British Journal of Developmental Psychology最新文献

Inattentional blindness (IB), which refers to a failure to detect unexpected stimuli in the visual field, is associated with increased risk from undetected threats. While IB has been attributed to several individual factors, the role of cognitive control capacities, such as executive functions, remains unclear. To investigate this relationship, 154 Chinese children aged 3-6 (52.6% male) completed two IB tasks (static and sustained) and three executive function tasks. Findings show that the executive function tasks were predictive of IB, and this prediction varied by IB type: working memory predicted static IB, while cognitive flexibility predicted sustained IB. This underscores the necessity of specifying IB type and the importance of alignment to the cognitive predictors when studying individual differences in IB. When this alignment is achieved, findings suggest that executive function abilities may be differentially implicated in different IB phenomena.

Context affects human memory. Similarities between learning and retrieval environments facilitate memory, whereas dissimilarities disrupt memory. However, it is unclear whether the type of information being learned is relevant. In this experiment, we explored whether 2-year-olds demonstrate different patterns of context-dependent memory for category-relevant and category-irrelevant facts. Children (N = 48) were exposed to unfamiliar objects in consistent (match condition) or variable (multiple condition) contexts across training and test trials. Objects were paired with category-relevant (e.g. 'This is used to play with cats.') or category-irrelevant (e.g. 'This looks like the one the cat stepped on.') facts. Children's memory for facts was assessed immediately following training and after a 10-min delay. Context affected memory differently for each type of fact. For category-irrelevant facts, there was no significant context effect immediately or after a delay. For category-relevant facts, a context condition difference was present after a delay. Results suggest that the effect of category relevance of information may influence when context affects learning.

Previous studies have found that increased cognitive load during a task might result in the use of 'easier' motor strategies that nevertheless achieve task goals. Here, we investigated the influence of cognitive load on bimanual or unimanual strategy use in preschoolers, through a combination of secondary data analysis and new empirical data. Experiment 1 investigated block-stacking strategies under high, medium and low cognitive load tasks in 3-year-olds and showed that 3-year-olds demonstrated significantly more unimanual strategy use in the high cognitive load task. Experiment 2 investigated (i) whether this effect persisted across preschool years and (ii) whether it was modulated by differences in executive function abilities. There was no age effect in motor strategy use under high cognitive load from 3 to 5 years of age. However, individual differences in inhibitory control and working memory use were significantly associated with differences in unimanual strategy use. These results are interpreted as evidence for a cognitive/action trade-off in which higher cognitive demands result in the adjustment of motor strategies such as use of unimanual stacking instead of bimanual coordination in preschoolers.

Positive responses to capitalization, the process of sharing positive experiences and emotions, are associated with better relationship wellbeing and consequently health and adjustment in the context of romantic relationships. However, responses to capitalization have rarely been studied in parent-child dyads, whereas most of the research has focused on how parents respond to children's negative emotions. The current study tested associations between maternal positive emotion socialization, specifically capitalization support and children's adaptive regulatory capacity indexed by baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Ninety children (M_age = 41.87 months, SD = 4.29; 47.8% boys) participated in the study. Capitalization support indexed by maternal active-constructive responses during a conversation was observed and coded. Children's basal RSA levels when watching a calming video were assessed. Mothers also reported their reactions to children's negative emotions, child temperament and relationship closeness. Maternal capitalization support was associated with children's higher basal RSA levels, independent of maternal supportive reactions to children's negative emotions, child negative affect, and relationship closeness. The implication that supportive socialization for positive emotions benefits children's physiological regulation above and beyond that for negative emotions was discussed.

Inequalities in children's cognitive and socioemotional skills emerge early and persist throughout childhood. This study examines how multiple dimensions of children's developmental contexts, including demographic, socioeconomic and family circumstances, predict age 3 outcomes using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2012-2022). In a cross-sectional sample of 5700 three-year-olds and their families, results showed that child health, the home learning environment, turning 3 during Covid-19, child ethnicity, parent education and financial strain in the home significantly predicted early outcomes in communication, daily living, socialization and motor skills. Although income-related eligibility for early years pupil premium did not predict early outcomes, this may reflect the inadequacies of this indicator for capturing all families facing financial difficulties. There was also an increasing gap in early outcomes as children experienced more indicators related to disadvantage, relative to children with no indicators. Overall, this study highlights the importance of a multidimensional approach for understanding and reducing early educational inequalities.

Children around ages 5-6 begin valuing social mindfulness, where one leaves a diverse choice for others when selecting an item for themselves. This study investigated how Han Chinese 4- to 9-year-olds and adults may consider protagonists' preference (unknown, preferring the unique, or identical items) in their evaluations of socially mindful actions. Results show that, with age, children increasingly rate leaving a choice as nicer, both when the protagonist's preference is unknown and for the unique item. However, when the protagonist prefers identical items, neither children nor adults differentially evaluate between leaving a choice or not. Additionally, children become increasingly sensitive to the costs associated with preferences when evaluating mindful actions. They increasingly evaluated high-cost actions (sacrificing one's preferred item) most favourably, followed by unknown-cost actions, and low-cost actions (when preference aligns with leaving a choice) least favourably. These findings highlighted children's growing ability to integrate complex understandings of preference and cost into social evaluations.

A cross-sectional study of 106 students (7-12 years) from a rural school in the Brazilian Amazon investigated the interaction among motor, cognitive and environmental factors on school achievement using network analysis. Students with good school performance were significantly older and showed superior global physical fitness, motor coordination (balance and lower limbs) and alternating selective attention. Furthermore, students residing more than 1000 m from the school showed significantly higher overall school achievement. Network analysis identified motor coordination as an important central node for the group with insufficient achievement, suggesting motor interventions can be effective strategies for this population. For high-achieving students, age emerged as the most central variable. The findings underscore that academic success is a complex system, with different central factors depending on the student's performance level.

Acquiring mathematical competence is essential to independent living. In this study, we investigated the mathematics profile in young people with Down syndrome (DS), and the relations between foundational and more complex mathematics skills. The final sample included 33 participants with DS (58% male, 10.2-31.9 years) and a typically developing (TD) group matched on non-verbal mental age (N = 33, 58% male, 4.5-6.5 years). Participants completed mathematics tasks assessing symbolic number, non-symbolic number, arithmetic, reasoning and geometry. We found that performance was similar on measures of reasoning, non-symbolic number skills and geometry; however, people with DS showed a relative weakness in symbolic number skills and a relative strength in arithmetic. Associations between foundational skills and more complex mathematics also differed somewhat between groups. These differences may reflect the ongoing role of non-symbolic skills for mathematics in people with DS and perhaps the use of more complex strategies in typically developing children.

Understanding how adolescents participate in science requires examining the developmental foundations of engagement and identity formation. This theoretical paper introduces the Developmental Engagement Framework, which positions science engagement as the overarching construct, with science identity representing a developmentally advanced subset that emerges when engagement experiences are integrated with self-concept. This framework addresses persistent empirical puzzles in science identity research-including temporal instability and limited predictive validity in adolescent populations-by proposing that these patterns reflect normal neurodevelopmental processes rather than methodological limitations. During early-to-mid adolescence (ages 11-16), when self-referential neural networks remain under development, science participation operates primarily through preference-based engagement-experience-driven participation supported by earlier-maturing reward and habit formation circuits (basal ganglia, striatum). As prefrontal systems mature in late adolescence, some of this engagement becomes integrated with self-concept, emerging as identity-infused engagement. Our framework complements existing identity theories by specifying their neurodevelopmental prerequisites and optimal timing, drawing on identity process theory, neuroscientific evidence on value-based choice and recent findings on daily experience consolidation. We demonstrate that science identity represents a maturational transformation of engagement rather than a separate construct. This perspective has implications for age-appropriate measurement, intervention design and theoretical integration across developmental stages.

Apologies are a fundamental social mechanism for repairing harm and maintaining relationships, yet little is known about how individuals infer the motives behind them. This study examined how 5- to 6-year-old children (N = 64, 48.4% female; all participants were Korean) and adults (N = 132, 52.3% female; all Korean) attribute motives to wrongdoers' apologies, focusing on internal motives (guilt, shame) and external motives (relational concern, avoidance of punishment). Participants were presented with stories in which a wrongdoer caused either intentional harm (intentional-harm condition) or accidental harm (accidental-harm condition), apologized to the victim and then rated why the wrongdoer apologized based on four possible motives. Children primarily attributed relational concern to apologizers, viewing apologies as behaviours aimed at maintaining social relationships. They endorsed both relational concern and punishment avoidance more strongly for apologies following intentional rather than accidental harm. Adults endorsed a broader range of motives, most strongly attributing guilt to apologizers. Their responses varied by harm intentionality, showing stronger attributions of guilt for accidental harm and stronger attributions of punishment avoidance for intentional harm. These findings reveal developmental and contextual differences in how individuals understand the motives underlying apologies.