Antonia Langenhoff

Our unique collaborative skills are widely viewed as the key to our success, both as a species and as individuals. The roots of these skills emerge already in infancy and continue to develop in early childhood, as children learn to coordinate their actions with others through behaviors like sharing, helping, and turn-taking. Yet, to become full-fledged members of society, children must not only learn to coordinate their behaviors, but also their thinking with others: from the moon landing to the discovery of DNA, many of humanity’s greatest achievements have come from people pooling their knowledge, challenging each other’s ideas, and working together toward solutions that none of them could have achieved alone. My research explores how children learn to engage in these cognitive collaborations–and how these interactions, in turn, shape their individual learning and development.