Publications, ongoing projects, and research experience
Research interest
I am broadly interested in cognitive development and in how children learn about and form causal understandings of the world. I am particularly interested in curiosity and how it shapes what people learn, the questions they ask, and what they learn from others (including both from people and machines such as AI). More specifically, I study epistemic curiosity (the intrinsic motivation to seek information and reduce uncertainty) and how it is influenced by people and environments around us. I study how curiosity develops across childhood and beyond, and how we might better support it. I use experiments with children, adolescents, and adults, while developing expertise in computational modeling and neuroimaging to investigate these questions.
Publications
The Impact of Pre-College Mentorship on the Development of Students' STEM Identity
Blerim Jashari, Gerhard Sonnert, Susan Sunbury, & Philip Sandler
(Under review)Children Learn More When They Think Their Teacher Is AI
Blerim Jashari, Ilona Bass, Candice Mills, Tomer Ullman, & Elizabeth Bonawitz
(In preparation)Seeing Oneself as a STEM Person: The Role of STEM Role Models
Blerim Jashari, Gerhard Sonnert, Susan Sunbury, & Philip Sandler
(In preparation)Friendships as a Social Context for STEM Identity
Blerim Jashari, Gerhard Sonnert, Susan Sunbury, & Philip Sandler
(In preparation)Ongoing projects
Children's Question-Asking when They Think They're Learning with AI Versus Human Teachers
Investigating how children ask questions after learning challenging scientific content when told they will interact with either an AI chatbot or a human teacher.
AI, Question-Asking, and Learning in University Students
Investigating whether access to an AI chatbot supports learning of challenging academic material, and how the perceived social context of that interaction shapes students' question-asking behavior.
How Others Shape Children's Question-Asking and Metacognitive Engagement
Investigating how peers can play a role in shaping children's own question-asking and metacognitive engagement with science content.
Is Curiosity Contagious?
Investigating how others' (parents and peers) exploration and motivation to explore shapes children's own exploration and learning.
Children's Belief Revision and Neuroimaging
Investigating how children ages 5–9 revise beliefs about causal mechanisms in science using EEG and Bayesian computational modeling.