Jacqueline D Woolley
Job Title
Research Interests

My research addresses how children and adults make the distinction between fantasy and reality. A number of our studies investigate how children make reality status judgments when they encounter novel information. We explore the effects of three broad classes of factors: (1) characteristics of the individual child (e.g.,fantasy orientation) (2) characteristics of the stimulus (e.g., novel vs. familiar) and (3) effects of the environment (e.g., parental influence). We are also addressing a number of other issues including children's religious cognition (e.g., beliefs about God) and their understanding of different kinds of evidence (e.g., anecdotes vs. statistics).

Typical student contributions to my research
testing children ages 4-12, recruiting families, brainstorming about studies, coding children's explanations for their answers, constructing qualtrics surveys, helping with manuscripts..
Affiliated Departments
Personal Pronouns
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