Samantha Basch

All Publications

• A cultural perspective of action-based learning by infants and young children. Advances in child development and behavior Wang, S. H., Basch, S. 2024; 67: 164-199

  Abstract

  Decades of research have informed about ways in which infants and young children learn through action in connection with their sensory system. However, this research has not strongly addressed the issues of cultural diversity or taken into account everyday cultural experiences of young learners across different communities. Diversifying the scholarship of early learning calls for paradigm shifts, extending beyond the analysis at the individual level to make close connections with real-world experience while placing culture front and center. On the other hand, cultural research that specifies diversity in caregiver guidance and scaffolding, while providing insights into young learners' cultural experiences, has been conducted separately from the research of action-based cross-modal learning. Taking everyday activities as contexts for learning, in this chapter, we summarize seminal work on cross-modal learning by infants and young children that connects action and perception, review empirical evidence of cultural variations in caregiver guidance for early action-based learning, and make recommendations of research approaches for advancing the scientific understanding about cultural ways of learning across diverse communities.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/bs.acdb.2024.07.003

  View details for PubMedID 39260903

• Causal learning by infants and young children: From computational theories to language practices. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science Basch, S., Wang, S. H. 2024; 15 (4): e1678

  Abstract

  Causal reasoning-the ability to reason about causal relations between events-is fundamental to understanding how the world works. This paper reviews two prominent theories on early causal learning and offers possibilities for theory bridging. Both theories grow out of computational modeling and have significant areas of overlap while differing in several respects. Explanation-Based Learning (EBL) focuses on young infants' learning about causal concepts of physical objects and events, whereas Bayesian models have been used to describe causal reasoning beyond infancy across various concept domains. Connecting the two models offers a more integrated approach to clarifying the developmental processes in causal reasoning from early infancy through later childhood. We further suggest that everyday language practices offer a promising space for theory bridging. We provide a review of selective work on caregiver-child conversations, in particular, on the use of scaffolding language including causal talk and pedagogical questions. Linking the research on language practices to the two cognitive theories, we point out directions for further research to integrate EBL and Bayesian models and clarify how causal learning unfolds in real life. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Learning Cognitive Biology > Cognitive Development.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/wcs.1678

  View details for PubMedID 38567762

• Minoritized Students’ Experiences With Pandemic-Era Remote Learning Inform Ways of Expanding Access Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology Basch, S., Covarrubias, R., Wang, S. 2022

  View details for DOI 10.1037/stl0000330

• Dismantling Persistent Deficit Narratives About the Language and Literacy of Culturally and Linguistically Minoritized Children and Youth: Counter-Possibilities FRONTIERS IN EDUCATION Wang, S., Lang, N., Bunch, G. C., Basch, S., McHugh, S. R., Huitzilopochtli, S., Callanan, M. 2021; 6

  View details for DOI 10.3389/feduc.2021.641796

  View details for Web of Science ID 000679103800001