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., Van Dusen, K., & Bonus, J. A. (in press). The role of different types of anthropomorphism in children’s biology learning from stories. Journal of Cognition and Development. (data and stimuli available at this link)
Pesch, A., Weisberg, D. S., Weisberg, M., Kennedy, K., Ochoa, K. D., Bermudez, V. N., Salazar, J., Ahn, J., Bustamante, A. S., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (in press). Leveraging community science to encourage a more inclusive and culturally representative developmental science. British Journal of Developmental Psychology.
Bodas, A., Chlebuch, N., & Weisberg, D. S. (2025). Water woes: The effects of children’s science media on conservation knowledge, self-efficacy, and environmental worry in the United States of America. Journal of Children and Media, 19(4), 824-844. (data and stimuli available at this link)
Webster, R., Weisberg, D. S., & Saucier, D. A. (2025). From hobbits to Harry Potter: A psychological perspective on fantasy. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 45(2), 99-136.
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.