Graduate Research
Thinking about attending graduate school at UCR?
Please feel free to contact Dr. Richert by email (rebekahr@ucr.edu) or phone (951-827-4804) for more information about being a graduate student in the Childhood Cognition Lab.
Interested in participating in current paid research opportunities?
Families with kids ages 4-10 are invited!
Southern California Research Studies

"God's Moral Concepts"
Researcher: Bolivar Reyes-Jaquez
Children are often exposed to a variety of models during childhood, who serve as sources of information about what actions are considered right or wrong. Some of these models may include both “natural” agents (for example, parents, teachers, and peers) and “supernatural” agents (for example, God, Jesus, and angels). Due to the different “natures” of some of these models, children may form different beliefs about how likely it is for some (e.g., their dad) versus other (e.g., God) models to sometimes fail to act morally. In this study, 6- to 10-year-old children will hear stories describing comparable situations that involve either people only (e.g., a contestant offering a judge a gift in order to win the contest) or people and God (e.g., a contestant offering God to attend Church in order to win the contest). Children will then be asked to state their opinion about the appropriateness of the actions of those involved in the situations. This study will help understand, for example, whether and when people begin to form a concept of God’s morality that differs from that of humans’ morality.