themselves. The views toward oneself are greatly influenced by the society. she wants to explore how to construct a beneficial environment for children, so that they can have higher levels of self-esteem and self-compassion.
Xiaoman Yu
Xiaoman Yu is an undergraduate student in the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science at East China Normal University. She is interested in self-cognition and value formation of children. She hopes to have a deep understanding of the way early experiences influencing value realization and then improve the methods of family education and teacher-student interaction, which may help children have a critical self-cognition, find their niche and havrvest satisfaction of realizing self-worth and social values.
Sylvia
Sylvia studies Psychology in the class of 2020 in ECNU. She is interested in how early experiences (especially family of origin issues) play a role in a child’s development of personality traits, as well as changes in the influence of the early experiences over the course of development. Outside of the lab, Sylvia is fascinated by photography and travelling.
Hanlin Chen
Hanlin Chen is an undergraduate student from the Department of Rehabilitation Science, East China Normal University. She is interested in developmental and individual differences between children. By studying, researching, and working collectively with others, she hopes to solve the mysteries of the differences in child development.
Jiajing Chen
Jiajing Chen is an undergraduate at the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University. She is curious about the development of children's cognitive ability. Through the research of developmental psychology, she hopes to find out the factors affecting children's emotional and cognitive development in social-culture life and family environment, so as to help children develop better. In her spare time, she likes listening to music and taking pictures.
Xiaoyu Chang
Xiaoyu Chang is a 2018 undergraduate student in the school of psychology and cognitive science of East China Normal University. She hopes to understand children's world through child development psychology, and further help children convey their shining ideas to the world. She believes that understanding children is the necessary condition to make the world a better place. In her spare time, she likes all kinds of movies and telling stories to children.
Naixin Fang
Naixin Fang is a 2019 undergraduate student in the school of Imformation Technology in Education of East China Normal University. She is interested in education, and hopes to grasp the psychological development of children, combined with her professional knowledge, to become an excellent educator. In her spare time, she likes reading books and cycling.
Qimiao Shi
Qimiao Shi Is a student at the Department of Psychology, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University.He is interested in such topics as children's awareness of rules and views on success and failure. He hopes to learn and explore the rules of children's development and help them grow up better.In his spare time, he likes reading books, watching videos, running and playing basketball.
Xiruo Tang
Xiruo Tang graduated from the English Language and Literature Department of Fudan University. She will continue her study at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in the interdisciplinary study of human development. She likes education and children. She hopes her knowledge of linguistics and developmental psychology could help her conduct more useful research that help children. Apart from doing research, she likes British parliament debate and writing.
Tong Wei
Wei Tong is an undergraduate student majoring in English Language and Literature from Fudan University. She is interested in children’s development and education, and hopes to yield scientific insights of their cognitive development through researches in educational psychology, which would consolidate her to work in the field of education with the dedication to helping with children’s growth. Apart from scientific researches, she enjoys sketching and photographing.
Shiyu Wang
Shiyu Wang is an M.A. student in the Sociology and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Before that, Shiyu completed her undergraduate study at Vanderbilt University, majoring in Early Childhood Education and Second Language Studies. Shiyu is a passionate childhood educator, with particular interests in early language and social development, family education, and education change. After graduation, Shiyu envisions herself working in a research position to advance education policy and advocacy work for young children and their families.
Yutian Wang
Yutian Wang is an undergraduate student majoring in philosophy from Fudan University. She has a passion for the field of education and hopes to further study developmental psychology to understand children's cognitive development, conduct useful researches and apply theories into practice. In her spare time, she enjoys playing the piano and watching movies.
Chunying Zhang
Chunying Zhang is a graduate student in the department of Preschool Education, East China Normal University. Her research direction is social education an'd language education for preschool children . She hopes to use developmental psychology to better understand the formation, development and influencing factors of children's social cognition. Besides scientific research, she is interested in guzheng, piano, photography and art.
Wenyu Zhang
Wenyu Zhang is an undergraduate in the school of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University. He is very interested in the relationship between children's personalities, the environment they grow up in and their future development. He hopes to help children grow up healthily and happily by studying their inner world. He also likes to play basketball and watch movies in his spare time.
Lu Zang
Lu Zang is now an undergraduate in Fudan University (College of Foreign Languages and Literature). She is quite interested in cultural psychology as well as child development. Thus, she’d like to explore children’s cognitive similarities and differences between different cultures. In her free time, she often shows an affinity for craft skills and literature.
Hui Zhang
Zhang Hui is an undergraduate in the department of Preschool Education, East China Normal University.She is interested in the formation of children's characters, habits and future development.She hopes to explore the rules of children's congnitive development and help children grow up happier.
Xiyao Ge
Xiyao Ge received his B.A. in psychology from Reed College in 2018 and his M.S. in applied statistics and psychometrics from Boston College in 2020. His research interests are generally in children's social cognition. He wants to combine psychometrics, educational technology and social-cognitive development in his future research to do something fun and beneficial to children. In his spare time he is trying to become a metal guitarist.
Yuhang Shu
Yuhang Shu is a graduate research assistant in this lab. She graduated from the Department of Psychology at Beijing Normal University in 2019 and received a master's degree in developmental psychology from Cornell University in 2020. Yuhang's research focuses on the development of children’s gender stereotypes and how these stereotypes affect children’s understanding of success and failure. In addition, she is also interested in children's intergroup cognition and explores how these cognitions affect children's social and moral evaluation. In her spare time, she likes baking, cooking, and fitness.
Senyu Chen
Chen Senyu graduated from East China Normal University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology and is currently a Ph.D. student in Victoria University of Wellington. She is interested in the impact of the parent-child interaction on the development of children's cognitive abilities. She is a cat person and loves socializing with people and watching documentaries in the spare time.
Xinyi Chang
Xinyi Chang is an undergraduate student in the School of Psychology and Cognitive Science at East China Normal University. She is interested in how parental rearing patterns and the mode of school education affect children’s growth. She hopes to improve the educational methods in schools and families through the studies to help children live healthy and happy.
Qinyuan Zhang
Qinyuan Zhang is an undergraduate student majoring in Education and Psychology program at Durham University in the UK. She is interested in developmental psychology and want to explore the the cognitive development of children. She used to be a teaching assistant in educational institutions for children. She hopes that she can help children with her research experiences in the lab.
Keqin Yu
Fatimah Yu is a bachelor student majoring in Early Childhood Education from Beijing Normal University. She used to travel abroad for study tour, and she is fond of the culture and traditions in exotic lands. She is quite interested in the areas of early childhood language development and the development of children's artistic abilities. Besides, she hopes to pursue the goodness and beauty of the soul and find happiness in nature and art.
Tongyi Jin
Tongyi Jin graduated from the Accounting and Finance school of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2020. She has maintained a desire to work with children and youth through researching at the Centre for Innovative Programmes for Adolescents and Families. Tongyi is interested in the intersection of family functioning, school climate, and children's cognitive development. She hopes to call for better rights, resources, and opportunities for underprivileged families and children through meaningful research. In her spare time, she enjoys photography and traveling.
Dandan Li
Dandan Li is a graduate student in the Department of Educational Psychology at East China Normal University. Her undergraduate major is preschool education and her graduate study is on child development from a psychological perspective. She is interested in the social cognitive development of children. She thinks that adults tend to view children and their behaviors from an adult perspective, and hopes that she can better understand children through studying educational psychology.
Yuhan Wang
Yuhan is an undergraduate majoring in psychology at Beijing Normal University. She is broadly interested in children's social cognitive development, including how children's understanding about social categories and self-presentation are shaped by sociocultural processes. She cherishes every opportunity to play and talk with kids. Outside of work, she loves absolute music, and is a big fan of detective novels.
Yan Yi
Yiyan is a student in the Chinese Literature Department at Fudan University. She is interested in children’s decision-making process and mechanism, as well as social cognition. She hopes through the study of human’s early age cognition to understand better how and why decision-related behaviors are generated. During her spare time, she loves jazz dance, running, and playing guitar.
Publications
Journal Publications
- Flanagan, T., Zhao, X., Xu, F., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Is it personal or is it social? The interaction of knowledge domain and statistical evidence in US and Chinese preschoolers’ social generalizations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
- Guo, R., Li, D., & Zhao, X. (2024). Children consider “who” and “what” when reasoning about rule changes: A comparative study of children from two cultures. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 01650254241246238.
- Li, S., & Zhao, X. (2024). Choosing Among Undesirable Options: Children Consider Desirability of Available Choices in Evaluation of Socially Mindful Actions. Cognitive Science, 48(4), e13441.
- Wu, W., Zhang, Q., & Zhao, X. (2023). Who makes the choice? The influence of choice on preschoolers’ sharing behaviors and feelings. Acta Psychologica Sinica
- Yang, X., Zhao, X., Dunham, Y., & Bian, L. (2023). The development and predictors of a preference for strivers over naturals in the United States and China. Child Development
- Zang, L., Li, D., & Zhao, X. (2023). Preference matters: Knowledge of beneficiary’s preference influences children’s evaluations of the act of leaving a choice for others. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 228, 105605.
- Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2022). She succeeded despite lack of ability or resources: Children’s consideration of constraint in beliefs and reasoning about academic achievement. Developmental Psychology
- Zhao, X., Li, D., & Yang, X. (2022). The relationship between preschoolers' understanding of considerate socially-mindful actions and theory of mind. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 54(8), 892.
- Zhao, X. & Kushnir, T. (2022). When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness. Developmental Science e13257.
- Zhao, X., Wente, A., Fernandez-Flecha, M., Segvia Galvan, D., Gopnik, A. & Kushnir, T. (2021). Culture Moderates the Relationship Between Self-Control Ability and Free Will Beliefs in Childhood. Cognition
- Zhao, X., Zhao, X., Gweon, H., & Kushnir, T. (2021). Leaving a Choice for Others: Children’s evaluations of considerate, socially-mindful actions. Child Development
- Wente, A., Zhao, X., Gopnik, A. Kang, C., & Kushnir, T. (2020). The Developmental and Cultural Origins of Our Beliefs About Self-Control. In Mele, A. (Ed) Philosophy and Science of Self Control.
- Zhao, X.& Kushnir, T. (2019). How U.S. and Chinese children talk about moral, conventional and personal choices. Cognitive Development.
- Zhao, X.& Kushnir, T. (2017). Young children consider individual authority and collective agreement when deciding who can change rules. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
- Zhao, X. & Kushnir, T. (2019) She helped even though she wanted to play: Children consider psychological costs in social evaluations. Proceedings of the 41st annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
- Zhao, X.& Kushnir, T. (2016). Children’s Awareness of Authority to Change Rules in Various Social Contexts. Proceedings of the 38th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
- Wente, A. O., Bridgers, S., Zhao, X., Seiver, E., Zhu, L., & Gopnik, A. (2016). How Universal Are Free Will Beliefs? Cultural Differences in Chinese and US 4‐and 6‐Year‐Olds. Child Development, 87, 666-676.
- Wang, H., Sun, P., Ip, C., Zhao, X.,& Fu, S. (2015). Configural and featural face processing are differently modulated by attentional resources at early stages: An event-related potential study with rapid serial visual presentation. Brain research, 1602, 75-84.
- Zhao, X., Yuan, J., Xu, Y., Fu, S. (2014). What is the “object”? An introduction of mechanisms and influence factors of Object-Based Attention. Advances in Psychological Science
Chaired Symposium
- Following Authorities, Goals, or Groups? New Perspectives on Children’s Normative Reasoning and Behavior. Society for Research in Child Development 2017 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2017)
- Keeping others in mind: New evidence for selective and effective prosociality in toddlers and young children. Society for Research in Child Development 2019 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2019)
Conference Presentations
- Su, Y., Cai, H., Hu, Y., & Zhao, X. Process or outcome? Children’s understanding of the value of effort. Poster Presentation, Cognitive Development Society 2024 Biennial Meeting (CDS 2024)
- Zhao, X., & Li, Z. The development of socially mindful behaviors in early childhood. Individual Talk, Cognitive Development Society 2024 Biennial Meeting (CDS 2024)
- Zhao, X., & Li, D. The Relationship Between Preschoolers’ Understanding of Considerate Socially-mindful Actions and Theory of Mind. Individual Talk, Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2023)
- Zhu, T., Chang, X., Zhao, X., & Scott, R.M. Essentialist beliefs about SES and residency in Chinese young adults. Poster Presentation, Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2023)
- Zhang, Q., Wu, W., & Zhao, X. Who Makes the Choice? The Influence of Choice Freedom on Children’s Prosocial Behavior. Poster Presentation, Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2023)
- Hu, Y., She, Y., & Zhao, X. Children consider changes in performance over time when reasoning about academic achievements. Poster Presentation, Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2023)
- Li, D., Zang, L., & Zhao, X. Children Consider the Beneficiary’s Preference in Evaluations of Socially Mindful Actions. Poster Presentation, Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2023).
- Wang, Y., & Zhao, X. Children Consider Prosocial and Reputational Motivations in Evaluations of Socially Mindful Actions. Poster Presentation, Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2023)
- Zhao, X. Children’s Beliefs and Evaluations About Overcoming Constraints in Academic Achievement and their Relationship to Persistence. Individual Talk, Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2023)
- Zhao, X., Yang, X., & Yuhang Shu. Children Consider Constraints and performance over time in Intuitive Theories of Achievement, Individual Talk, Society for Research in Child Development 2021 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2021)
- Zhao, X. & Yang, X. Children’s Understanding of Rule Creation and its Relation to Daily Social Behaviors, Poster Presentation, Society for Research in Child Development 2021 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2021)
- Zhao, X.,& Kushnir, T. She Helped Even Though She Wanted to Play: Children Consider Psychological Cost in Social Evaluations. Poster Presentation, Society for Research in Child Development 2019 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2019)
- Zhao, X., Zhao, X., Gweon, H., & Kushnir, T. Leaving Choice for Others: Children’s Evaluation of Considerate Actions. Individual Talk, Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SPP 2018)
- Zhao, X., Gweon, H., & Kushnir, T. Leaving Choice for Others: Children’s Understanding of Social Mindfulness. Poster Presentation, 2017 Bienniel Meetings of Cognitive Development Society (CDS 2017)
- Zhao, X., Shtulman, A., & Kushnir, T. Differentiating Immoral Actions from Impossible Actions: Children’s Beliefs about Choosing to Perform Deviant Actions. Poster Presentation, 2017 Bienniel Meetings of Cognitive Development Society (CDS 2017)
- Zhao, X., Kang, C., Wente, A.O., Gopnik, A., Zhu,L., & Kushnir, T. The Relationship Between Inhibitory Control and Free Will Beliefs in 4-to 8-year-olds across Three Cultures. Individual talk, Society for Philosophy and Psyhology (SPP 2017)
- Zhao, X., Kushnir, T. How U.S. and Chinese children talk about moral, conventional and personal choice. Poster presentation, The 23rd Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology 2016
- Zhao, X., Kushnir, T. Children’s awareness of authority to change rules in various social contexts. Poster presentation, 2016 meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SPP)
- Zhao, X., Kushnir, T. Children’s awareness of authority to change rules in various social contexts. Individual talk, 2016 Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2016)
- Self-Control and Conceptions of Free Will, Desire and Normative Constraint: A Cross-Cultural Developmental Investigation. 2015 Philosophy and Science of Self-Control Conference (PSSC 2015)
- Zhao, X., Kushnir, T. How children and parents talk about moral, conventional and personal choice. Poster presentation, Ninth Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society (CDS 2015)
- Wente, A. O., Bridgers, S., Zhao, X., Li, J., Lin, Z., Seiver, E., Zhu, L., Gopnik, A. Physical causal reasoning in Chinese and American 4-and 6-year-olds, Society for Research in Child Development 2015 Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2015)
- Wente, A. O., Bridgers, S., Zhao, X., Gopnik, A., Zhu, L., Seiver, E. Cultural variability in young children’s folk intuitions about free will. Poster presentation, 2014 Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2014)
- Wente, A. O., Bridgers, S., Zhao, X., Gopnik, A., Zhu, L., Seiver, E. Do you have to eat the cookie or could you choose not to? The development of U.S. and Chinese children’s beliefs about free will. Poster presentation, Eighth Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society (CDS 2013)
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