Pub Date : 2026-01-21DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106462
Yu Gu , Yini Sun , Chenglin Li , Xiaohua Cao
The developmental trajectory of holistic processing in preschoolers remains controversial. Clarifying this trajectory is crucial to understand the mechanisms underlying facial recognition. This study recruited approximately 150 preschoolers and employed a complete composite paradigm to investigate the developmental trajectory in preschool children. Findings from two experiments revealed that holistic face processing is stably established in Chinese children as young as 3.5-years old both in simultaneous (Experiment 1) and sequential matching tasks (Experiment 2). Furthermore, holistic processing characterized by the composite effect in preschoolers was similar to that in adults. These findings provide valuable insights into the early development of face-processing abilities and highlight the robustness of holistic processing in young children.
{"title":"A stable composite face effect in 3.5-year-old Chinese children: Evidence from a complete composite paradigm","authors":"Yu Gu , Yini Sun , Chenglin Li , Xiaohua Cao","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106462","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106462","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The developmental trajectory of holistic processing in preschoolers remains controversial. Clarifying this trajectory is crucial to understand the mechanisms underlying facial recognition. This study recruited approximately 150 preschoolers and employed a complete composite paradigm to investigate the developmental trajectory in preschool children. Findings from two experiments revealed that holistic face processing is stably established in Chinese children as young as 3.5-years old both in simultaneous (Experiment 1) and sequential matching tasks (Experiment 2). Furthermore, holistic processing characterized by the composite effect in preschoolers was similar to that in adults. These findings provide valuable insights into the early development of face-processing abilities and highlight the robustness of holistic processing in young children.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106462"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-21DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106463
Yihua Hong, Michael T. Willoughby
This brief report explored the contributions of classroom quality and student–teacher relationship (STR) to the executive function (EF) and academic performance of first grade children. Participants included 898 first grade students from 439 classrooms in Eastern North Carolina and Central Pennsylvania who participated in the Family Life Project. Using hierarchical linear models, our analysis found that at student level, higher levels of student–teacher conflict were consistently associated with lower EF, math, and literacy achievement; teacher-student closeness was not uniquely associated with any outcome. At class level, higher instructional support was uniquely associated better literacy achievement, but not math or EF. Emotional support and classroom organization were not uniquely associated with any outcome. The association of STR with student outcomes did not vary by student gender, race/ethnicity, family income levels or prior skills. Results are discussed with respect to ongoing efforts to understand how teachers best support student cognitive and academic development. Emphasizing the relative benefits of reducing conflict over increasing closeness is noteworthy.
{"title":"Exploring the role of classroom quality and student-teacher relationship in the executive function and academic performance of first grade children","authors":"Yihua Hong, Michael T. Willoughby","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106463","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106463","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This brief report explored the contributions of classroom quality and student–teacher relationship (STR) to the executive function (EF) and academic performance of first grade children. Participants included 898 first grade students from 439 classrooms in Eastern North Carolina and Central Pennsylvania who participated in the Family Life Project. Using hierarchical linear models, our analysis found that at student level, higher levels of student–teacher conflict were consistently associated with lower EF, math, and literacy achievement; teacher-student closeness was not uniquely associated with any outcome. At class level, higher instructional support was uniquely associated better literacy achievement, but not math or EF. Emotional support and classroom organization were not uniquely associated with any outcome. The association of STR with student outcomes did not vary by student gender, race/ethnicity, family income levels or prior skills. Results are discussed with respect to ongoing efforts to understand how teachers best support student cognitive and academic development. Emphasizing the relative benefits of reducing conflict over increasing closeness is noteworthy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106463"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106461
Ilyse Resnick , Alexandria A. Viegut , Christina Areizaga Barbieri , Nora S. Newcombe , Nancy C. Jordan
Eighty children were studied from the start of first grade (mean age = 6.68, range 6.03–7.48) through to the end of second grade to characterize initial informal fraction knowledge and its relation to later informal fraction knowledge and mathematics achievement. Children’s understanding of informal fractions grew across first and second grade, despite little formal fraction instruction. Children showed relatively higher performance in nonsymbolic fraction items compared with symbolic items. Gains in understanding the concept of ‘half’ characterized first grade, with higher gains in understanding “thirds” and “fourths” in second grade. There were large individual differences at all timepoints in informal fraction knowledge. Variation in informal fraction knowledge at the start of first grade predicted later mathematics achievement at the end of second grade, even when including number sense in the model. These findings suggest that early informal fraction knowledge is a foundational number skill, whose growth is intertwined with growth in facility with integers.
{"title":"Early informal fraction knowledge matters: a longitudinal investigation between first and second grades","authors":"Ilyse Resnick , Alexandria A. Viegut , Christina Areizaga Barbieri , Nora S. Newcombe , Nancy C. Jordan","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106461","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106461","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Eighty children were studied from the start of first grade (mean age = 6.68, range 6.03–7.48) through to the end of second grade to characterize initial informal fraction knowledge and its relation to later informal fraction knowledge and mathematics achievement. Children’s understanding of informal fractions grew across first and second grade, despite little formal fraction instruction. Children showed relatively higher performance in nonsymbolic fraction items compared with symbolic items. Gains in understanding the concept of ‘half’ characterized first grade, with higher gains in understanding “thirds” and “fourths” in second grade. There were large individual differences at all timepoints in informal fraction knowledge. Variation in informal fraction knowledge at the start of first grade predicted later mathematics achievement at the end of second grade, even when including number sense in the model. These findings suggest that early informal fraction knowledge is a foundational number skill, whose growth is intertwined with growth in facility with integers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106461"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146020260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-19DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106460
Elizabeth M. Swanson , Ana Antonio , Alex de Carvalho
Prior work has found that before age 8, children do not typically draw contrastive inferences from sentences containing the connective but. In this study, we examined whether children’s non-adult-like comprehension of sentences with but is due to a failure to understand the contrastive meaning of the connective, or whether their behavior may stem from a more general difficulty with revising expectations formed early in sentence processing. In Experiment 1, 96 French-learning 6- to 9-year-old children heard sentences containing so or but, and with or without negation in the second clause (e.g., “Lea wanted to heat up her food, [so/but] she (didn’t) put it in the rane”) and were asked to select the picture matching the novel word rane (oven or refrigerator). Regardless of the connective used or the presence of negation, children always chose the image associated with the context of the initial clause (here, the oven). In Experiment 2 with 48 French-learning 6- to 9-year-olds, we confirmed that children were sensitive to negation when it appeared in the first clause (“Lea didn’t want to heat up her food…”), indicating that their difficulty lay in using cues in the second clause to revise initially built-up expectations. These findings suggest that children’s delays in understanding but are not specific to the connective itself, but reflect a more general challenge with revising linguistic predictions formed during the course of language processing. More broadly, they highlight the crucial role of cognitive flexibility in the development of mature sentence interpretation and language acquisition.
先前的研究发现，在8岁之前，孩子们通常不会从包含连接词“但是”的句子中得出对比推断。在这项研究中，我们研究了儿童对带有but的句子的非成人式理解是由于未能理解连接词的对比意义，还是他们的行为可能源于更普遍的困难，即在句子加工早期形成的期望难以修正。在实验1中，96名学法语的6到9岁的儿童听了包含so或but，以及在第二从句中有或没有否定的句子（例如，“Lea想要加热她的食物，[so/but]她（没有）把它放在rane”），并被要求选择与新单词rane（烤箱或冰箱）相匹配的图片。无论使用的是连接词还是否定词，孩子们总是选择与首句上下文相关的图像（这里是烤箱）。在实验2中，我们对48名学法语的6- 9岁儿童进行了实验，我们证实，当否定出现在第一个子句（“Lea didn't want to heat her food…”）时，儿童对否定很敏感，这表明他们的困难在于使用第二个子句中的线索来修正最初建立的期望。这些发现表明，儿童在理解上的延迟并不是特定于连接词本身，而是反映了在语言加工过程中形成的语言预测的修正更普遍的挑战。更广泛地说，他们强调了认知灵活性在成熟句子解释和语言习得发展中的关键作用。
{"title":"The role of revision in children’s comprehension of ‘but’ and ‘so’","authors":"Elizabeth M. Swanson , Ana Antonio , Alex de Carvalho","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106460","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106460","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Prior work has found that before age 8, children do not typically draw contrastive inferences from sentences containing the connective <em>but.</em> In this study, we examined whether children’s non-adult-like comprehension of sentences with <em>but</em> is due to a failure to understand the contrastive meaning of the connective, or whether their behavior may stem from a more general difficulty with revising expectations formed early in sentence processing. In Experiment 1, 96 French-learning 6- to 9-year-old children heard sentences containing <em>so</em> or <em>but,</em> and with or without negation in the second clause (e.g., “Lea wanted to heat up her food, [so/but] she (didn’t) put it in the <em>rane</em>”) and were asked to select the picture matching the novel word <em>rane</em> (oven or refrigerator). Regardless of the connective used or the presence of negation, children always chose the image associated with the context of the initial clause (here, the oven). In Experiment 2 with 48 French-learning 6- to 9-year-olds, we confirmed that children were sensitive to negation when it appeared in the first clause (“Lea didn’t want to heat up her food…”), indicating that their difficulty lay in using cues in the second clause to revise initially built-up expectations. These findings suggest that children’s delays in understanding <em>but</em> are not specific to the connective itself, but reflect a more general challenge with revising linguistic predictions formed during the course of language processing. More broadly, they highlight the crucial role of cognitive flexibility in the development of mature sentence interpretation and language acquisition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106460"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146012984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106457
Catherine Thevenot , Jérôme Prado
The cognitive mechanisms supporting arithmetic learning, in simple addition in particular, have long been debated. Whereas traditional models propose that counting strategies are gradually replaced by direct retrieval over development, the automatized counting theory suggests that expert performance on very small additions rather relies on rapid, unconscious one-by-one counting procedures. A central point of disagreement between these accounts concerns the interpretation of the problem-size effect, namely the increase in solution times for larger addition problems. Retrieval models attribute this effect to increased interference among arithmetic facts in memory, whereas the automatized counting theory posits that the effect reflects the larger number of counting steps required for larger problems. Nevertheless, recent findings showing that the size effect disappears for sums beyond 7 challenge the interference account, which would predict a monotonic increase in solution times with increasing problem size. Rather, these findings are consistent with the automatized counting theory, according to which problems involving operands greater than 4 fall outside the range of automatization. However, Andras and Macizo (2025) recently reported a failure to replicate this breakpoint at sum 7 in 6th graders and concluded that the monotonic increase of solution times they observe support retrieval-based accounts. Nonetheless, an examination of their data indicates that this conclusion is not empirically supported. In reality, Andras and Macizo (2025)’s results reveal a non-monotonic pattern, with a lack of problem size effect for problems with sums beyond 7, which is inconsistent with retrieval-based interference models and aligns with the automatized counting theory.
{"title":"Patterns of solution times for simple addition problems in 12-year-old children are not compatible with retrieval models: A rebuttal to Andras and Macizo (2025)","authors":"Catherine Thevenot , Jérôme Prado","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106457","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106457","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The cognitive mechanisms supporting arithmetic learning, in simple addition in particular, have long been debated. Whereas traditional models propose that counting strategies are gradually replaced by direct retrieval over development, the automatized counting theory suggests that expert performance on very small additions rather relies on rapid, unconscious one-by-one counting procedures. A central point of disagreement between these accounts concerns the interpretation of the problem-size effect, namely the increase in solution times for larger addition problems. Retrieval models attribute this effect to increased interference among arithmetic facts in memory, whereas the automatized counting theory posits that the effect reflects the larger number of counting steps required for larger problems. Nevertheless, recent findings showing that the size effect disappears for sums beyond 7 challenge the interference account, which would predict a monotonic increase in solution times with increasing problem size. Rather, these findings are consistent with the automatized counting theory, according to which problems involving operands greater than 4 fall outside the range of automatization. However, Andras and Macizo (2025) recently reported a failure to replicate this breakpoint at sum 7 in 6th graders and concluded that the monotonic increase of solution times they observe support retrieval-based accounts. Nonetheless, an examination of their data indicates that this conclusion is not empirically supported. In reality, Andras and Macizo (2025)’s results reveal a non-monotonic pattern, with a lack of problem size effect for problems with sums beyond 7, which is inconsistent with retrieval-based interference models and aligns with the automatized counting theory.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106457"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145994671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106445
LillyBelle K. Deer , Anna M. Parenteau , Jency Umana Linares , Katie Wyant-Stein , Enya M. Daang , Nicholas V. Alen , Hannah J. Kramer , Kristin H. Lagattuta , Camelia E. Hostinar
Executive functions (EF) are crucial for children’s self-regulation and academic performance. Thus, understanding factors that can undermine or promote children’s EF skills, such as stress and parental social support, may inform interventions. The present experimental study tested the impact of acute stress on subsequent EF performance on four tasks assessing working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control in 181 children ages 9 to 11 years old (M = 9.91, SD = .56). The study also examined whether parental social support prior to stress would buffer the effects of acute stress on EF, by randomly assigning children to one of three conditions: stress preceded by parent support, stress without parent support, and control (no stress task). Children in the two stress conditions experienced significantly greater physiological stress, indicated by higher cortisol and parasympathetic reactivity (p’s < .001). However, the effect of condition on EF performance was not significant, F(8, 328) = 1.5, p = .16, Wilks λ = .93. Measures of physiological stress reactivity (cortisol, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system reactivity) were examined as moderators. Parasympathetic reactivity, as reflected by change in respiratory sinus arrythmia, was a significant moderator in the association between acute stress and inhibitory control, with children performing better under stress conditions if they had greater parasympathetic reactivity. This study suggests that children’s executive function skills can be amplified or impaired in the context of mild acute stressors, and that mixed results in the literature may be due to individual differences in the activity of stress-response systems like the parasympathetic nervous system.
{"title":"The effect of acute stress on executive function in children: Moderation by parasympathetic nervous system activity","authors":"LillyBelle K. Deer , Anna M. Parenteau , Jency Umana Linares , Katie Wyant-Stein , Enya M. Daang , Nicholas V. Alen , Hannah J. Kramer , Kristin H. Lagattuta , Camelia E. Hostinar","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106445","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106445","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Executive functions (EF) are crucial for children’s self-regulation and academic performance. Thus, understanding factors that can undermine or promote children’s EF skills, such as stress and parental social support, may inform interventions. The present experimental study tested the impact of acute stress on subsequent EF performance on four tasks assessing working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control in 181 children ages 9 to 11 years old (<em>M</em> = 9.91, <em>SD</em> = .56). The study also examined whether parental social support prior to stress would buffer the effects of acute stress on EF, by randomly assigning children to one of three conditions: stress preceded by parent support, stress without parent support, and control (no stress task). Children in the two stress conditions experienced significantly greater physiological stress, indicated by higher cortisol and parasympathetic reactivity (<em>p</em>’s < .001). However, the effect of condition on EF performance was not significant, <em>F</em>(8, 328) = 1.5, <em>p</em> = .16, <em>Wilks λ</em> = .93. Measures of physiological stress reactivity (cortisol, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system reactivity) were examined as moderators. Parasympathetic reactivity, as reflected by change in respiratory sinus arrythmia, was a significant moderator in the association between acute stress and inhibitory control, with children performing better under stress conditions if they had greater parasympathetic reactivity. This study suggests that children’s executive function skills can be amplified or impaired in the context of mild acute stressors, and that mixed results in the literature may be due to individual differences in the activity of stress-response systems like the parasympathetic nervous system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106445"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145929271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106449
Lucy M. Stowe , Zoe H. Wilson , Emma Yu , Rebecca Peretz-Lange , Peter R. Blake
Children consider both procedures and outcomes when evaluating the fairness of inequality.
Among adults both factors also contribute to fairness but social comparison of outcomes can override the impact of fair procedures. We tested whether this social comparison effect occurs for children between 4 and 7 years of age (N = 134) when fair procedures are used to create inequality. In addition, we examined the role of emotions is shaping fairness judgments, both when the child was a recipient and when other children were. Children received one of three conditions: Third Party, in which other children received the unequal outcomes; First Person Disadvantaged, in which the child was a recipient and received less than a peer; or First Person Advantaged, in which the child received more. Children rated the fairness of the combined procedure and outcome and evaluated the emotions of the recipients. Results showed that children who were disadvantaged recipients viewed the distribution of inequality as less fair than children who judged a third party situation. Emotions also predicted children’s fairness judgments but varied by condition, recipient and age. At all ages, children who felt more sad at receiving less in the first person disadvantaged condition gave lower fairness ratings. Moreover, older children who rated the advantaged recipient as less happy also gave lower fairness ratings but this occurred in all conditions. This study shows that both social comparison and emotions play important roles in children’s developing sense of fairness.
{"title":"The role of social comparison and emotion in children’s fairness judgments","authors":"Lucy M. Stowe , Zoe H. Wilson , Emma Yu , Rebecca Peretz-Lange , Peter R. Blake","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106449","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106449","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Children consider both procedures and outcomes when evaluating the fairness of inequality.</div><div>Among adults both factors also contribute to fairness but social comparison of outcomes can override the impact of fair procedures. We tested whether this social comparison effect occurs for children between 4 and 7 years of age (<em>N</em> = 134) when fair procedures are used to create inequality. In addition, we examined the role of emotions is shaping fairness judgments, both when the child was a recipient and when other children were. Children received one of three conditions: Third Party, in which other children received the unequal outcomes; First Person Disadvantaged, in which the child was a recipient and received less than a peer; or First Person Advantaged, in which the child received more. Children rated the fairness of the combined procedure and outcome and evaluated the emotions of the recipients. Results showed that children who were disadvantaged recipients viewed the distribution of inequality as less fair than children who judged a third party situation. Emotions also predicted children’s fairness judgments but varied by condition, recipient and age. At all ages, children who felt more sad at receiving less in the first person disadvantaged condition gave lower fairness ratings. Moreover, older children who rated the advantaged recipient as less happy also gave lower fairness ratings but this occurred in all conditions. This study shows that both social comparison and emotions play important roles in children’s developing sense of fairness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106449"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145929332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Temporal causal reasoning (TCR) involves using temporal information from sequential events to infer causal relationships, comprising diagnostic reasoning and predictive reasoning. During the preschool years, TCR undergoes rapid yet asymmetric development: diagnostic reasoning emerges earlier, while predictive reasoning develops later. This developmental asymmetry may be associated with the maturation of temporal direction representation, the ability to mentally represent events in a specific temporal order. However, the robustness of this asymmetry and the cognitive mechanisms underlying it remain unclear. This study addressed two questions: first, whether children aged 4 to 6 years exhibit a developmental asymmetry in TCR, with diagnostic reasoning preceding predictive reasoning; and second, whether temporal direction representation contributes to this asymmetry. Experiment 1 measured 4- to 6-year-olds’ TCR ability and their tendencies in temporal direction representation, revealing that 4–6-year-old children exhibit a developmental pattern where diagnostic reasoning precedes predictive reasoning: 4-year-olds succeeded only in diagnostic reasoning, whereas children aged 5 and 6 performed above chance in both types of reasoning. In addition, preliminary associations between temporal direction representation and TCR performance were revealed. Experiment 2 primed children with different temporal direction representations, revealing that backward temporal priming facilitated diagnostic reasoning, with this effect varying by age and proving particularly strong for 4- and 5-year-olds. These findings highlight a robust developmental asymmetry in TCR and provide novel evidence that temporal direction representation plays a role in it, highlighting the importance of understanding the link between temporal and causal direction for children’s causal learning.
{"title":"Asymmetry of temporal causal reasoning in preschoolers: The role of temporal direction representation","authors":"Yu Zhang , Jingyi Zhang , Chunying Gao, Yinghe Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106447","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106447","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Temporal causal reasoning (TCR) involves using temporal information from sequential events to infer causal relationships, comprising diagnostic reasoning and predictive reasoning. During the preschool years, TCR undergoes rapid yet asymmetric development: diagnostic reasoning emerges earlier, while predictive reasoning develops later. This developmental asymmetry may be associated with the maturation of temporal direction representation, the ability to mentally represent events in a specific temporal order. However, the robustness of this asymmetry and the cognitive mechanisms underlying it remain unclear. This study addressed two questions: first, whether children aged 4 to 6 years exhibit a developmental asymmetry in TCR, with diagnostic reasoning preceding predictive reasoning; and second, whether temporal direction representation contributes to this asymmetry. Experiment 1 measured 4- to 6-year-olds’ TCR ability and their tendencies in temporal direction representation, revealing that 4–6-year-old children exhibit a developmental pattern where diagnostic reasoning precedes predictive reasoning: 4-year-olds succeeded only in diagnostic reasoning, whereas children aged 5 and 6 performed above chance in both types of reasoning. In addition, preliminary associations between temporal direction representation and TCR performance were revealed. Experiment 2 primed children with different temporal direction representations, revealing that backward temporal priming facilitated diagnostic reasoning, with this effect varying by age and proving particularly strong for 4- and 5-year-olds. These findings highlight a robust developmental asymmetry in TCR and provide novel evidence that temporal direction representation plays a role in it, highlighting the importance of understanding the link between temporal and causal direction for children’s causal learning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"264 ","pages":"Article 106447"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145865558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106430
Amanda R. Burkholder , Riley N. Sims , Melanie Killen
This study investigated how youth evaluate wealth inequalities, and whether youth differentiate structural, individual, and random explanations for why such inequalities exist. Understanding these distinctions is necessary for addressing exclusionary attitudes, biases, and discriminatory behaviors that emerge in childhood which have deleterious outcomes for youth. The present study included 262 youth (56.1% female; 27% Black, 49% White, 6.5% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 6% Latine, 6% multiracial, 6% other) who were 9 to 14-years-old, living in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., and from primarily middle to high-middle income backgrounds. Participants evaluated wealth inequalities of different causes, reasoned about their judgments, and decided whether to rectify the inequalities. They also responded to causal explanations for why some are wealthy and others are poor. The wealth inequalities were represented with target groups from Black and White racial backgrounds. Youth viewed structural sources of inequality as less acceptable than individual or random inequalities. While youth expected poverty to be caused through structural barriers, only by early adolescence did they recognize that being wealthy was a result of structural advantages, particularly for White individuals. Further, youth who perceived themselves as lower in wealth status than their peers were more likely than their higher wealth status peers to endorse redistribution of wealth when no reason for the inequality was given. Given that structural explanations of wealth disparities help to understand wealth differences and thus provide a means for addressing prejudice and bias, these findings have implications for reducing prejudicial attitudes about wealth in childhood.
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Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106439
Katie Vasquez, Alex Shaw
People strive to be good people and good friends. Sometimes it’s easy to know what it means to be both: Helping a friend is clearly the morally right thing to do and makes one a good friend. But life is not always so simple. What happens when a friend commits a moral transgression? Previous research demonstrates adults see this dilemma as a tradeoff—turning in an immoral friend makes the informant appear moral, but as a pretty crummy friend (Berry et al., 2024). The inverse is also true. Not turning in that friend is immoral, but is a sign of being a good friend. In three studies (N = 363 4- to 9-year-olds), we find that by age 6, children make similarly nuanced evaluations of those who tattle on their friends who have disclosed a moral transgression to them in confidence. Children think a person who tattles on a friend’s transgression is moral, but not a good friend (Studies 1–3). They also think that a person who does not tattle on a friend’s transgression is not very moral, but a good friend (Study 2). Taken together, this work informs our understanding of children’s views of friendship and morality more broadly. Children think that good friends provide unwavering support for each other, which can mean putting morals aside to protect a friend from punishment. Thus, even 6-year-old children believe that when our friends tell us about their transgressions, we are confronted with a difficult tradeoff: be a good person or a good friend.
人们努力成为好人和好朋友。有时候，我们很容易就能明白两者的含义：帮助朋友显然是道德上正确的事情，也能让一个人成为好朋友。但生活并不总是那么简单。如果朋友犯了道德上的错误会怎么样？先前的研究表明，成年人将这种困境视为一种权衡——一个不道德的朋友的转变会让告密者显得有道德，但实际上是一个相当糟糕的朋友（Berry et al., 2024）。反之亦然。不出卖那个朋友是不道德的，但却是做一个好朋友的标志。在三项研究中（N = 363名4- 9岁的孩子），我们发现，到6岁时，孩子们对那些私下向他们透露道德违规行为的朋友说闲话的人做出了类似的细微评价。孩子们认为告发朋友过错的人是有道德的，但不是好朋友（研究1-3）。他们还认为，不告发朋友过错的人不是很有道德，而是一个好朋友（研究2）。总的来说，这项工作让我们更广泛地了解了儿童对友谊和道德的看法。孩子们认为好朋友会互相给予坚定的支持，这可能意味着把道德放在一边，保护朋友免受惩罚。因此，即使是6岁的孩子也相信，当我们的朋友告诉我们他们的过错时，我们面临着一个艰难的权衡：是做一个好人还是一个好朋友。
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