Cognitive Development最新文献

Developmental science is increasingly interested in investigating the early ontogeny of the so-called implicit self. It is supposed to be a non-conceptual form of self including the experiences of agency and bodily ownership. Several theories have been proposed to account for the development of an implicit self and have inspired lines of empirical investigations. However, comparing these theories is difficult because the extent to which they rely on similar concepts is unclear, which in turn prevents systematic evaluation. This paper aims to provide an overview of currently influential theories on the development of the implicit self. It advances the debate by classifying the theories as either positing a unified implicit self, multiple implicit selves, or no self at all. The core assumptions of each theory are derived based on a comprehensive set of criteria, and evaluated using current empirical research. This overview proposes research directions that would enable further theoretical understanding of the ontogeny of the implicit self.

This study examined (1) longitudinal invariance of executive function (EF) factors across early childhood, (2) EF development, and (3) its association with later cognitive functions and academic performance. We measured cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibitory control, and complex EF in 465 children (72% white) at 3.5, 5, 6, and 7 years. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a one-factor EF model at each age. Across time, factor loadings were invariant, and intercepts were invariant for measures of cognitive flexibility only. In latent growth analyses, EF increased more rapidly between 3.5 and 6 than 6–7 years. EF at 3.5 years and its growth (slope from 3.5 to 7 years) predicted later executive and non-executive function in hypothesized ways, indicating that the factor captured EF rather than other general cognitive abilities. Moreover, EF at 3.5 years and its growth predicted academic performance at 9 and 17 years, suggesting that interventions to improve EF could have the potential to improve academic performance across elementary and secondary education.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, NCR, upon reasonable request, but are subject to institutional, federal and provincial privacy regulations.

Independent problem solving (IPS) involves solving problems alone; with motivation and persistence; without watching others; or requesting or receiving help. The Early Independent Problem Solving Survey (EIPSS) was developed for 12- to 47-month-olds. Study 1 (N = 272) found good internal reliability and a 2-factor structure: Repetitive (repeatedly solvable problems, e.g., jigsaws) and Novel IPS (one-off problems, e.g., reaching out-of-reach toys). Study 2 (N = 567) confirmed good internal reliability and the 2-factor structure. Study 3 (N = 85) found a positive correlation between a divergent thinking lab measure and Novel IPS. Study 4 found good 6-month-longitudinal stability (N = 110) for the EIPSS and its subscales; and good agreement between parents (N = 32) for the Repetitive subscale. Study 5 (all data combined) demonstrated no item functioning differences across demographic variables. Differences for child age, child gender, parent age, and parent education were found for the EIPSS and subscales.

Assessing inhibitory control in young children poses a challenge because of its rapid and non-linear development. This study examined the validity of integrating response accuracy and latency through a two-factor model, based on the data of 271 children who completed a computerized inhibitory control task. Although integrating response accuracy and latency slightly improved measurement precision, multigroup analyses of younger and older children showed inconsistent associations between response accuracy and latency if response latencies from incorrect responses were not excluded. A time-on-task analysis revealed that the extent of the accuracy gain by taking more time depended on the individual’s skill level. The validity of task performance as an indicator of inhibitory control was highest when response accuracy was the primary determinant of the inhibitory control score and response latency was only considered after the child had surpassed an accuracy threshold to further improve the score. These findings suggest that integrating response accuracy and latency into a single score should only be performed for children who can maintain high accuracy levels despite giving fast responses.

This pre-registered study examined the development of working memory and inhibitory control in a sample of 144 children aged between 3 and 6 years. Two paradigms – one a version of a spatial conflict task, the other a combined continuous performance test and go/no-go task – were adapted to allow the orthogonal manipulation of working memory and inhibitory demands. This allowed for the simultaneous measurement of these functions within each paradigm, removing concerns of task-specific variance and testing an interactive model of executive function that assumes that working memory and inhibition compete for a shared pool of executive resources. In addition, latent working memory and inhibition variables extracted from the tasks were correlated with parental reports of participants’ temperament, including effortful control. The novel experimental tasks successfully and reliably captured developmental and individual differences in working memory and inhibitory control. However, these factors did not interact with one another in an over-additive fashion or correlate meaningfully with parental ratings of effortful control. These findings support the separability of executive functions in this age range while raising important questions about how best to measure the development of executive functioning among young children.

This study investigated the effect of prosocial video game exposure on sharing behavior in Chinese preschoolers and tested the mediating role of empathy as well as the moderating roles of age and gender. A total of N = 120 children aged 4–6 years (50% girls, 50% boys; M_age = 5.0, SD = 0.82) from two Chinese kindergartens participated in this between-subjects design experiment. The results showed that the preschoolers who played prosocial video games exhibited more sharing behavior than those who played neutral video games. Empathy, especially affective empathy, was found to mediate the association between playing prosocial video games and sharing behavior. This suggests that empathy training programs, especially those that promote affective empathy, may be an effective means of promoting sharing behavior in children. The mediating effect was mainly observed for girls and older children. Girls and older children may therefore be the target group for sharing behavior education programs that aim to increase empathy in playing prosocial video games. Nevertheless, promoting sharing behavior in younger children and boys is equally important and deserves attention in future research.

The multiple object tracking (MOT) (Pylyshyn & Storm, 1988) and biological motion (Johansson, 1973) tasks are both used to assess the perception of and attention to motion. These abilities are essential to the dynamic real-world task of identifying and monitoring multiple moving stimuli in the environment. We examined cross-sectionally the developmental changes in dynamic visual attention using 3D versions of both the MOT task and a masked direction discrimination biological motion task among 42 children and adolescents aged 6–14 years. The concurrent examination of these two tasks also allowed for an initial assessment of the pattern of task performance improvements with age. Performance on both tasks was found to improve with age and the relationship between the two tasks did not differ as a function of age, suggesting that biological motion and MOT attentional abilities improve similarly across age.

Previous research has suggested that fine motor skills play a role in literacy development. However, it is necessary to confirm the causal nature of the relationships by using intervention studies. In addition, different explanatory mechanisms have been put forward to explain the relation between fine motor skills and literacy development. Executive functions and graphomotor skills are two possible mediators of this link, as they are related to literacy development and enhanced by motor interventions. Accordingly, we aimed to test the benefits of digital training of fine motor skills for children’s fine motor skills as well as for their reading and writing skills, graphomotor skills, and executive functions. A controlled intervention was conducted with 205 fourth graders; for six weeks, half of the children played a digital game designed for motor training, and the other half played a control game training mathematics. Fine motor skills, literacy skills, graphomotor skills, and executive functions were assessed before and after the training. The results revealed that motor training improved not only some motor skills but also some literacy skills, graphomotor skills, and EFs. The findings confirm, for the first time, a causal relationship between fine motor skills practice and spelling by using an intervention design. Spelling improvement was nonetheless not mediated by executive functions or graphomotor skills improvement, suggesting that further studies are needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms.

In three related but distinct studies, we examined page layouts in counting books. We first coded 111 counting books to assess if the sets of items to count that appear in each book appeared on 1- or 2-page layouts; we found that most books included both types of layouts. We then read two investigator-created counting books to 47 preschoolers, prompted these children to count items on 16 pre-determined pages (four per layout type per book), and recorded what items and where (on what pages) children counted. Most participants counted the correct items (i.e., knew what to count) but were more likely to correctly identify where to count when the sets of items being referenced were on a 2-page layout rather than a 1-page layout. Finally, we observed behaviors of adults who, through publicly available video-taped read-aloud sessions, were reading counting books to an intended audience of young children. Although the adult participants sometimes indicated the layout of the item sets they were referencing (e.g., by gesturing towards the correct page or pages on which the item sets appeared), the adults in our study did so on only 14% of all layouts from the book they read. These studies are the first to address page layout as a potentially important feature of counting books, and the experimental study is the first to show that page layout used within counting books may influence children’s counting behaviors.