{"id":17,"date":"2020-11-28T12:49:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T12:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:51:30","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Information-seeking and curiosity<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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From infancy, children notoriously engage both in independent exploration and in seeking information from others. We are interested in understanding the underlying cognitive mechanisms of curiosity-driven learning and its effects on learning outcomes. With regards to the autonomous exploration, we are looking at individual differences in infants’ curiosity and what factors affect their self-guided information selection. On the active social learning side, we are conducting a series of studies to investigate how infants use their developmentally available communicative skills to solicit information from others in social learning contexts, especially in situations of knowledge-related uncertainty. We are also interested in the interplay between curiosity and creativity in early development.<\/p>\n

Check out our Curiosity Battery project: https:\/\/www.curiosity-battery.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Publications:<\/h4>\n

Karada\u011f, D., Westermann, G., & Bazhydai, M. (2026). Growing communicators: a fine-grained analysis of toddlers’ communicative intentions from requestive and expressive, to information seeking and giving. Infancy.<\/em>\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/infa.70072<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M., Wong, M. K., Altmann, E. C., Jones, S. D., & Westermann, G. (2026). No Evidence for Curiosity\u2010Driven Information Selection Advantage in Infants\u2019 Novel Word Learning. Developmental Science<\/i>,\u00a029<\/i>(1), e70101. https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/desc.70101<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Altmann, E. C., Bazhydai, M., Karada\u011f, D., & Westermann, G. (2025). The Infant and Toddler Curiosity Questionnaire: A validated caregiver-report measure of curiosity in children from 5 to 24 months. Infancy. https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/infa.70001?af=R<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Altmann, E. C., Bazhydai, M., Westermann, G. (2025). Curious Choices: Infants\u2019 moment-to-moment information sampling is driven by their exploration history. Cognition. <\/em>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cognition.2024.105976<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M., Jones, S. D., & Westermann, G. (Registered Report Stage 1 IPA). Does curiosity enhance word learning in 18-month-old infants? Developmental Science. <\/em>https:\/\/osf.io\/tvfqg\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Karada\u011f, D.*, Bazhydai, M., Ko\u015fkulu-Sancar, S., & \u015een, H. (2024). The breadth and specificity of 18-month-old\u2019s infant-initiated interactions in naturalistic home settings. Infant Behavior and Development.<\/em> https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0163638324000067<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M., & Harris, P. L. (2021). Infants actively seek and transmit knowledge via communication.<\/a> Commentary on Phillips et al “Knowledge before belief”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.<\/em> https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0140525X20001405<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M., Westermann, G., & Parise, E. (2020). \u201cI don\u2019t know but I know who to ask\u201d: 12-month-olds actively seek information from knowledgeable adults. <\/a><\/span>Developmental Science.<\/em> doi:10.1111\/desc.12938.\u00a0 Watch the video abstract!<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M., Twomey, K., Westermann, G. (2020). <\/span>Curiosity and exploration.<\/a> In: Benson, J.B. (Ed.), <\/span>Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development,<\/em> 2nd edition. vol. 1 (pp. 370\u2013378). Elsevier. <\/span>doi:10.1016\/B978-0-12-809324-5.05804-1<\/a><\/p>\n

Ronfard, S., Unlutabak, B., Bazhydai, M., Nicolopoulou, A., & Harris, P. L. (2020). Preschoolers in Belarus and Turkey accept but do not empirically verify an adult\u2019s counter-intuitive claim<\/a>.<\/span> International Journal of Behavioral Development.<\/em> doi:10.1177\/0165025420905344<\/a><\/p>\n

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Information transformation and creativity<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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This research theme concerns creativity, innovation, and play as cognitive processes, and the links between curiosity-driven information-seeking and creativity. It has been proposed that states of curiosity and wonder facilitate both optimal learning and creativity. We are particularly interested in children\u2019s innovative use of knowledge gained and actively sought through either social and autonomous means, and the differential effects of explicitly pedagogical instruction and intrinsically driven information-seeking on creative modification and ideation. We also aim to address the role of children’s affective states, especially when curiosity and creativity occur in highly ambiguous, and even potentially unsettling, contexts.<\/p>\n

Publications:<\/h4>\n

Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (2020). From curiosity, to wonder, to creativity: a cognitive developmental psychology perspective.<\/a> In A. Schinkel (Ed.), Wonder, education, and human flourishing<\/em>. VU University Press.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M., Ivcevic, Z., Widen, S. C., & Brackett, M. A. (2019). Breadth of emotion vocabulary in early adolescence.<\/a> Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 38, 378-404.<\/em> doi:10.1177\/0276236618765403<\/span><\/p>\n

Ivcevic, Z., Bazhydai, M.,<\/strong> Hoffmann, J., & Brackett, M. (2017).\u00a0Creativity in the domain of emotions.<\/a> In J. C. Kaufman, V. Glaveanu, & J. Baer (Eds.),\u00a0Cambridge handbook of creativity across different domains <\/em>(pp. 525-549). Cambridge University Press, UK.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoffmann, J. D., Ivcevic, Z., Zamora, G., Bazhydai, M., & Brackett, M. (2016). Intended persistence: Comparing academic and creative challenges in high school.<\/a> Social Psychology of Education<\/em>, 19<\/em>, 793-814. doi:10.1007\/s11218-016-9362-x<\/span><\/p>\n

Ebert (Bazhydai), M.,\u00a0Hoffmann, J. D., Ivcevic, Z., Phan, C., & Brackett, M. (2015).\u00a0Teaching emotion and creativity skills through art: a workshop for children. International Journal of Creativity and Problem Solving, 25, <\/em>23-35.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ebert (Bazhydai), M.,\u00a0Hoffmann, J. D., Ivcevic, Z., Phan, C., & Brackett, M. (2015).\u00a0Creativity, emotion and art: Development and initial evaluation of a workshop for professional adults.\u00a0International Journal of Creativity and Problem Solving<\/em>, 25<\/em>, 47-59.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Information transmission and teaching<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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In this line of research, we are interested in children’s active knowledge exchange in social interactions. Our research questions focus on the type of information children are more likely to transmit to others (i.e. complex or simple; socially or independently learned) and the social and epistemic profiles of people with whom they choose to share information (i.e. ignorant or knowledgeable, confident or shy; peer vs adult) . We conduct experimental laboratory-based and online studies of toddlers’ active information transmission in social learning contexts, as well as investigate these behaviours as they occur spontaneously through analysing child-caregiver daily interactions.<\/p>\n

Publications:<\/h4>\n

Karada\u011f, D., Westermann, G., & Bazhydai, M. (2026). Growing communicators: a fine-grained analysis of toddlers’ communicative intentions from requestive and expressive, to information seeking and giving. Infancy.<\/em>\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/infa.70072<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Moll, H., Qiu, F. W., Bazhydai, M., & Frye, D. (2025). The Early Emergence of Pedagogical Knowledge: Introduction to the Research Topic” Children’s Teaching”.\u00a0Frontiers in Developmental Psychology<\/i>,\u00a03<\/i>, 1699342.https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fdpys.2025.1699342<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Karada\u011f, D., Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (2025). Two-year-old but not 5-year-old children transmit previously instructed information. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology<\/em>. https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/journals\/developmental-psychology\/articles\/10.3389\/fdpys.2025.1553491\/abstract<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Karadag, D., Bazhydai, M., & Westermann, G. (2024). Toddlers do not preferentially transmit generalizable information to others. Developmental Science. <\/em>e13479. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/desc.13479<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M., & Karada\u011f, D. (2022). Can bifocal stance theory explain children’s selectivity in active information transmission? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45,<\/em> E251. doi:10.1017\/S0140525X22001327<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M., & Harris, P. L. (2021). Infants actively seek and transmit knowledge via communication.<\/a> Commentary on Phillips et al “Knowledge before belief”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. <\/em>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0140525X20001405<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gruber, T., Bazhydai., M., Sievers, C., Cl\u00e9ment, F., & Dukes, D. (2021). The ABC of social learning: Affect, Behaviour and Cognition.<\/a> Psychological Review. <\/em>https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/record\/2021-66338-001.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bazhydai, M.*, Silverstein, P.*, Parise, E., & Westermann, G. (2020). Two-year old children preferentially transmit simple actions but not pedagogically demonstrated actions.<\/a> Developmental Science.<\/em> doi:10.1111\/desc.12941<\/a> (*equal contribution). Watch the Video Abstract!<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Information-seeking and curiosity From infancy, children notoriously engage both in independent exploration and in seeking information from others. We are interested in understanding the underlying cognitive mechanisms of curiosity-driven learning and its effects on learning outcomes. With regards to the autonomous exploration, we are looking at individual differences in infants’ curiosity and what factors affect… Continue reading Research<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":800,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/800"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":67,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/all\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}