Kelemen, D. and The Child Cognition Lab (2018).\u00a0How the\u00a0Dormacks Evolved Longer Backs<\/i>. Tumblehome Learning: Boston. Purchase here.<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. and The Child Cognition Lab (2017).\u00a0<\/span>How the Piloses Evolved Skinny Noses<\/i>. Tumblehome Learning: Boston.\u00a0<\/span>Purchase here.<\/a><\/p>\n Combette, L., & Kelemen, D. (2025). Paying attention to mindset measures: A necessary <\/span>step to move beyond mindset controversies.\u00a0<\/span>Current Psychology<\/i>.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Combette, L. T., Emmons, N. A., Elster, E., & Kelemen, D. (2025). Cats, bats, and people: Cultivating children\u2019s understanding of genes and trait inheritance. <\/span>Journal of Cognition and Development.<\/em> Advance online publication.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Pizza, L., & Kelemen, D. (2025). The Earth is alive: Attributing agency to the Earth causes moral concern for the environment and biocentric attitudes. <\/span>Cognitive Science, 49<\/em>(3), e70052.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Puttick, G., Lacy, S., Crissman, S., & Kelemen, D. (2025). Investigating biological evolution: Building a model of natural selection in third grade. <\/span>Science and Children, 62<\/em>(1), 44\u201350. PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Bodas, A., Chlebuch, N., & Weisberg, D. S. (2025). Water woes: The effects of children\u2019s science media on conservation knowledge, self-efficacy, and environmental worry in the United States of America. <\/span>Journal of Children and Media. <\/em>Advance online publication.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Elgamal, K., Muentener, P., & Lakusta, L. (2025). Development of mechanical spatial language of support: Insight from 3- to 6-year-old children\u2019s explanations. <\/span>Cognitive Development, 74,<\/em> 101581. PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Combette, L. T., & Kelemen, D. (2025). Is biology destiny? The coherence of children\u2019s beliefs about physical and psychological traits. <\/span>Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 249,<\/em> 106108. <\/span>PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Ronfard, S., Brown, S. A., Pitt, E., & Kelemen, D. (2023). Is book reading always best? Children learn and transfer complex scientific explanations from books or animations. <\/span>Evolution: Education and Outreach, 16,<\/em> 8. PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Lewry, C., Kelemen, D., & Lombrozo, T. (2023). <\/span>The moral consequences of teleological beliefs about the human species.\u00a0<\/span>Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.\u00a0<\/em>PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Pizza, L., Ronfard, S., Coley, J., Kelemen, D. (2023). Why we should care about moral foundations when preparing for the next pandemic: Insights from Canada, the UK, and the US.\u00a0PLOS One<\/em>. PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Pizza, L. & Kelemen, D. (2023). Are Humans Part of the Natural World? U.S. Children’s and Adults’ Concept of Nature and Its Relationship to Environmental Concern. Topics in Cognitive Science<\/em>. PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D., Brown, S. A., & Pizza, L. (2023). Don’t bug me!: The role of names, functions, and feelings in shaping children’s and adult’s conservation attitudes about unappealing species.\u00a0Journal of Environmental Psychology.\u00a0<\/em>PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D., Emmons, N., Brown, S. A., & Gallik, C. (2021). Beliefs about Origins and Eternal Life: How Easy Is Formal Religious Theory Development?.\u00a0<\/span>Journal of Cognition and Development<\/i>, 1-23. PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Ronfard, S., Brown, S., Doncaster, E., Kelemen, D. (2021) Inhibiting intuition: Scaffolding children\u2019s theory construction about species evolution in the face of competing explanations.\u00a0Cognition<\/em>,\u00a0211,\u00a0<\/em>104635. PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Rottman, J., Zizik, V., Minard, K., Young, L., Blake, P. R., & Kelemen, D. (2020). The moral, or the story? Changing children’s distributive justice preferences through social communication.\u00a0<\/span>Cognition<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>205<\/i>, 104441. PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Pizza, L., & Posada, R. (2020). \u201cYou Have the River to Throw It Away\u201d: Colombian Children’s Reasoning About Transgressions to Nature in Contexts of Economic Performance and Communitarian Needs.\u00a0<\/span>Ecopsychology<\/i>. PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Brown, S. A., Ronfard, S., & Kelemen, D. (2020). Teaching natural selection in early elementary classrooms: Can a storybook intervention reduce teleological misunderstandings?. <\/span>Evolution: Education and Outreach<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>13<\/i>, 1-19. PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (2019). The Magic of Mechanism: Explanation-based instruction on counterintuitive concepts in early childhood.\u00a0Perspectives on Psychological Science, <\/i>1-13, doi.org\/10.1177\/1745691619827011. PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Ronfard, S., Zambrana, I. M., Hermansen, T.K., & Kelemen, D. (2018). Question-asking in childhood: A review of the literature and a framework for understanding its development. Developmental Review<\/em>. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016\/j.dr.2018.05.002.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n J\u00e4rnefelt, E., Zhu, L., Canfield, C.F., Chen, M., & Kelemen, D. (2018). Reasoning about nature’s agency and design in the cultural context of China.\u00a0Religion, Brain & Behavior.\u00a0<\/em>doi: 10.1080\/2153599X.2018.1449137.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Emmons, N., Lees, K., & Kelemen, D. (2017).\u00a0<\/span>Young children\u2019s near and far transfer of the basic theory of natural selection:\u00a0<\/span>An analogical storybook intervention. Journal of Research in Science Teaching<\/em>.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Schachner, A., Zhu, L., Li, J., & Kelemen, D. (2017). Is the bias for function-based explanations culturally universal? Children from China endorse teleological explanations of natural phenomena. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Rottman, J., Zhu, L., Wang, W., Seston Schillaci, R., Clark, K. J., & Kelemen, D. (2017). Cultural influences on the teleological stance. Evidence from China. Religion, Brain & Behavior, <\/em>1-10.\u00a0doi: 10.1080\/2153599X.2015.1118402. (N.B.: Accepted November 2015. Published online, February 2016)\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Rottman, J., Young, L., & Kelemen, D. (2016). The impact of testimony on children’s moralization of novel actions.\u00a0Emotion,<\/em> 17(5), 811-827. PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Emmons, N. A., Smith, H., & Kelemen, D. A. (2016).\u00a0Changing minds with the story of adaptation: Strategies for teaching young children about adaptation. Early Education and Development, 27<\/em>(8), 1205-1221.\u00a0doi:10.1080\/10409289.2016.1169823<\/span>\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Emmons, N. A., & Kelemen, D. (2015). Young children’s acceptance of within-species variation: Implications for essentialism and teaching evolution. <\/span>Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 139, <\/i>148 – 160. \u00a0<\/i>doi: 10.1016\/j.jecp.2015.05.011.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Emmons, N. A., & Kelemen, D. (2015). I’ve got a feeling: Urban and rural indigenous children’s beliefs about early life mentality.\u00a0<\/span>Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,\u00a0138, <\/span><\/i>106-25. doi: 10.1016\/j.jecp.2015.05.001. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Jarnefelt, E., Ford Canfield, C. & Kelemen, D. (2015). The divided mind of a disbeliever: Intuitive beliefs about nature as purposefully created among different groups of non-religious adults. Cognition,\u00a0140, <\/em>72\u201388. <\/em>doi:10.1016\/j.cognition.2015.02.005.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Rottman, J., Kelemen, D., & Young, L. (2015). Hindering harm and preserving purity: How can moral psychology save the planet? Philosophy Compass, 10<\/em>, 134-144. doi:10.1111\/phc3.12195.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D., Emmons, N., Seston, R. & Ganea, P. (2014). Young children can be taught basic natural selection using a picture storybook intervention.\u00a0Psychological Science,\u00a025<\/span>, <\/span><\/em>893-902.\u00a0<\/span><\/em>doi:10.1177\/0956797613516009. \u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Seston Schillaci, R. & Kelemen, D. (2014) Children\u2019s conformity when acquiring novel conventions: The case of artifacts.\u00a0Journal of Cognition and Development<\/i>, 15<\/em>,\u00a0569-583. doi: 10.1080\/15248372.2013.784973.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Emmons, N. & Kelemen, D. (2014). The development of children\u2019s pre-life reasoning: Evidence from two cultures. Child Development<\/em>, 85<\/em>, 1617-1633. doi:\u00a010.1111\/cdev.12220.\u00a0<\/em>PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Rottman, J., Kelemen, D., & Young, L. (2014). Purity matters more than harm in moral judgments of suicide: Response to Gray.\u00a0Cognition<\/i>.\u00a0133<\/em>, 332\u2013334.\u00a0doi:10.1016\/j.cognition.2014. Rottman, J., Kelemen, D., & Young, L. (2014). \u00a0Tainting the soul: Purity concerns predict moral judgments of suicide. Cognition, 130,\u00a0<\/i>217-226.\u00a0doi:10.1016\/j.cognition. 2013.11.007. \u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>Rottman, J. Kelemen, D., Rottman, J. & Seston, R. (2013). Professional physical scientists display tenacious teleological tendencies. Purpose-based reasoning as a cognitive default. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142<\/em>(4),<\/em>\u00a01074-1083. PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (2012). Teleological minds: How natural intuitions about agency and purpose\u00a0 influence learning about evolution. In K. S. Rosengren, S. K. Brem, E. M. Evans & G. M. Sinatra (Eds.),\u00a0Evolution challenges: Integrating research and practice in teaching and learning about evolution. <\/em>Oxford: Oxford University Press.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Rottman, J. & Kelemen, D. (2012). Aliens behaving badly: Children’s acquisition of novel purity-based morals.\u00a0Cognition, 124,<\/em> 356\u2013360.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Rottman, J. & Kelemen, D. (2012). Is there such a thing as a Christian child? Evidence of religious beliefs in early childhood. In P. McNamara and W. Wildman (Eds.), Science and the world\u2019s religions: Persons and Groups.<\/em> Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Press.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D., Seston, R. & St. Georges, L. (2012). The designing mind: Children\u2019s reasoning about intended function and artifact structure.\u00a0Journal of Cognition and Development, 4,<\/em> 439\u2013453 (NB: Accepted May, 2011. Published online, December 2011). PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Phillips, B., Seston, R. & Kelemen, D. (2012). Learning about tool categories via eavesdropping. Child Development, 83, <\/em>2057\u20132072. PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Donovan, E. & Kelemen, D. (2011). Just rewards: Children and adults equate accidental inequity with intentional unfairness.\u00a0Journal of Cognition and Culture, 11,<\/em> 137\u2013150.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Dennis, T. A. & Kelemen, D. (2009). Children\u2019s views on emotion regulation: Functional links and implications for socio-emotional adjustment.\u00a0International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33, <\/em>243\u2013252.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. & Rosset, E. (2009). The Human Function Compunction: Teleological explanation in adults.\u00a0Cognition, 111<\/em>, 138\u2013143.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Casler, K. & Kelemen, D. (2008). Developmental continuity in the teleo-functional bias: Reasoning about nature among Romanian Roma adults (Gypsies).\u00a0Journal of Cognition and Development, 9, <\/em>340\u2013362.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n DiYanni, C. & Kelemen, D. (2008). Using a bad tool with good intention: Young children\u2019s imitation of adults\u2019 questionable choices.\u00a0Journal of Experimental Child Psychology: Special Issue on Imitation, 101,<\/em> 241\u2013261.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Casler, K. & Kelemen, D. (2007). Reasoning about artifacts at 24 months: The developing teleo-functional stance.\u00a0Cognition, 103, <\/em>120\u2013130.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. & Carey, S. (2007). The essence of artifacts: Developing the design stance. In S. Laurence & E. Margolis (Eds.), Creations of the Mind: Theories of artifacts and their representation.<\/em> Oxford: Oxford University Press.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. & Carey, S. (2007). Az artefaktumok (eszk\u00f6z\u00f6k) esszenci\u00e1ja. A tervezeti hozz\u00e1\u00e1ll\u00e1s kialakul\u00e1sa.\u00a0Magyar Pszichol\u00f3giai Szemle, 62,<\/em> 131\u2013159.<\/p>\n Lombrozo, T., Kelemen, D. & Zaitchik, D. (2007). Inferring design: Evidence of a preference for teleological explanations in patients with Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Psychological Science, 18,<\/em> 999\u20131006.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Casler, K. & Kelemen, D. (2005). Young children\u2019s rapid learning about artifacts. Developmental Science, 8,<\/em> 472\u2013480.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n DiYanni, C. & Kelemen, D. (2005). Time to get a new mountain? The role of function in children\u2019s conceptions of natural kinds.\u00a0Cognition, 97, <\/em>325\u2013335.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D., Callanan, M., Casler, K. & P\u00e9rez-Granados, D. R. (2005). Why things happen: Teleological explanation in parent-child conversations.\u00a0Developmental Psychology, 41,<\/em> 251\u2013264.PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. & DiYanni, C. (2005). Intuitions about origins: Purpose and intelligent design in children’s reasoning about nature.\u00a0Journal of Cognition and Development, 6,<\/em> 3\u201331.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (2004). Counterintuition, existential anxiety, and religion as a by-product of the designing mind.\u00a0Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27, <\/em>739\u2013740.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (2004). Are children “intuitive theists”?: Reasoning about purpose and design in nature. Psychological Science<\/em>, 15<\/em>, 295\u2013301. Reprinted in Wilkins, J. S. (Ed.), Intelligent design and religion as a natural phenomenon<\/em> (2010). Ashgate Press.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (2003). British and American children\u2019s preferences for teleological-functional explanations of the natural world.\u00a0Cognition, 8, <\/em>201\u2013221.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D., Widdowson, D., Posner, T., Brown, A. L. & Casler, K. (2003). Teleo-functional constraints on preschool children\u2019s reasoning about living things.\u00a0Developmental Science, 6, <\/em>329\u2013345.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (1999). Beliefs about purpose: On the origins of teleological thought. In M. Corballis and S. Lea (Eds.), The Descent of Mind. <\/em>Oxford: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (1999). Functions, goals and intentions: Children\u2019s teleological reasoning about objects.\u00a0Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12,<\/em> 461\u2013468.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (1999). The scope of teleological thinking in preschool children. Cognition, 70,<\/em> 241\u2013272.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Kelemen, D. (1999). Why are rocks pointy?: Children\u2019s preference for teleological explanations of the natural world.\u00a0Developmental Psychology, 35,<\/em> 1440\u20131453.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\n Bloom, P. & Kelemen, D. (1995). Syntactic cues in the acquisition of collective nouns.\u00a0Cognition, 56, <\/em>1\u201330.\u00a0PDF<\/a><\/p>\nPapers & Chapters<\/h4>\n