Publications

For representative publications, see Leonard et al., (2021) 'Leveraging cognitive science to foster children’s persistence' and Leonard et al., (2017)'Infants make more attempts to achieve a goal when they see adults persist'.

In Press / Under Review

Asaba, M., Santos, M., Jara-Ettinger, J., & Leonard, J.A. (In Press). Adolescents are most motivated by encouragement from someone who knows their abilities and the domain. Developmental Psychology. [PsyArXiv]

Zhang, F., McDougle, S., & Leonard, J.A. (under review). People accurately predict the shape of skill learning curves. [PsyArXiv]

Zhang, F.*, Carrillo, B.*, Christakis, A.C., & Leonard, J.A. (under review). Children predict improvement on novel motor tasks. [PsyArXiv]

Asaba, M., Davis, I., Leonard, J.A., & Jara-Ettinger, J.E. (under review). Detecting social biases using mental state inference. [PsyArXiv]

Serko, D., Leonard, J.A. & Ruggeri, A. (under review). Children strategically decide what to practice. [PsyArXiv]

Decker, A.D., Leonard, J.A. *, Romeo, R.*, Itiat, J., Hubbard, N.A., Bauer, C.C.C., Grotzinger, H., Giebler, M.A., Torres, Y.C., Imhof, A., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (under review). Exploration is Associated with Socioeconomic Disparities in Learning and Academic Achievement in Adolescents

Published articles

Shachnai, R., Asaba, M., Hu, L., & Leonard, J.A. (2024). Pointing out learning opportunities reduces over-parenting. Child Development. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14198 [PsyArXiv] [PDF]

Leonard, J.A. & Sommerville, J.A. (2024). A unified account of why optimism declines in childhood. Nature Reviews Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00384-z [PDF]

Trevers, I.N., Marusak, H., Decker, A., Kucyi, A., Hubbard, N.A., Bauer, C.C., Leonard, J.A., Grotzinger, H., Giebler, M.A., Torres, Y.C., Imhof, A., Romero, R., Calhoun, V.D., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2024). Dynamic functional connectivity correlates of trait mindfulness in early adolescence. Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science

McDermott, C., Taylor, K., Lydon-Staley, D., Leonard, J.A., & Mackey, A.P. (2024). Sensitivity to psychosocial influences at age 3 predicts mental health in middle childhood. Developmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13531 [PDF]

Wang, E., Radovanovic, M., Sommerville, J. & Leonard, J.A. (2024). Practice what you preach: Consistent messages about the value of effort foster children’s persistence. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Carrillo, B., Asaba, M., Lozano, L., Okine, L., & Leonard, J.A. (2024). Young children reason about adults’ achievement goals for them. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Popat, A., & Leonard, J.A. (2024). “I’m here for my gender, not my skill”: Causal reasoning shapes beliefs about merit in response to DEI initiatives. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Asaba, M., Zhang, M., & Leonard, J.A. (2024). Children expect adults to hold gender stereotypes, even when they are not accurate. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Zhang, F.*, Carrillo, B.*, & Leonard, J.A. (2023). Children’s developing understanding of learning as improvement over time. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Decker, A., Meisler, S. L., Hubbard, N., Bauer, C., Leonard, J.A., Imhoff, A., Giebler, M., Grotzinger, H., Camacho Torres, Y., Romeo, R., & Gabrieli, J.E. (2023). Striatal and behavioral responses to reward vary by socioeconomic status in adolescents. Journal of Neuroscience.https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1633-23.2023. [PDF]

Asaba, M.*, Davis, I.*, Leonard, J.A., & Jara-Ettinger, J. (2023). Detecting social biases using mental state inference. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Cordrey, S., Liu, H.S., & Mackey, A.P. (2022). Young children calibrate effort based on the trajectory of their performance. Developmental Psychology. [PsyArXiv] [PDF]

Tooley, U.T., Park, A.T., Leonard, J.A., Boroshok, A.L., McDermott, C.L., Tisdall, M.D., Bassett, D.S., & Mackey, A.P. (2022). The age of reason: Functional brain network development during childhood. Journal of Neuroscience. [BioRxiv] [PDF]

Park, A.T., Richardson, H., Tooley, U.A., McDermott, C.L., Boroshok, A.L., Ke, A., Leonard, J.A., Tisdall, M.D., Deater-Deckard, K., Edgar, J.C., & Mackey, A.P. (2022). Early stressful experiences are associated with reduced neural responses to naturalistic emotional and social content in children. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. [PsyArXiv] [paper]

Asaba, M., Santos, M., Jara-Ettinger, J., & Leonard, J.A. (2022). Adolescents are most motivated by encouragement from someone who knows their abilities and the domain. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Zhang, F., McDougle, S., & Leonard, J.A. (2022). Thinking about doing: Representations of skill learning. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Serko, D., Leonard, J.A., & Ruggeri, A. (2022). Developmental changes in children’s training strategies.Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Hart, Y., Kosoy, E., Liquin, E., Leonard, J.A., Mackey, A.P., & Gopnik, A. (2022). The development of creative search strategies. Cognition, 225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105102 [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Lydon-Staley, D.M., Sharp, S., Liu, H.Z., Park, A.T., Bassett, D.S., Duckworth, A.L., & Mackey, A.P. (2021). Daily fluctuations in young children’s persistence. Child Development https://doi/10.1111/cdev.13717 [PsyArXiv] [OSF] [PDF]

Chuey, A., Asaba, M., Bridgers, S., Carrillo, B., Dietz, G., Garcia, T., Leonard, J.A., Liu, S., Merrick, M., Radwan, S., Stegall, J., Velez, N., Woo, B., Wu, Y., Zhou, X., Frank, M.C, & Gweon, H. (2021). Examining the Validity of Online Methods for Developmental Research. Frontiers special issue on Empirical Research at a Distance: New Methods for Developmental Science, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.734398 [paper]

Kominsky, J.F., Begus, K., Bass, I., Colantonio, J., Leonard, J.A., Mackey, A., & Bonawitz, E. (2021). Organizing the methodological toolbox: Lessons learned from implementing developmental methods online. Frontiers special issue on Empirical Research at a Distance: New Methods for Developmental Science, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.702710 [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Duckworth, A.L., Schulz, L.E., & Mackey, A.P. (2021). Leveraging cognitive science to foster children’s persistence. Trends in Cognitive Science https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.05.005 [PDF]

Romeo, R.R., Leonard, J.A., Grotziner, H.M., Robinson, S.T., Takada, M.E., Mackey, A.P., Scherer, E., Rower, M.L., West, M.R. Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2021). Neuroplasticity associated with conversational turn-taking following a family-based intervention. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 49(100967).[PDF]

Romeo, R.R.*, Leonard, J.A.*, Robinson, S.T., Mackey, A.P., West, M.R., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2021). Replication and extension of a family-based training program to improve cognitive abilities in young children. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2021.1931999 [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Martinez, D.N., Dashineau, S.C., Park, A.T., & Mackey, A.P. (2021). Children persist less when adults take over. Child Development, 91(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13305 [PDF] [PsyArXiv] [OSF]

Park, A. T., Tooley, U.A., Leonard, J.A., Boroshok, A. L., McDermott, C.L., Tisdall, D. & Mackey, A.P. (2021). Early childhood stress is associated with blunted development of ventral tegmental area functional connectivity. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Sandler, J., Nerenberg, A., Rubio, A., Schulz, L.E., & Mackey, A. P. (2020). Preschoolers are sensitive to their performance over time. Proceedings of the 42st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Garcia, A., & Schulz, L.E. (2019). How adults’ actions, outcomes, and testimony affect preschoolers’ persistence. Child Development . https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13305 [PDF] [OSF]

Leonard, J.A., Bennet-Pierre, G., & Gweon, H. (2019). Who is better? Preschoolers infer relative competence based on efficiency of process and quality of outcome. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Romeo, R.R., Park, A., Takada, M.E., Robinson, S.T., ... Mackey, A.P. (2019). Associations between cortical thickness and reasoning vary by socioeconomic status in early childhood and adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience , 36(100641). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100641[PDF] [OSF]

Romeo, R.R., Seragan, J., Leonard, J.A., Robinson, S.T., West, M.R., Mackey, A.P., ...Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2018). Language exposure relates to structural neural connectivity in childhood. Journal of Neuroscience, 0484-18. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsy017 [PDF]

Park, A.T., Leonard, J.A., Saxler, P.K., Cyr, A.B., Gabrieli, J.D., & Mackey, A.P. (2018). Amygdala–medial prefrontal cortex connectivity relates to stress and mental health in early childhood. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, , 13(4), 430-439. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsy017. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsy017 [PDF]

Romeo, R. R., Leonard, J.A., Robinson, S. T., Rowe, M. L., Mackey, A. P., Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2017). The neural correlates of the “30 million word gap”: Childhood conversational exposure is associated with language-related brain function. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617742725 [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Lee, Y., & Schulz, L.E. (2017). Infants make more attempts to achieve a goal when they see adults persist. Science 357(6357), 1290-1294. doi:10.1126/science.aan2317 [PDF] [Supplementary Materials] [OSF]

Shusterman, A., Cheung, P., Taggart, J., Bass, T., Leonard, J.A., & Schwartz, A. (2017). Conceptual Correlates of Counting: Children’s Spontaneous Matching and tracking of Large Sets Reflects their Knowledge of the Cardinal Principle. The Journal of Numerical Cognition, 3(1), 1-30. doi:10.5964/jnc.v3i1.65 [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Flournoy, J., Lewis-de los Angeles, C., & Whitaker, K. (2017). How much motion is too much motion? Determining motion thresholds by sample size for reproducibility in developmental resting-state MRI. Research Ideas and Outcomes, 3: e12569. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.3.e12569 [PDF]

Finn, A.S., Minas, J., Leonard, J.A., Mackey, A.P., Salvatore, J., Goetz, C., West, M., Gabrieli C.F.O. & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2016). Functional brain organization of working memory in adolescents varies in relation to family income and academic achievement. Developmental Science. doi:110.1111/desc.12450 [PDF]

Cain, M.S., Leonard, J.A., Gabrieli, J.D.E., & Finn, A.S. (2016). Multi-media tasking in adolescents. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-10. doi: 10.3758/s13423-016-1036-3[PDF]

Finn, A.S, Kalra, P.B., Goetz, C, Leonard, J.A., Sheridan, M.A., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2016). Developmental dissociation between the maturation of procedural memory and declarative memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 142, 212-22 [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Mackey, A.P., Finn, A. S., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2015). Differential effects of socioeconomic status on declarative and procedural memory. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9:554. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00554 [PDF]

Mackey, A.P., Finn, A.S., Leonard, J.A., Jacoby-Senghor, D.S., West, M.R., Gabrieli, C.F., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2015). Neuroanatomical correlates of the income-achievement gap. Psychological Science, doi:0956797615572233 [PDF]

Chai, X.J., Hirshfeld-Becker, D., Biederman, J., Uchida, M., Doehrmann, O., Leonard, J.A., ... & Whitfield-Gabrieli, S. (2015). Altered intrinsic functional brain architecture in children at familial risk of major depression. Biological Psychiatry. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.12.003 [PDF]

Chai, X.J., Hirshfeld-Becker, D., Biederman, J., Uchida, M., Doehrmann, O., Leonard, J.A., ... & Gabrieli, J. D. (2015). Functional and structural brain correlates of risk for major depression in children with familial depression. NeuroImage: Clinical, 8, 398- 407. doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2015.05.004 [PDF]

Leonard, J.A., Berkowitz, T., & Shusterman, A. (2014). The effect of friendly touch on delay-of-gratification in preschool children. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1-11, doi: 10.1080/17470218.2014.907325 [PDF]

Plummer, D.B., Galla. B.M., Finn, A.S., Patrick, S.D., Meketon, D., Leonard, J.A. … Duckworth, A.L. (2014). A behind-the-scenes guide to school-based research. Mind, Brain, and Education, 8(1), 15-20. doi: 10.111mbe.12040 [PDF]

Finn, A.S., Kraft, M., West, M., Leonard, J.A., Bisk, C., Martin, R., Sheridan, M.A., Gabrieli, C.F.O., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2014). Cognitive skills, student achievement tests, and schools. Psychological Science, 25(3), 736-44. doi: 10.1177/0956797613516008 [PDF]

ArXiv

Leonard, J.A., Kleiman-Weiner, M., Lee, Y., Tenenbaum, J., & Schulz, L.E. (2017). Preschoolers and Infants Calibrate Persistence from Adult Models. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ywn4h [PDF] [PsyArXiv]

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