I study how young children reason beyond explicitly available information, what motivates them to act on norms and values, and how these developing capacities contribute to emerging ideas about meaning, character, and the self. Drawing on developmental and cognitive science, my work examines how children make inferences, form judgments, and translate what they know into action.
Inference
Reasoning beyond what is explicitly taught
Social information is rarely complete. My work asks how children fill in the gaps: what they infer from permissions, prohibitions, obligations, other people’s intentions, and social feedback.
Closure principles in normative reasoning
How children infer what is permitted or prohibited when rules leave actions unmentioned, and how these inferences change across early childhood.
Intentions, outcomes, and moral explanation
How children explain mismatches between what a person meant to do and what actually happened—and what those explanations reveal about responsibility and character.
Manuscripts +
Stegall, J., Xiong, E., & Kushnir, T. First-Person Normative Inferences in Early Childhood. Manuscript in preparation.
Stegall, J., Mikhail, J., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2026). Reasoning Beyond Explicit Rules: Adults’ and Children’s Use of Closure Principles in Novel Cases. Cognitive Science.
Asaba, M., Stegall, J., Hembacher, E., Frank, M., & Gweon, H. (2025). Young children infer the informativeness of others’ praise. Developmental Psychology.
Stegall, J., Mikhail, J., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Underdetermination and Obligation Rules: Adult and Children’s Use of Closure Principles in Moral Learning. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Research Talks +
Stegall, J. (2026). First-Person Normative Inference in Early Childhood. Oral presentation, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Baltimore, MD.
Stegall, J., Mikhail, J., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Underdetermination and Obligation Rules: Adult and Children’s Use of Closure Principles in Moral Learning. Oral presentation, Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Sydney, Australia.
Stegall, J., Mikhail, J., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2023). Underdetermination and Obligation Rules: Adult and Children’s Use of Closure Principles in Moral Learning. Oral presentation, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Pittsburgh, PA.
Research Posters +
Stegall, J., Xiong, E.**, & Kushnir, T. (2026). First-Person Norm Inference Precedes Social Generalization in Early Childhood. Poster, Social Minds Preconference, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Chicago, IL.
Xiong, E.**, Stegall, J., & Kushnir, T. (2026). First-Person Norm Inference Precedes Social Generalization in Early Childhood. Poster, Judgment and Decision-Making Preconference, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Chicago, IL.
Asaba, M., Stegall, J., Frank, M., & Gweon, H. (2021). Seeking information or affirmation: Young children’s decisions about whom to approach for praise. Virtual poster, Society for Research in Child Development.
Motivation & Action
When do norms become worth following?
I am interested in the difference between merely knowing a norm and being motivated to act on it. My behavioral studies examine whether young children follow norms when doing so is costly, ambiguous, or unmonitored.
Costly normative action
Experimental work testing when children follow rules despite more attractive alternatives, and how different forms of social guidance shape intrinsic versus externally driven compliance.
From inference to enforcement
Research connecting children’s own behavior in ambiguous situations with their third-party judgments and willingness to protest another person’s behavior.
Manuscripts +
Stegall, J., Yucel, M., Zhao, X., Yu, Y., Tomasello, M., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. Obligation as a motive: Children comply with norms and directives even when no one is watching. Under review at Child Development.
Research Posters +
Auddino, H.**, Stegall, J., Sommerville, J., & Kushnir, T. (2026). Behavior Isn’t Everything: Classifying Physiological Signatures of Costly Norm-Following in Preschoolers. Poster, Cognitive Development Society Conference, Montreal, Canada.
Stegall, J., Auddino, H.**, Yucel, M., Zhao, X., Yu, Y., Tomasello, M., Nichols, J., & Kushnir, T. (2025). Children’s Developing Sense of Normative Responsibility in Costly Contexts. Poster, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Ithaca, NY.
Auddino, H.**, Stegall, J., Yucel, M., Zhao, X., Yu, Y., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Children’s willingness to pay a cost to follow rules depends on context and gender. Poster, Duke Undergraduate Research Symposium, Durham, NC.
Stegall, J., Yucel, M., Zhao, X., Yu, Y., Nichols, S., & Kushnir, T. (2024). Exploring children’s motivation to pay a cost to follow rules. Presented at the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Moral Psychology Research Group, and Cognitive Development Society Conference.
Becoming
Meaning, purpose, and moral self-cultivation
My emerging research program asks when children begin to see themselves not only as people who can make good choices, but as people who can intentionally cultivate their own character.
Moral aspirations
When do children recognize moral self-improvement as valuable, aspire to become better people, and understand that character can be deliberately shaped over time?
Existential development
How do children begin to distinguish what is merely enjoyable from what is meaningful, worthwhile, or worth pursuing—and what role do agency and responsibility play in those judgments?
Current & Future Work +
I am developing a new line of research on moral self-cultivation and the early foundations of existential development, including how children come to value self-improvement, form aspirations about the people they want to become, and understand meaning and purpose. This emerging program is the focus of a current Templeton funding proposal.
Additional Scholarship +
Manuscript. Stegall, J., Muñoz, M., Revell, S., Bratschi, P., Gaither, S., & Kushnir, T. Storybook-Guided Museum Exploration Boosts Science Identity, Efficacy, and Interest Across Children of Distinct Science Capital Backgrounds. Manuscript in preparation.
Review. Kushnir, T., Katz, T., & Stegall, J. (2023). A Review of “Becoming Human.” Journal of Cognition and Development.
Article. Chuey, A., Asaba, M., Bridgers, S., Carrillo, B., Dietz, G., Garcia, T., Leonard, J., Liu, S., Merrick, M., Radwan, S., Stegall, J., et al. (2021). Moderated Online Data-Collection for Developmental Research: Methods and Replications. Frontiers.
Paper symposium. Revell, S.*, Stegall, J.*, & Kushnir, T. (2025). From Conversations to Counterspaces: Fostering Young Children’s Belonging and Motivation in STEM. Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
Poster. Daffre, C., Bellaiche, L., Markert, S. K., Camacho, N. L., Diehl, J. M., Bagdasarov, A., Stegall, J., Finiasz, Z., Carosa, C. L., Xie, K. J., & Rosenthal, M. Z. (2024). Duke University’s Anti-Racism Community: Objectives, data, and directions from a trainee-led movement towards inclusivity. Society for Clinical Psychology, APA Division 12 Conference, Atlanta, GA.