Pub Date : 2026-01-30DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106465
Miguel Ayala-Cuesta, Pedro Macizo
The current study aimed to evaluate the developmental course of the interplay between the componential analysis of two-digit numbers, the conflict associated with magnitude processing, and the possible inhibitory mechanism used to resolve interference. To this end, children aged 7–11 years-old performed a magnitude comparison task involving two-digit numbers in sequences of two trials. The first trial involved compatible comparisons where the decade and the unit of one number were larger than those of the other number (i.e., 21–73), or incompatible comparisons where the decade of one number was larger but the unit was smaller than those of the other number (i.e., 61–53). The second trial involved related number pairs that contained the previously presented units (i.e., 41–43) or unrelated number pairs with units that had not appeared before (i.e., 48–49). Performance in the first trial was worse in incompatible trials than in compatible trials, and this compatibility effect increased with age. In the second trial, performance in related trials after incompatible trials was worse than in unrelated trials and this relation effect was found in all age groups. These results suggest that the development of numerical knowledge fosters the componential-parallel processing of multidigit numbers and that children need time to overcome inhibition after conflict resolution.
{"title":"Developmental traces of cognitive control on the processing of symbolic magnitude","authors":"Miguel Ayala-Cuesta, Pedro Macizo","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106465","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106465","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The current study aimed to evaluate the developmental course of the interplay between the componential analysis of two-digit numbers, the conflict associated with magnitude processing, and the possible inhibitory mechanism used to resolve interference. To this end, children aged 7–11 years-old performed a magnitude comparison task involving two-digit numbers in sequences of two trials. The first trial involved compatible comparisons where the decade and the unit of one number were larger than those of the other number (i.e., 21–73), or incompatible comparisons where the decade of one number was larger but the unit was smaller than those of the other number (i.e., 61–53). The second trial involved related number pairs that contained the previously presented units (i.e., 41–43) or unrelated number pairs with units that had not appeared before (i.e., 48–49). Performance in the first trial was worse in incompatible trials than in compatible trials, and this compatibility effect increased with age. In the second trial, performance in related trials after incompatible trials was worse than in unrelated trials and this relation effect was found in all age groups. These results suggest that the development of numerical knowledge fosters the componential-parallel processing of multidigit numbers and that children need time to overcome inhibition after conflict resolution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106465"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079095","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 : 2026-01-27DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106466
Daniela Avila-Varela , Francesco Cabiddu , Anira Escrichs , Paula Luegi , João Veríssimo , Gary Jones
Research shows that as toddlers’ vocabularies expand, words in the early lexicon become increasingly interconnected through shared phonological and semantic features. Understanding how these dimensions jointly shape lexical organization is central to theories of early spoken word recognition. The present study investigated how the simultaneous presence of phonological and semantic similarity between nouns influences lexical activation during spoken word recognition. We presented 21-month-old English monolinguals with an intermodal preferential looking task adapted to a priming paradigm while their eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracker. Participants heard a spoken noun (prime) followed by a related or unrelated spoken noun (target). The experiment included three conditions: Phonologically Related, where prime-target pairs share the initial phonemes (e.g., toe-toast); Phono-Semantically Related, where prime-target pairs share the initial phonemes and belong to the same semantic category (e.g., turkey-turtle); and Unrelated, where prime-target pairs do not share the initial phonemes and do not belong to the same semantic category (e.g., bubble-toast and box-turtle). Results revealed two key findings: (1) Targets in the Phonologically Related condition elicited significantly fewer looks than the Unrelated condition, suggesting phonological interference. (2) Targets in the Phono-Semantically Related condition elicited significantly more looks than both the Unrelated and Phonologically Related conditions, indicating strong facilitation when both cues are present. Additionally, girls demonstrated more pronounced word recognition than boys. This study extends our understanding of the interactive roles of phonological and semantic cues, as well as sex differences, in mental lexical organization among young toddlers.
{"title":"Semantic support and sex differences in toddlers’ spoken word recognition","authors":"Daniela Avila-Varela , Francesco Cabiddu , Anira Escrichs , Paula Luegi , João Veríssimo , Gary Jones","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106466","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106466","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research shows that as toddlers’ vocabularies expand, words in the early lexicon become increasingly interconnected through shared phonological and semantic features. Understanding how these dimensions jointly shape lexical organization is central to theories of early spoken word recognition. The present study investigated how the simultaneous presence of phonological and semantic similarity between nouns influences lexical activation during spoken word recognition. We presented 21-month-old English monolinguals with an intermodal preferential looking task adapted to a priming paradigm while their eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracker. Participants heard a spoken noun (<em>prime</em>) followed by a related or unrelated spoken noun (<em>target</em>). The experiment included three conditions: Phonologically Related, where prime-target pairs share the initial phonemes (e.g., <em>toe-toast</em>); Phono-Semantically Related, where prime-target pairs share the initial phonemes and belong to the same semantic category (e.g., <em>turkey-turtle</em>); and Unrelated, where prime-target pairs do not share the initial phonemes and do not belong to the same semantic category (e.g<em>., bubble-toast</em> and <em>box-turtle</em>). Results revealed two key findings: (1) Targets in the Phonologically Related condition elicited significantly fewer looks than the Unrelated condition, suggesting phonological interference. (2) Targets in the Phono-Semantically Related condition elicited significantly more looks than both the Unrelated and Phonologically Related conditions, indicating strong facilitation when both cues are present. Additionally, girls demonstrated more pronounced word recognition than boys. This study extends our understanding of the interactive roles of phonological and semantic cues, as well as sex differences, in mental lexical organization among young toddlers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106466"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079094","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 : 2026-01-26DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106464
Fernando Sánchez Hernández , Daniel Hyde
When and how children begin responding to inequitable resource distributions, particularly those that put them at a disadvantage, remains unclear. Across two studies, an initial pilot experiment (N = 39) and a pre-registered follow-up experiment (N = 80), we employed modified versions of the Inequity Game to test implicit sensitivity and explicit response decisions to various disadvantageous offers in groups of 2- and 4-year-old children. Across experiments, both age groups showed evidence of sensitivity to disadvantageous offers that provided them nothing while their partner received resources (e.g. 0 vs. 3). However, only 4-year-olds were willing to forgo offerings involving personal gain (e.g., 1 vs. 3) to protest unfair treatment, a hallmark of disadvantageous inequity aversion. These findings suggest that sensitivity to disadvantageous offers emerges as early as the second year of life, but this sensitivity develops into disadvantageous inequity aversion over subsequent years.
儿童何时以及如何开始应对不公平的资源分配，特别是那些使他们处于不利地位的资源分配，目前尚不清楚。在两项研究中，一项初始先导实验（N = 39）和一项预注册后续实验（N = 80），我们采用修改版本的不平等游戏来测试两组2岁和4岁儿童对各种不利条件的内隐敏感性和外显反应决策。在实验中，两个年龄组都表现出对不利条件的敏感性，即当他们的伴侣获得资源时，他们什么也没有提供（例如0 vs. 3）。然而，只有4岁的孩子愿意放弃涉及个人利益的礼物（例如，1 vs. 3）来抗议不公平待遇，这是不利的不公平厌恶的标志。这些发现表明，对不利条件的敏感性早在生命的第二年就出现了，但这种敏感性在随后的几年里发展成不利的不平等厌恶。
{"title":"The emergence of disadvantageous inequity aversion between 2–4 years","authors":"Fernando Sánchez Hernández , Daniel Hyde","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106464","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106464","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When and how children begin responding to inequitable resource distributions, particularly those that put them at a disadvantage, remains unclear. Across two studies, an initial pilot experiment (N = 39) and a pre-registered follow-up experiment (N = 80), we employed modified versions of the Inequity Game to test implicit sensitivity and explicit response decisions to various disadvantageous offers in groups of 2- and 4-year-old children. Across experiments, both age groups showed evidence of sensitivity to disadvantageous offers that provided them nothing while their partner received resources (e.g. 0 vs. 3). However, only 4-year-olds were willing to forgo offerings involving personal gain (e.g., 1 vs. 3) to protest unfair treatment, a hallmark of disadvantageous inequity aversion. These findings suggest that sensitivity to disadvantageous offers emerges as early as the second year of life, but this sensitivity develops into disadvantageous inequity aversion over subsequent years.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"265 ","pages":"Article 106464"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146067378","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.2026.106462
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 : 2026-01-14DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106448
John Dunlosky , Bradley J. Morris , Clarissa A. Thompson
Main goals of the Numerical Understanding Mentored by Expert Researchers (NUMBERs) Workshop were to (A) identify key areas for math intervention research to promote systematic research in this area, (B) highlight research aligned with developing effective math interventions, and (C) provide a bird’s eye perspective on building effective math interventions and broadening the research communities that strive to build them. During this workshop, mentor-and-mentee teams worked toward accomplishing these goals, which resulted in this Special Issue to inspire further progress in the field of mathematical cognition. In this brief overview of the NUMBERS workshop, we offer some details on the development of the workshop itself (to support others who may want to conduct similar workshops in their research domains) and briefly highlight some of the main themes of the workshop and articles within the special issue.
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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}
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