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Podcast Episode

176 - Elizabeth Bonawitz: How to Have Fun While Studying How Children Learn so Much From so Little

Stanford Psychology Podcast·Stanford Psychology·30 May 2026·46 min

About this episode

Adani chats with Elizabeth Bonawitz, Professor of Learning Sciences at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Elizabeth’s work focuses on basic theories of learning with the broader goal of informing educational practice. She uses computational, behavioral, and neural methods to study a broad variety of things within cognitive development, from children’s curiosity and belief revision to their exploration and play. We discuss Elizabeth’s view of cognitive development research and, most importantly, the secret formula behind her great academic paper titles and funny talks. Elizabeth also tells us about her path into science and what she’s most excited for next! Elizabeth’s lab page: https://ccdlab.hsites.harvard.edu/people/elizabeth-bonawitz Elizabeth’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MA7j1gkAAAAJ Susan Carey’s paper, ‘Science Education as Conceptual Change’: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(99)00046-5 Adani’s website: https://www.adaniabutto.com Adani’s Bluesky @adani Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod Podcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/ Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com