How do children learn? One feature of young children's learning is that it is incredibly social. They learn not only directly from what other people say or do, but also by drawing rich inferences from how others say or do. By examining how social interactions shape children’s learning, Yue’s ultimate goal is 1) to address the theoretical question of why the human species is uniquely efficient in accumulating knowledge, and 2) to inform how parents and educators can better facilitate children’s learning in formal and informal educational settings.

Questioning in teaching and learning

Asking questions is a core component of teaching and learning, but what makes questions effective in eliciting learning? Yue’s research examines the cognitive mechanism behind learning through questioning. Using experimental, observational, interventional and computational methods, he investigates how children learn from pedagogical questions - those asked by a knowledgeable person who intends to teach.

Here is the video abstract for a study that explores the different effects of pedagogical questioning and direct instruction on children's exploratory learning.

Imitation

Human children are judicious imitators. They imitate to learn new skills, to follow social norms, and to have fun. Yue’s research explores how variations in children's imitative behaviour reflect these different motivations. He examines 1) how social contexts affect children's imitative response, and 2) how individual differences in imitative behaviour relate to children's age, cognitive capacities, temperament, and social experience.

Causal learning

Yue’s third line of research examines how learning is affected by the in which information is presented. For example, will children be more likely to infer teaching when information is presented in a well-timed, clearly focused sequence? Will they learn differently after watching an identical set of actions and events being presented in different orders? He examines these questions in the context of causal learning.

Here is an example of stimuli used in one of the studies. After watching the video, do you think the yellow blocks are Blickets?

Understanding choices and conventions

In collaboration with Tamar Kushnir from Duke University and Xin Zhao from East China Normal University, Yue studies how children and adults decide what they can or cannot do when facing different internal and external constraints, and how that differs across individuals and cultures.

Yue is also a site PI for the Developing Belief Network, an international collaboration that studies the cognitive and cultural Influences on children's religious beliefs and practices.

Computational Modelling

In collaboration with members of the CaDas lab, Yue explores ways to simulate learning/teaching using computational modelling and data science tools. One example is the model of cooperative inference, which provides a measure of communication effectiveness between a teacher and a learner in a cooperative setting. Another example is a computational framework which attempts to unify teaching and active learning.