Curriculum Vitae
Book
Weisberg, D. S. & Sobel, D. M. (2022). Constructing science: Connecting causal reasoning to scientific thinking in young children. MIT Press.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Weisberg, D. S. (2025). Possible reasons for reductive seductions: A reply to Wilson et al. Cognition, 254, 106003.
Nguyentran, G. & Weisberg, D. S. (2024). Should the Cat in the Hat keep talking like that? Educational correlates of anthropomorphism in children’s science media. Psychology of Popular Media, 13(2), 274-280.
Weisberg, D. S., Dunlap, L. C. & Sobel, D. M. (2023). Dinos and GoPros: Children’s exploratory behaviors in a museum and their reflections on their learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1110612.
Chlebuch, N., Bodas, A., & Weisberg, D. S. (2023). What does the Cat in the Hat know about that? An analysis of the educational and unrealistic content of children’s narrative science media. Psychology of Popular Media, 12(1), 77-92.
Weisberg, D. S., Kovaka, K., Vaca, E., & Weisberg, M. (2023). LAVA-Lobos: Raising environmental awareness through community science in the Galápagos Islands. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 8(1), 1-13.
Weisberg, D. S. & Sobel, D. M. (2022). Imaginative processes in children are not particularly imaginative [Comment on Dubourg & Baumard (2022)], Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45, e303.
Sobel, D. M., Stricker, L., & Weisberg, D. S. (2022). Relations between children’s exploration in a children’s museum and their reflections about their exploration. Child Development, 93(6), 1804-1818.
Sobel, D. M., Benton, D., Finiasz, Z., Taylor, Y., & Weisberg, D. S. (2022). The influence of children’s first action when learning causal structure from exploratory play. Cognitive Development, 63, 101194.
Weisberg, D. S. & Richert, R. A. (2022). How, when, and what do young children learn from fictional stories? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 221, 105445.
Zhang, M.-J., Weisberg, D. S., Zhu, J., & Weisberg, M. (2022). A comparative study of the acceptance and knowledge of evolution between China and the US. Public Understanding of Science(31)1, 88-102.
Hopkins, E. J. & Weisberg, D. S. (2021). Investigating the role of fantasy stories for teaching scientific principles. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 203, 105047.
Weisberg, D. S., Landrum, A. R., Hamilton, J., & Weisberg, M. (2021). Knowledge about the nature of science increases public acceptance of science regardless of identity factors. Public Understanding of Science, 30(2), 120-138. (project registration)
Chlebuch, N., Goldstein, T. R., & Weisberg, D. S. (2020). Fact or fiction? Investigating the relationship between reading and theory of mind abilities. Scientific Study of Literature, 10(2), 167-192.
Walsh, J., Kovaka, K., Vaca, E., Weisberg, D. S., & Weisberg, M. (2020). Effects of human exposure on Galapagos sea lion behavior. Wildlife Biology, 4(2020).
Metz, S. E., Weisberg, D. S., & Weisberg, M. (2020). A case of sustained internal contradiction: Unresolved ambivalence between evolution and creationism. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 20(3-4), 338-354.
Weisberg, D. S., Choi, E., & Sobel, D. M. (2020). Of blickets, butterflies, and baby dinosaurs: Children’s diagnostic reasoning across domains. Frontiers in Psychology, 11:2210.
Weisberg, D. S. & Hopkins, E. J. (2020). Preschoolers’ extension and export of information from realistic and fantastical stories. Infant and Child Development, 29(4), e2182.
Haber, A., Sobel, D. M., & Weisberg, D. S. (2019). Fostering children’s reasoning about disagreements through an inquiry-based curriculum. Journal of Cognition and Development, 20(4),592-610.
Hopkins, E. J., Weisberg, D. S., & Taylor, J. C. V. (2019). Does expertise moderate the seductive allure of reductive explanations? Acta Psychologica, 198, 102890.
Prabhakar, J., Weisberg, D. S., & Leslie, A. M. (2018). The interplay between moral actions and moral judgments in children and adults. Consciousness and Cognition, 63, 183-197.
Weisberg, D. S., Hopkins, E. J., & Taylor, J. C. V. (2018). People’s explanatory preferences for scientific phenomena. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3(44), 1-14.
Metz, S. E., Weisberg, D. S., & Weisberg, M. (2018). Non-scientific epistemic criteria sustain counter-scientific beliefs. Cognitive Science, 42(5), 1477-1503.
Kibbe, M. M., Kreisky, M., & Weisberg, D. S. (2018). Young children distinguish between different unrealistic fictional genres. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 12(2), 228-235.
Toub, T. S., Hassinger-Das, B., Nesbitt, K. T., Ilgaz, H., Weisberg, D. S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M., Nicolopoulou, A. & Dickinson, D. (2018). The language of play: Developing preschool vocabulary through play following shared book-reading. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 45, 1-17.
Weisberg, D. S., Landrum, A. R., Metz, S. E., & Weisberg, M. (2018). No missing link: Knowledge predicts acceptance of evolution in the United States. BioScience, 63(3), 212-222. (project registration)
Weisberg, D. S. & Friend, S. (2017). Embracing non-fiction: How to extend the DISTANCING-EMBRACING model [Comment on Menninghaus et al. (2017)]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 40, e379.
Sobel, D. M., Erb, C. D., Tassin, T., & Weisberg, D. S. (2017). The development of diagnostic inference under uncertainty. Journal of Cognition and Development, 18(5), 556-576.
Panero, M. E., Weisberg, D. S., Black, J., Goldstein, T. R., Barnes, J. L., Brownell, H., & Winner, E. (2017). No support for the claim that literary fiction uniquely and immediately improves theory of mind: A reply to Kidd and Castano’s commentary on Panero, Weisberg, Black, Goldstein, Barnes, Brownell, & Winner (2016). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(3), e5-e8.
Hopkins, E. J. & Weisberg, D. S. (2017). The youngest readers’ dilemma: A review of children’s learning from fictional sources. Developmental Review, 43, 48-70.
Panero, M. E.*, Weisberg, D. S.*, Black, J.*, Goldstein, T. R., Barnes, J. L., Brownell, H., & Winner, E. (2016). Does reading a single passage of literary fiction really improve theory of mind? An attempt at replication. (* = joint first authors) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(5), e46-e54.
Weisberg, D. S. (2016). How fictional worlds are created. Philosophy Compass, 11(8), 462-470.
Hopkins, E. J., Weisberg, D. S., & Taylor, J. C. V. (2016). The seductive allure is a reductive allure: People prefer scientific explanations that contain logically irrelevant reductive information. Cognition, 155, 67-76.
Weisberg, D. S.*, Hirsh-Pasek, K.*, Golinkoff, R. M., Kittredge, A. K., & Klahr, D. (2016). Guided play: Principles and practices. (* = joint first authors) Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(3), 177-182.
Hopkins, E. J., Smith, E. D., Weisberg, D. S., & Lillard, A. S. (2016). The development of substitute object pretense: The differential importance of form and function. Journal of Cognition and Development, 17(2), 197-220.
Weisberg, D. S. & Gopnik, A. (2016). Which counterfactuals matter? A response to Beck. Cognitive Science, 41(1), 257-259.
Hopkins, E. J., Weisberg, D. S., & Taylor, J. C. V. (2016). Examining the specificity of the seductive allure effect. In A. Papafragou, D. Grodner, D. Mirman, & J. C. Trueswell (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1829-1834). Philadelphia, PA: Cognitive Science Society.
Weisberg, D. S., Taylor, J. C. V., & Hopkins, E. J. (2015). Deconstructing the seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. Judgment and Decision Making, 10(5), 429-441.
Ridge, K. E., Weisberg, D. S., Ilgaz, H., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2015). Supermarket speak: Increasing talk among low-SES families. Mind, Brain, and Education, 9(3), 127-135.
Weisberg, D. S. (2015). Advanced review: Pretend play. WIREs Cognitive Science, 6(3), 249-261.
Weisberg, D. S., Ilgaz, H., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M., Nicolopoulou, A, & Dickinson, D. K. (2015). Shovels and swords: How realistic and fantastical themes affect children’s word learning. Cognitive Development, 35, 1-14.
Weisberg, D. S. (2014). The development of imaginative cognition. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 75, 85-103.
Sobel, D. M. & Weisberg, D. S. (2014). Tell me a story: How children’s developing domain knowledge affects their story construction. Journal of Cognition and Development, 15(3), 465-478.
Weisberg, D. S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R., & McCandliss, B. D. (2014). Mise en place: Setting the stage for thought and action. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(6), 276-278.
Weisberg, D. S., Zosh, J. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2013). Talking it up: Play, language development, and the role of adult support. American Journal of Play, 6(1), 39-54.
Weisberg, D. S. & Gopnik, A. (2013). Pretense, counterfactuals, and Bayesian causal models: Why what is not real really matters. Cognitive Science, 37(7), 1368-1381.
Weisberg, D. S., Sobel, D. M., Goodstein, J., & Bloom, P. (2013). Young children are reality-prone when thinking about stories. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 13(3-4), 383-407.
Weisberg, D. S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2013). Guided play: Where curricular goals meet a playful pedagogy. Mind, Brain, and Education, 7(2), 104-112.
Weisberg, D. S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2013). Embracing complexity: Rethinking the relation between play and learning: Comment on Lillard et al. (2013). Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 35-39.
Weisberg, D. S. & Leslie, A. M. (2012). The role of victims’ emotions in preschoolers’ moral judgments. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 3(3), 439-455.
Buchsbaum, D., Bridgers, S., Weisberg, D. S., & Gopnik, A. (2012). The power of possibility: Causal learning, counterfactual reasoning, and pretend play. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 367, 2202-2212.
Weisberg, D. S. & Sobel, D. M. (2012). Young children discriminate improbable from impossible events in fiction. Cognitive Development, 27(1), 90-98.
Weisberg, D. S. & Bloom, P. (2009). Young children separate multiple pretend worlds. Developmental Science, 12(5), 699-705.
Weisberg, D. S. & Goodstein, J. (2009). What belongs in a fictional world? Journal of Cognition and Culture, 9(1), 69-78.
Weisberg, D. S. (2008). Caveat lector: The presentation of neuroscience information in the popular media. The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, 6(1), 51-56.
Weisberg, D. S., Keil, F. C., Goodstein, J., Rawson, E., & Gray, J. R. (2008). The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 470-477. (stimuli freely available at SSRN)
Weisberg, D. S. & Bloom, P. (2007). Why do some people resist science? Science and Public Affairs. 22.
Bloom, P. & Weisberg, D. S. (2007). Childhood origins of adult resistance to science. Science, 316(5827), 996-997.
Skolnick, D. & Bloom, P. (2006). What does Batman think about SpongeBob? Children’s understanding of the fantasy/fantasy distinction. Cognition, 101(1), B9-B18.
Selected Book Chapters and Invited Articles
Weisberg, D. S. & Coutanche, M. (2024). Hollywood should give brain science a star turn. Scientific American, 18 Apr 2024.
Weisberg, D. S. & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2023). Fantasy is a valuable educational tool. Just look at ‘Barbie’. Education Weekly, 13 Oct 2023.
Weisberg, D. S. (2020). Is imagination constrained enough for science? In A. Levy & P. Godfrey-Smith (Eds.), The Scientific Imagination: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives (pp. 250-261). New York: Oxford University Press.
Weisberg, D. S. & Zosh, J. M. (2018). How guided play promotes early childhood learning. In R. E. Tremblay, M. Boivin & R. DeV. Peters (Eds). Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development [online].
Weisberg, D. S. (2016). Imagination and child development. In A. Kind (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination (pp. 300-313). New York: Routledge.
Weisberg, D. S. (2016). The fantasy advantage. Scientific American Mind, 27(2), 43-47.
Weisberg, D. S., Kittredge, A. K., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Golinkoff, R. M., & Klahr, D. (2015). Making play work for education. Phi Delta Kappan, 96(8), 8-13.
Weisberg, D. S. (2013). Distinguishing imagination from reality. In M. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Development of Imagination (pp. 75-93). New York: Oxford University Press.
Weisberg, D. S. (2009). The vital importance of imagination. In M. Brockman (Ed.), What’s Next? Dispatches on the Future of Science (pp. 145-154). New York: Vintage Books.
Skolnick, D. & Bloom, P. (2006). The intuitive cosmology of fictional worlds. In S. Nichols (Ed.), The Architecture of the Imagination: New Essays on Pretense, Possibility, and Fiction (pp. 73-86). New York: Oxford University Press.