The DoT Lab @ Occidental College

AI is increasingly becoming a part of children's learning environments. How do children evaluate the morality of using AI? How do they evaluate peers who copy answers from AI? And when are children tempted to use AI to avoid challenges themselves? We seek to understand the changing motivational landscape in the age of AI.

When do children ask, "Why?" We explore whether children are more curious about why things differ in the world versus are the same. We will use these findings to discover how to promote children's curiosity about the world around them.

How do children approach disagreement with others? In this study, we examine children's ability to seek compromise following a disagreement with another child. We explore the role of children's intellectual humility, i.e., recognizing the limits of our own knowledge, in this process.

How do children feel about sharing versus withholding their answers in class? This study examines these questions, with the goal of informing new strategies to support students' confidence in the classroom.