Participants

Fifty-two parents (21 female) and their 4- to 6-years-old children (20 female, M_age = 5.43, range = 4.00–6.91) were recruited and tested as dyads in a science museum in the Northeast United States. All participants provided written consent according to standard protocols approved by the institutional review board of the corresponding author’s university. An additional five dyads were omitted from the sample; two dyads were omitted because of interference from the children’s siblings, two from video file loss, and one from experimenter error. The remaining samples of dyads were randomly assigned to one of two between-subjects conditions, scientific inquiry (n = 25) or scientific statements (n = 22). On average, parents had a high level of education, consistent with demographics of the average museum visitor (M_education = 17.36 years; Soren, 2009; Dawson, 2014). No significant condition differences in education levels were found. Overall, 41 out of 47 parents reported their occupations, of whom 14 (34.15%) had a STEM-related career. No significant differences were found in the percentage of parents who were employed in STEM-related careers between the conditions (Scientific inquiry: 38.1%; Scientific statements: 30.0%). Average child continuous age (in years) did not significantly differ between conditions, t(45) = 0.48, p = 0.64.