David M Sobel
Biographic Data
| ID | 1464856 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David M Sobel |
| GIVEN NAMES | David M |
| FAMILY NAME | Sobel |
| SIGNATURE | SOBEL D M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brown University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6954-3623 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 128 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Origins of understanding fair resource collection
Concerns about fair resource exchanges are pervasive across development. However, existing work has focused primarily on resource distributions. The present experiments investigated whether 14- to 17-month-old North American infants demonstrate expectations for fair resource collection events, in contrast to expectations for resource distribution events. We found that infants' expectations for equal resource collections emerged by 16 months of ag…
Manual reach tracking reveals distinct inhibitory processes in children’s and adults’ inferences about belief
Explaining and exploring the dynamics of parent–child interactions and children's causal reasoning at a children's museum exhibit
This study examines how parents' and children's explanatory talk and exploratory behaviors support children's causal reasoning at a museum in San Jose, CA in 2017. One-hundred-nine parent–child dyads (3–6 years; 56 girls, 53 boys; 32 White, 9 Latino/Hispanic, 17 Asian-American, 17 South Asian, 1 Pacific Islander, 26 mixed ethnicity, 7 unreported) played at an air flow exhibit with a nonobvious causal mechanism. Children's causal reasoning was pro…
Understanding pretense as causal inference
Executive function in early childhood
This study examined the effect of nature-based practices on preschoolers’ executive function (EF). The Minnesota Executive Function Scale was administered to 147 children within one school district at the beginning and end of the preschool year. Results suggest incorporating nature-based practices into preschool was effective, as children in preschool classrooms where nature-based practices were used had significantly higher levels of EF at the e…
Relations between children's exploration in a children's museum and their reflections about their exploration
We examined 6- to 9-year-olds' (N = 60, 35 girls, 34% White, 23% Hispanic, 2% Black/African American, 2% Asian/Asian American, 22% Mixed Ethnicity/Race, 17% Unavailable, collected April–September 2019 in Providence, RI, USA) first-person perspectives on their exploration of museum exhibits. We coded goal setting, goal completion, and behaviors that reflected changes to how goals were accomplished. Whether children played collaboratively related t…
Messaging Matters
This project examines how the order of messaging during parent–child interactions at a museum exhibit affects children’s engagement with the exhibit. Parents and 4-7-year-olds (N = 64) played at a circuit block exhibit. They were first given blocks with descriptive (e.g., “This is a battery.”) or discovery-prompting (e.g., “There is no wrong way to play.”) messages, and after 90 seconds, given more blocks with the other message type. Children who…
Constructing Science
How Children Learn From Others
One way children are remarkable learners is that they learn from others. Critically, children are selective when assessing from whom to learn, particularly in the domain of word learning. We conducted an analysis of children’s selective word learning, reviewing 63 papers on 6,525 participants. Children’s ability to engage in selective word learning appeared to be present in the youngest samples surveyed. Their more metacognitive understanding tha…
Questions Can Answer Questions About Mechanisms of Preschoolers’ Selective Word Learning
This study examined how inferences about epistemic competence and generalized labeling errors influence children’s selective word learning. Three- to 4-year-olds (N = 128) learned words from informants who asked questions about objects, mentioning either correct or incorrect labels. Such questions do not convey stark differences in informants’ epistemic competence. Inaccurate labels, however, generate error signals that can lead to weaker encodin…
Subjectivism and Reasons to be Moral
Subjective accounts of reasons for action appear to be seriously counter-intuitive because they maintain that some possible agents lack any reason to be moral. This chapter aims to blunt that criticism of subjective accounts. In response I stress explanations for our intuitions that are compatible with subjectivism. Everyone we know has significant reasons to not brutalize the vulnerable, the subjectivist can remind us, and they can remind us how…
From Valuing to Value
Is graduate school for me? Should I ask him to marry? What does it make sense to do when one's self-interest and morality sharply conflict? This book articulates and defends one general answer to such questions: subjectivism. Subjectivism maintains that things have value because we value them. Caring about stuff makes stuff matter. In a world without anything that anyone or anything cared about, nothing would matter. Additionally, subjective acco…
Attention to the mouth and gaze following in infancy predict language development
We investigated longitudinal relations among gaze following and face scanning in infancy and later language development. At 12 months, infants watched videos of a woman describing an object while their passive viewing was measured with an eye-tracker. We examined the relation between infants' face scanning behavior and their tendency to follow the speaker's attentional shift to the object she was describing. We also collected language outcome mea…
Equal But Not Always Fair
Prior work has shown that preschoolers divide resources fairly and expect others to do the same. The majority of research, however, has focused on how children make distributions with respect to number. Here we explore whether preschoolers attend to the value of the objects being shared. We presented four‐year‐olds and five‐year‐olds with two puppets and four stickers of different values to split between them. Our central question was whether chi…
Increased F ocus on the M outh A mong I nfants in the F irst Y ear of L ife
This study examines face‐scanning behaviors of infants at 6, 9, and 12 months as they watched videos of a woman describing an object in front of her. The videos were created to vary information in the mouth (speaking vs. smiling) and the eyes (gazing into the camera vs. cueing the infant with head turn or gaze direction to an object being described). Infants tended to divide their attention between the eyes and the mouth, looking less at the eyes…
Young Children are Reality-Prone When Thinking about Stories
Many parents and some researchers assume that young children are fantastical thinkers. We examined this assumption in the domain of reasoning about fictional stories. We presented 4-year-olds with realistic and fantastical stories and asked them how best to continue these stories: with ordinary events or with events that violate real-world causal laws. Children preferred the ordinary events for both types of stories (Experiment 1, n=42) while a c…
Children's understanding of speaker reliability between lexical and syntactic knowledge
Many studies suggest that preschoolers rely on individuals' histories of generating accurate lexical information when learning novel lexical information from them. The present study examined whether children used a speaker's accuracy about one kind of linguistic knowledge to make inferences about another kind of linguistic knowledge, focusing specifically on syntax and the lexicon. In Experiment 1, we presented children with 2 live speakers who w…
Speaker reliability in preschoolers' inferences about the meanings of novel words
Preschoolers participated in a modified version of the disambiguation task, designed to test whether the pragmatic environment generated by a reliable or unreliable speaker affected how children interpreted novel labels. Two objects were visible to children, while a third was only visible to the speaker (a fact known by the child). Manipulating whether a novel object was visible to both interlocutors or hidden from the child tested the child's un…
Modeling Aspects of Theory of Mind with Markov Random Fields
Domain generality and specificity in children's causal inference about ambiguous data
In 5 experiments the authors examined children's understanding of causal mechanisms and their reasoning about base rates across domains of knowledge. Experiment 1 showed that 3-year-olds interpret objects activating a machine differently from a novel agent liking each object; children are more likely to treat the latter as indicating the objects with the causal property possessed an internal property. Experiment 2 suggested that 3-year-olds poten…
Subjectivism and Idealization
Blickets and babies
Previous research has suggested that preschoolers possess a cognitive system that allows them to construct an abstract, coherent representation of causal relations among events. Such a system lets children reason retrospectively when they observe ambiguous data in a rational manner (e.g., D. M. Sobel, J. B. Tenenbaum, & A. Gopnik, 2004). However, there is little evidence that demonstrates whether younger children possess similar inferential abili…
A Theory of Causal Learning in Children
The authors outline a cognitive and computational account of causal learning in children. They propose that children use specialized cognitive systems that allow them to recover an accurate "causal map" of the world: an abstract, coherent, learned representation of the causal relations among events. This kind of knowledge can be perspicuously understood in terms of the formalism of directed graphical causal models, or Bayes nets. Children's causa…
Morality and Virtue
Varieties of Hedonism
Causal learning mechanisms in very young children
Three studies investigated whether young children make accurate causal inferences on the basis of patterns of variation and covariation. Children were presented with a new causal relation by means of a machine called the "blicket detector." Some objects, but not others, made the machine light up and play music. In the first 2 experiments, children were told that "blickets make the machine go" and were then asked to identify which objects were "bl…
Morality and Virtue
Blickets and babies
Previous research has suggested that preschoolers possess a cognitive system that allows them to construct an abstract, coherent representation of causal relations among events. Such a system lets children reason retrospectively when they observe ambiguous data in a rational manner (e.g., D. M. Sobel, J. B. Tenenbaum, & A. Gopnik, 2004). However, there is little evidence that demonstrates whether younger children possess similar inferential abili…
Subjectivism and Idealization
From Valuing to Value
Is graduate school for me? Should I ask him to marry? What does it make sense to do when one's self-interest and morality sharply conflict? This book articulates and defends one general answer to such questions: subjectivism. Subjectivism maintains that things have value because we value them. Caring about stuff makes stuff matter. In a world without anything that anyone or anything cared about, nothing would matter. Additionally, subjective acco…
Well-Being as the Object of Moral Consideration
An adequate moral theory must take (at least) each person into account in some way. Some think that the appropriate way to take an agent into account morally involves a consequentialist form of promoting something about her. Others suggest instead that morality requires a Kantian form of respecting something about an agent. I am interested here in pursuing the former line. When we pursue the broadly consequentialist line we come to this question:…
Equal But Not Always Fair
Prior work has shown that preschoolers divide resources fairly and expect others to do the same. The majority of research, however, has focused on how children make distributions with respect to number. Here we explore whether preschoolers attend to the value of the objects being shared. We presented four‐year‐olds and five‐year‐olds with two puppets and four stickers of different values to split between them. Our central question was whether chi…
Domain generality and specificity in children's causal inference about ambiguous data
In 5 experiments the authors examined children's understanding of causal mechanisms and their reasoning about base rates across domains of knowledge. Experiment 1 showed that 3-year-olds interpret objects activating a machine differently from a novel agent liking each object; children are more likely to treat the latter as indicating the objects with the causal property possessed an internal property. Experiment 2 suggested that 3-year-olds poten…
Pleasure as a Mental State
Shelly Kagan and Leonard Katz have offered versions of hedonism that aspire to occupy a middle position between the view that pleasure is a unitary sensation and the view that pleasure is, as Sidgwick put it, desirable consciousness. Thus they hope to offer a hedonistic account of well-being that does not mistakenly suppose that pleasure is a special kind of tingle, yet to offer a sharp alternative to desire-based accounts. I argue that they have…
Young Children are Reality-Prone When Thinking about Stories
Many parents and some researchers assume that young children are fantastical thinkers. We examined this assumption in the domain of reasoning about fictional stories. We presented 4-year-olds with realistic and fantastical stories and asked them how best to continue these stories: with ordinary events or with events that violate real-world causal laws. Children preferred the ordinary events for both types of stories (Experiment 1, n=42) while a c…
Desires, Motives, and Reasons
Children's understanding of speaker reliability between lexical and syntactic knowledge
Many studies suggest that preschoolers rely on individuals' histories of generating accurate lexical information when learning novel lexical information from them. The present study examined whether children used a speaker's accuracy about one kind of linguistic knowledge to make inferences about another kind of linguistic knowledge, focusing specifically on syntax and the lexicon. In Experiment 1, we presented children with 2 live speakers who w…
Full Information Accounts of Well-Being
On the Subjectivity of Welfare
Sumner on Welfare
L. W. Sumner's excellent book Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics has four central goals. He aims (1) to demonstrate the subjectivity of welfare (chaps. 1 to 3); (2) to show that the traditional subjective accounts of welfare—namely, hedonism and preference theories—are inadequate (chaps. 4 and 5); (3) to construct an alternative subjectivist account of welfare (chapter 6); and (4) to argue for the moral primacy of welfare (chap. 7). I will not commen…
Well-Being as the Object of Moral Consideration
An adequate moral theory must take (at least) each person into account in some way. Some think that the appropriate way to take an agent into account morally involves a consequentialist form of promoting something about her. Others suggest instead that morality requires a Kantian form of respecting something about an agent. I am interested here in pursuing the former line. When we pursue the broadly consequentialist line we come to this question:…
Pleasure as a Mental State
Shelly Kagan and Leonard Katz have offered versions of hedonism that aspire to occupy a middle position between the view that pleasure is a unitary sensation and the view that pleasure is, as Sidgwick put it, desirable consciousness. Thus they hope to offer a hedonistic account of well-being that does not mistakenly suppose that pleasure is a special kind of tingle, yet to offer a sharp alternative to desire-based accounts. I argue that they have…
Subjective Accounts of Reasons for Action
Causal learning mechanisms in very young children
Three studies investigated whether young children make accurate causal inferences on the basis of patterns of variation and covariation. Children were presented with a new causal relation by means of a machine called the "blicket detector." Some objects, but not others, made the machine light up and play music. In the first 2 experiments, children were told that "blickets make the machine go" and were then asked to identify which objects were "bl…
Varieties of Hedonism
Desires, Motives, and Reasons
A Theory of Causal Learning in Children
The authors outline a cognitive and computational account of causal learning in children. They propose that children use specialized cognitive systems that allow them to recover an accurate "causal map" of the world: an abstract, coherent, learned representation of the causal relations among events. This kind of knowledge can be perspicuously understood in terms of the formalism of directed graphical causal models, or Bayes nets. Children's causa…
Morality and Virtue
Blickets and babies
Previous research has suggested that preschoolers possess a cognitive system that allows them to construct an abstract, coherent representation of causal relations among events. Such a system lets children reason retrospectively when they observe ambiguous data in a rational manner (e.g., D. M. Sobel, J. B. Tenenbaum, & A. Gopnik, 2004). However, there is little evidence that demonstrates whether younger children possess similar inferential abili…
Modeling Aspects of Theory of Mind with Markov Random Fields
Domain generality and specificity in children's causal inference about ambiguous data
In 5 experiments the authors examined children's understanding of causal mechanisms and their reasoning about base rates across domains of knowledge. Experiment 1 showed that 3-year-olds interpret objects activating a machine differently from a novel agent liking each object; children are more likely to treat the latter as indicating the objects with the causal property possessed an internal property. Experiment 2 suggested that 3-year-olds poten…
Subjectivism and Idealization
Speaker reliability in preschoolers' inferences about the meanings of novel words
Preschoolers participated in a modified version of the disambiguation task, designed to test whether the pragmatic environment generated by a reliable or unreliable speaker affected how children interpreted novel labels. Two objects were visible to children, while a third was only visible to the speaker (a fact known by the child). Manipulating whether a novel object was visible to both interlocutors or hidden from the child tested the child's un…
Increased F ocus on the M outh A mong I nfants in the F irst Y ear of L ife
This study examines face‐scanning behaviors of infants at 6, 9, and 12 months as they watched videos of a woman describing an object in front of her. The videos were created to vary information in the mouth (speaking vs. smiling) and the eyes (gazing into the camera vs. cueing the infant with head turn or gaze direction to an object being described). Infants tended to divide their attention between the eyes and the mouth, looking less at the eyes…
Young Children are Reality-Prone When Thinking about Stories
Many parents and some researchers assume that young children are fantastical thinkers. We examined this assumption in the domain of reasoning about fictional stories. We presented 4-year-olds with realistic and fantastical stories and asked them how best to continue these stories: with ordinary events or with events that violate real-world causal laws. Children preferred the ordinary events for both types of stories (Experiment 1, n=42) while a c…
Children's understanding of speaker reliability between lexical and syntactic knowledge
Many studies suggest that preschoolers rely on individuals' histories of generating accurate lexical information when learning novel lexical information from them. The present study examined whether children used a speaker's accuracy about one kind of linguistic knowledge to make inferences about another kind of linguistic knowledge, focusing specifically on syntax and the lexicon. In Experiment 1, we presented children with 2 live speakers who w…
Attention to the mouth and gaze following in infancy predict language development
We investigated longitudinal relations among gaze following and face scanning in infancy and later language development. At 12 months, infants watched videos of a woman describing an object while their passive viewing was measured with an eye-tracker. We examined the relation between infants' face scanning behavior and their tendency to follow the speaker's attentional shift to the object she was describing. We also collected language outcome mea…
Equal But Not Always Fair
Prior work has shown that preschoolers divide resources fairly and expect others to do the same. The majority of research, however, has focused on how children make distributions with respect to number. Here we explore whether preschoolers attend to the value of the objects being shared. We presented four‐year‐olds and five‐year‐olds with two puppets and four stickers of different values to split between them. Our central question was whether chi…
Subjectivism and Reasons to be Moral
Subjective accounts of reasons for action appear to be seriously counter-intuitive because they maintain that some possible agents lack any reason to be moral. This chapter aims to blunt that criticism of subjective accounts. In response I stress explanations for our intuitions that are compatible with subjectivism. Everyone we know has significant reasons to not brutalize the vulnerable, the subjectivist can remind us, and they can remind us how…
From Valuing to Value
Is graduate school for me? Should I ask him to marry? What does it make sense to do when one's self-interest and morality sharply conflict? This book articulates and defends one general answer to such questions: subjectivism. Subjectivism maintains that things have value because we value them. Caring about stuff makes stuff matter. In a world without anything that anyone or anything cared about, nothing would matter. Additionally, subjective acco…
How Children Learn From Others
One way children are remarkable learners is that they learn from others. Critically, children are selective when assessing from whom to learn, particularly in the domain of word learning. We conducted an analysis of children’s selective word learning, reviewing 63 papers on 6,525 participants. Children’s ability to engage in selective word learning appeared to be present in the youngest samples surveyed. Their more metacognitive understanding tha…
Questions Can Answer Questions About Mechanisms of Preschoolers’ Selective Word Learning
This study examined how inferences about epistemic competence and generalized labeling errors influence children’s selective word learning. Three- to 4-year-olds (N = 128) learned words from informants who asked questions about objects, mentioning either correct or incorrect labels. Such questions do not convey stark differences in informants’ epistemic competence. Inaccurate labels, however, generate error signals that can lead to weaker encodin…
Psychology (24 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (18 works) · Cognitive psychology (12 works) · Developmental psychology (12 works) · Epistemology (12 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Cognition (8 works) · Philosophical Ethics and Theory (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works)