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Description: From an early age, children show a keen interest in discovering the causal structure of the world around them and show precocious abilities to reason about this structure. Given how fundamental causal information is to scientific inquiry and knowledge, this early attunement might be important in propelling the development of scientific literacy. This project explores the origins and development of children's causal stance and reasoning skills, as well as their potential relation to emergent scientific literacy. Two research questions regarding the experiential origins of, and outcomes, associated with preschooler's causal stance were originally funded by the NSF (#1762158). Causal reasoning measures were later added to address parallel questions regarding potentially relevant skills (in contrast to motivations). A number of executive function measures were also later added as part of a student dissertation.