Pub Date : 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101622
Jue Wang , Ziyao Ma , Chengyu Pang, Yonglin Shi, Xiaobin Zhang
This study examined whether children in China associate specific facial expressions with the rich and poor. Experiment 1 found facial expressions affected judgement of social class. Children aged 3–6 years (N = 389; 171 boys; Mage = 4.68) more often associated happy facial expressions with the rich and sad and angry facial expressions with the poor. Experiment 2 found that social class also affected facial expression judgement. Children aged 3–6 years (N = 393; 209 boys; Mage = 4.77) more often associated the rich with happy facial expressions and the poor with sad and angry facial expressions. These results indicate that children aged 3–6 years associate the rich with happy facial expressions and the poor with sad and angry facial expressions.
{"title":"The rich are happy, and the poor are sad: The development of association between facial expressions and the rich and poor among children","authors":"Jue Wang , Ziyao Ma , Chengyu Pang, Yonglin Shi, Xiaobin Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101622","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101622","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examined whether children in China associate specific facial expressions with the rich and poor. Experiment 1 found facial expressions affected judgement of social class. Children aged 3–6 years (<em>N</em> = 389; 171 boys; <em>M</em><sub>age</sub> = 4.68) more often associated happy facial expressions with the rich and sad and angry facial expressions with the poor. Experiment 2 found that social class also affected facial expression judgement. Children aged 3–6 years (<em>N</em> = 393; 209 boys; <em>M</em><sub>age</sub> = 4.77) more often associated the rich with happy facial expressions and the poor with sad and angry facial expressions. These results indicate that children aged 3–6 years associate the rich with happy facial expressions and the poor with sad and angry facial expressions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101622"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145049631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-12DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101623
Salim Hashmi , Rhys M. Davies , Jennifer Keating , Ross E. Vanderwert , Catherine R.G. Jones , Sarah A. Gerson
Play is a major part of children’s lives that takes many different forms and presents differently within and between individuals. However, little research has compared how individual differences in children’s play are evidenced in joint play versus solo play contexts, and how these are related to children’s social behaviors and the neural mechanisms underlying these differences. Fifty-seven 4-to-8-year-olds (Mean age: 6.72 years; 93 % White; 52.6 % male) freely played with dolls alone and with an experimenter. Children’s play behavior (pretend vs. set up; doll vs. non-doll toys) and internal state language (ISL) were measured and neuroimaging captured activity in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Parents reported on children’s social behaviors and theory of mind. We found children engaged in pretend play more and used more ISL in joint play compared to solo play. Both the use of ISL and pretend play were positively related to aspects of their social abilities, but only ISL was found to be associated with neural activity.
{"title":"Does children's play and associated neural activity differ according to individual differences in social skills, social understanding, and social contexts?","authors":"Salim Hashmi , Rhys M. Davies , Jennifer Keating , Ross E. Vanderwert , Catherine R.G. Jones , Sarah A. Gerson","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101623","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101623","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Play is a major part of children’s lives that takes many different forms and presents differently within and between individuals. However, little research has compared how individual differences in children’s play are evidenced in joint play versus solo play contexts, and how these are related to children’s social behaviors and the neural mechanisms underlying these differences. Fifty-seven 4-to-8-year-olds (Mean age: 6.72 years; 93 % White; 52.6 % male) freely played with dolls alone and with an experimenter. Children’s play behavior (pretend vs. set up; doll vs. non-doll toys) and internal state language (ISL) were measured and neuroimaging captured activity in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Parents reported on children’s social behaviors and theory of mind. We found children engaged in pretend play more and used more ISL in joint play compared to solo play. Both the use of ISL and pretend play were positively related to aspects of their social abilities, but only ISL was found to be associated with neural activity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101623"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145049630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-10DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101620
Rachael Miller , Ning Ding , Nicola S. Clayton
Future-oriented cognition, which broadly encompasses an array of cognitive processes involved in understanding, constructing, imagining and planning for the future, typically develops in children aged 3–5 years. It facilitates humans in predicting and avoiding threats before they manifest and shaping current behaviours for future needs. Existing research on pre-schoolers’ future-oriented cognition predominantly tested children from Western (i.e. European, American) countries, whereas little is known about its developmental trajectory and cognitive correlates in Eastern populations. Addressing this gap, we present a systematic investigation of Chinese children’s future-oriented cognition. 87 Chinese pre-schoolers, aged 3–5 years, were administered with three comprehensive batteries of tasks measuring executive function, theory of mind and an array of paradigms tapping into different aspects of future-oriented cognition. Overall, Chinese pre-schoolers’ performance across the different cognitive domains was age-related. Importantly, there were consistencies between previous findings with Western samples and current Chinese children’s developmental trajectories of future-oriented cognition. Specifically, 3-year-olds were outperformed by 4- and 5-year-olds, with age 4 being critical as indicated by their consistent above chance-level performance. Additionally, there were positive associations between performance in future-oriented cognition tasks and executive function tasks, but not theory of mind tasks. Utilising an under-represented sample, the current study contributes to the emerging evidence on the relationship between future-oriented cognition and executive function in the preschool years.
{"title":"Cognitive correlates of future-oriented cognition in young Chinese children","authors":"Rachael Miller , Ning Ding , Nicola S. Clayton","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101620","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101620","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Future-oriented cognition, which broadly encompasses an array of cognitive processes involved in understanding, constructing, imagining and planning for the future, typically develops in children aged 3–5 years. It facilitates humans in predicting and avoiding threats before they manifest and shaping current behaviours for future needs. Existing research on pre-schoolers’ future-oriented cognition predominantly tested children from Western (i.e. European, American) countries, whereas little is known about its developmental trajectory and cognitive correlates in Eastern populations. Addressing this gap, we present a systematic investigation of Chinese children’s future-oriented cognition. 87 Chinese pre-schoolers, aged 3–5 years, were administered with three comprehensive batteries of tasks measuring executive function, theory of mind and an array of paradigms tapping into different aspects of future-oriented cognition. Overall, Chinese pre-schoolers’ performance across the different cognitive domains was age-related. Importantly, there were consistencies between previous findings with Western samples and current Chinese children’s developmental trajectories of future-oriented cognition. Specifically, 3-year-olds were outperformed by 4- and 5-year-olds, with age 4 being critical as indicated by their consistent above chance-level performance. Additionally, there were positive associations between performance in future-oriented cognition tasks and executive function tasks, but not theory of mind tasks. Utilising an under-represented sample, the current study contributes to the emerging evidence on the relationship between future-oriented cognition and executive function in the preschool years.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101620"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145027464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-08DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101619
Marie Geurten
While toddlers are often not able to voluntarily recall their previous experiences, they frequently show spontaneous memory retrieval: episodes that come to mind without any deliberate attempts to recall them. Our primary aim here was to capitalize on the dissociation between spontaneous and voluntary retrieval – respectively driven by associative and controlled mechanisms – to document the processes whereby parental reminiscing influences children’s memory for past events during the transition from toddlerhood to early childhood (age range: 24–46 months). To do so, parent-child dyads were recruited to participate in two experiments (n = 62 and 74, respectively). In both experiments, a new paradigm was created to assess spontaneous and voluntary memories of a previously experienced event, and the effect of parental reminiscing was assessed. In line with previous studies, results of both experiments revealed that children communicated more about the past event in the spontaneous than in the voluntary condition. Regarding the effect of parental reminiscing, the results of our item-by-item binomial generalized mixed-effect models revealed a relation between parental level of elaboration and children’s memory richness in both spontaneous and voluntary conditions, but a relation with the frequency of children’s memory recall only after a spontaneous retrieval. Given that the primary distinction between spontaneous and voluntary retrieval lies in the degree of strategic control required to access memories, this finding suggests that the impact of parental elaboration on children's memory operates mainly by supporting the development of associative processes, at least in the early preschool years.
{"title":"Influence of parental reminiscing on spontaneous and voluntary memories in toddlerhood","authors":"Marie Geurten","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101619","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101619","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While toddlers are often not able to voluntarily recall their previous experiences, they frequently show spontaneous memory retrieval: episodes that come to mind without any deliberate attempts to recall them. Our primary aim here was to capitalize on the dissociation between spontaneous and voluntary retrieval – respectively driven by associative and controlled mechanisms – to document the processes whereby parental reminiscing influences children’s memory for past events during the transition from toddlerhood to early childhood (age range: 24–46 months). To do so, parent-child dyads were recruited to participate in two experiments (<em>n</em> = 62 and 74, respectively). In both experiments, a new paradigm was created to assess spontaneous and voluntary memories of a previously experienced event, and the effect of parental reminiscing was assessed. In line with previous studies, results of both experiments revealed that children communicated more about the past event in the spontaneous than in the voluntary condition. Regarding the effect of parental reminiscing, the results of our item-by-item binomial generalized mixed-effect models revealed a relation between parental level of elaboration and children’s memory richness in both spontaneous and voluntary conditions, but a relation with the frequency of children’s memory recall only after a spontaneous retrieval. Given that the primary distinction between spontaneous and voluntary retrieval lies in the degree of strategic control required to access memories, this finding suggests that the impact of parental elaboration on children's memory operates mainly by supporting the development of associative processes, at least in the early preschool years.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101619"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145011284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101615
Xiaorui Wu , Bin Yin , Delin Yu , Hong Li
Utilizing human experimenters as surrogate caretakers and one-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats as child proxies, this study introduces the “Human-Rat Interaction Paradigm” (HRIP) to explore the systematic impact of early-adolescent experiences on behavioral development. Over a three-week intervention, rats were assigned to positive early-adolescent experiences (PEE), negative early-adolescent experiences (NEE), or a control group. By the second week, behavior stabilized. A series of assessments reveal that PEE rats showed lower anxiety and adapted quickly to new environments. In contrast, NEE rats exhibited early procedural learning but inadequate long-term memory retention. PEE rats were more interested in toy rats, while NEE rats displayed aversion; both groups preferred unfamiliar rats. In empathetic scenarios, both groups hesitated to share food with a trapped peer; NEE rats, in particular, showed increased vigilance and feeding interruptions. Social competition tests revealed distinct strengths and weaknesses, with the PEE group maintaining a more stable social hierarchy. Control rats, though less responsive to socio-environmental variations, consistently performed well in status-based (non-food reward) competitive settings. These findings highlight the significant role of early-adolescent experiences in shaping emotional, cognitive, and social behaviors, underscoring the translational value of HRIP as a developmental research model.
{"title":"Systematic impacts of early-adolescent experiences on behavioral development: Insights from the “Human‐Rat Interaction Paradigm”","authors":"Xiaorui Wu , Bin Yin , Delin Yu , Hong Li","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101615","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101615","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Utilizing human experimenters as surrogate caretakers and one-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats as child proxies, this study introduces the “Human-Rat Interaction Paradigm” (HRIP) to explore the systematic impact of early-adolescent experiences on behavioral development. Over a three-week intervention, rats were assigned to positive early-adolescent experiences (PEE), negative early-adolescent experiences (NEE), or a control group. By the second week, behavior stabilized. A series of assessments reveal that PEE rats showed lower anxiety and adapted quickly to new environments. In contrast, NEE rats exhibited early procedural learning but inadequate long-term memory retention. PEE rats were more interested in toy rats, while NEE rats displayed aversion; both groups preferred unfamiliar rats. In empathetic scenarios, both groups hesitated to share food with a trapped peer; NEE rats, in particular, showed increased vigilance and feeding interruptions. Social competition tests revealed distinct strengths and weaknesses, with the PEE group maintaining a more stable social hierarchy. Control rats, though less responsive to socio-environmental variations, consistently performed well in status-based (non-food reward) competitive settings. These findings highlight the significant role of early-adolescent experiences in shaping emotional, cognitive, and social behaviors, underscoring the translational value of HRIP as a developmental research model.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101615"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144828917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101606
Claire Brechet, Clara Saget, Isabella Vijil
Few studies have examined drawing as a tool for children’s emotional regulation, with some evidence suggesting it can improve emotional states, particularly when used as a distraction. However, important questions remain. This study investigated whether the emotional benefits of drawing are greater than, or comparable to, those of other engaging activities. One hundred fifty children aged 7–8 years rated their emotional state (T1), engaged in one of four activities (drawing, tangram puzzle, reading, or passive observation), and then rated their emotional state again (T2). Results show that children’s emotional state improved in the drawing, tangram, and observation conditions, but not in the reading condition. These findings suggest that emotional regulation is not specific to drawing, nor is it merely achieved by engaging in any activity, but rather depends on the nature of the activity itself. This study helps clarify how typical daily activities can influence children’s emotional regulation and underscores the value of choosing activities that support emotional well-being.
{"title":"From blank page to bright mind: Comparing the emotional benefits of drawing and other activities in children","authors":"Claire Brechet, Clara Saget, Isabella Vijil","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101606","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101606","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Few studies have examined drawing as a tool for children’s emotional regulation, with some evidence suggesting it can improve emotional states, particularly when used as a distraction. However, important questions remain. This study investigated whether the emotional benefits of drawing are greater than, or comparable to, those of other engaging activities. One hundred fifty children aged 7–8 years rated their emotional state (T1), engaged in one of four activities (drawing, tangram puzzle, reading, or passive observation), and then rated their emotional state again (T2). Results show that children’s emotional state improved in the drawing, tangram, and observation conditions, but not in the reading condition. These findings suggest that emotional regulation is not specific to drawing, nor is it merely achieved by engaging in any activity, but rather depends on the nature of the activity itself. This study helps clarify how typical daily activities can influence children’s emotional regulation and underscores the value of choosing activities that support emotional well-being.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101606"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144579393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101610
Christina S. Marlow , Peter Strelan , Kelly Lynn Mulvey
It is unclear how children evaluate the acceptability of and fairness of forgiveness in scenarios of advantageous (cheating) and disadvantageous rule-breaking in third party scenarios. Prior work reveals that children increasingly consider intentionality and remorse when making moral judgments. Socio-cognitive skills, such as Theory of Mind (ToM), may underlie developmental changes in attending to these factors. We hypothesized that children would find situations of disadvantageous, unaware, remorseful rule-breaking as less severe and more deserving of forgiveness than advantageous, aware, and unremorseful rule-breaking. We also hypothesized that with increased ToM, children will make more nuanced evaluations. 181 4–10-year-old children (Mage = 6 years; 9 months months, 49.2 % female, 53 % White/European American) listened to vignettes where a rule was broken either with knowledge or not, either advantageously or disadvantageously, and the violator either apologized or not, and then evaluated the transgressor’s actions. False-belief ToM was also assessed. Regressions were conducted on ratings of acceptability and fairness of cognitive and behavioral forms of forgiveness. Children found advantageous rule-breaking as less acceptable than disadvantageous. Children found remorseful rule-breaking more acceptable and fairer to forgive. Knowledge-state was moderated by ToM, where for unaware acts, those with greater ToM rated them less severely. Children mostly referenced societal concerns in their reasoning. Future research on rule-violations and forgiveness needs to continue to consider factors beyond the rule breaking itself. Overall, even young children are sensitive to the web of factors that surround rulebreaking and utilize these factors in their acceptability and fairness of forgiveness evaluations.
{"title":"Advantage and forgiveness: The roles of advantage, knowledge state, apology, and theory of mind in children’s evaluations of rule-breaking","authors":"Christina S. Marlow , Peter Strelan , Kelly Lynn Mulvey","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101610","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101610","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>It is unclear how children evaluate the acceptability of and fairness of forgiveness in scenarios of advantageous (cheating) and disadvantageous rule-breaking in third party scenarios. Prior work reveals that children increasingly consider intentionality and remorse when making moral judgments. Socio-cognitive skills, such as Theory of Mind (ToM), may underlie developmental changes in attending to these factors. We hypothesized that children would find situations of disadvantageous, unaware, remorseful rule-breaking as less severe and more deserving of forgiveness than advantageous, aware, and unremorseful rule-breaking. We also hypothesized that with increased ToM, children will make more nuanced evaluations. 181 4–10-year-old children (Mage = 6 years; 9 months months, 49.2 % female, 53 % White/European American) listened to vignettes where a rule was broken either with knowledge or not, either advantageously or disadvantageously, and the violator either apologized or not, and then evaluated the transgressor’s actions. False-belief ToM was also assessed. Regressions were conducted on ratings of acceptability and fairness of cognitive and behavioral forms of forgiveness. Children found advantageous rule-breaking as less acceptable than disadvantageous. Children found remorseful rule-breaking more acceptable and fairer to forgive. Knowledge-state was moderated by ToM, where for unaware acts, those with greater ToM rated them less severely. Children mostly referenced societal concerns in their reasoning. Future research on rule-violations and forgiveness needs to continue to consider factors beyond the rule breaking itself. Overall, even young children are sensitive to the web of factors that surround rulebreaking and utilize these factors in their acceptability and fairness of forgiveness evaluations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101610"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144686719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101608
Demao Zhao , Xue Xiao , Dan Cui , Yanfang Li
Previous research on children’s resource allocation in cooperative and competitive contexts has primarily focused on either interindividual interactions (interaction between two individuals) or intergroup interactions (interaction between two groups), with few studies adopting a comparative framework that simultaneously assesses allocation patterns across both social contexts (cooperation/competition) and interaction types (interindividual/intergroup). Specifically, little is known about how cooperation versus competition differentially shapes children’s allocation decisions when interacting with individuals versus groups. To address this issue, 601 children aged 3–5 and 6–8 years were asked to allocate resources either between themselves and a partner (interindividual condition) or between their group and another group (intergroup condition) under cooperative, competitive, or neutral (control) contexts. Additionally, a forced-choice game task (including sharing, prosocial, and envy trials) was used to explore whether children’s behavioral differences were due to prosocial, egalitarian, or egoistic motivations. Results showed that in competitive contexts, children in both age groups allocated more resources to their own side. Notably, 3- to 5-year-olds allocated more resources to themselves than to their group, whereas 6- to 8-year-olds showed the opposite pattern, allocating more to their group than to themselves. Moreover, in the forced-choice task, 6- to 8-year-olds made more choices that benefited their own side in the intergroup condition than in the interindividual condition. In the cooperative context, 6- to 8-year-olds demonstrated an egalitarian tendency in resource allocation, with no significant differences between the interindividual and intergroup conditions. These findings suggest that in competitive contexts, children’s resource allocation shifts from prioritizing personal interests to considering ingroup interests, whereas in cooperative contexts, children show an egalitarian tendency in resource allocation regardless of interaction type. These results enhance our understanding of how interindividual and intergroup interactions, along with cooperation versus competition, jointly influence resource allocation during development.
{"title":"The influence of cooperation and competition on children’s resource allocation: Differences between interindividual and intergroup interactions","authors":"Demao Zhao , Xue Xiao , Dan Cui , Yanfang Li","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101608","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101608","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous research on children’s resource allocation in cooperative and competitive contexts has primarily focused on either interindividual interactions (interaction between two individuals) or intergroup interactions (interaction between two groups), with few studies adopting a comparative framework that simultaneously assesses allocation patterns across both social contexts (cooperation/competition) and interaction types (interindividual/intergroup). Specifically, little is known about how cooperation versus competition differentially shapes children’s allocation decisions when interacting with individuals versus groups. To address this issue, 601 children aged 3–5 and 6–8 years were asked to allocate resources either between themselves and a partner (interindividual condition) or between their group and another group (intergroup condition) under cooperative, competitive, or neutral (control) contexts. Additionally, a forced-choice game task (including sharing, prosocial, and envy trials) was used to explore whether children’s behavioral differences were due to prosocial, egalitarian, or egoistic motivations. Results showed that in competitive contexts, children in both age groups allocated more resources to their own side. Notably, 3- to 5-year-olds allocated more resources to themselves than to their group, whereas 6- to 8-year-olds showed the opposite pattern, allocating more to their group than to themselves. Moreover, in the forced-choice task, 6- to 8-year-olds made more choices that benefited their own side in the intergroup condition than in the interindividual condition. In the cooperative context, 6- to 8-year-olds demonstrated an egalitarian tendency in resource allocation, with no significant differences between the interindividual and intergroup conditions. These findings suggest that in competitive contexts, children’s resource allocation shifts from prioritizing personal interests to considering ingroup interests, whereas in cooperative contexts, children show an egalitarian tendency in resource allocation regardless of interaction type. These results enhance our understanding of how interindividual and intergroup interactions, along with cooperation versus competition, jointly influence resource allocation during development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101608"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144686718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101609
Felipe Torres-Morales , Claudia Araya , Gary Morgan , Ricardo Rosas
One of the primary markers of developmental language disorder (DLD) is difficulties in the development of morphosyntax. In addition, because children with DLD often have deficits in executive functions (EFs) it has been suggested that EF may be associated with their reduced ability to comprehend and produce different morphosyntactic structures. However, the specific pattern of this relationship remains unclear. The present cross-sectional study examined the association of a set of EFs with the comprehension and production of morphosyntax in a sample of Spanish-speaking children with and without DLD. A total of 204 children aged 6–8 years were assessed: 105 with DLD and 99 with typical development (TD). Multiple regression models and path analyses were performed, with EFs as predictors and morphosyntactic comprehension and production as outcome or mediating variables. The results showed that in children with DLD the EFs of verbal working memory and cognitive flexibility were directly associated with morphosyntactic comprehension and indirectly with morphosyntactic production. This indirect relationship was mediated by morphosyntactic comprehension. In TD children, there was a significant relationship only between verbal working memory and morphosyntactic comprehension. These results suggest that school-aged children with DLD depend more on EFs for morphosyntactic processing than their TD peers. Furthermore, EFs have a more critical influence on morphosyntactic comprehension than production. Interventions aimed at improving morphosyntax in DLD should include EF activities.
{"title":"Relationships between executive functions and morphosyntactic skills in Spanish-speaking children with and without developmental language disorder","authors":"Felipe Torres-Morales , Claudia Araya , Gary Morgan , Ricardo Rosas","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101609","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101609","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One of the primary markers of developmental language disorder (DLD) is difficulties in the development of morphosyntax. In addition, because children with DLD often have deficits in executive functions (EFs) it has been suggested that EF may be associated with their reduced ability to comprehend and produce different morphosyntactic structures. However, the specific pattern of this relationship remains unclear. The present cross-sectional study examined the association of a set of EFs with the comprehension and production of morphosyntax in a sample of Spanish-speaking children with and without DLD. A total of 204 children aged 6–8 years were assessed: 105 with DLD and 99 with typical development (TD). Multiple regression models and path analyses were performed, with EFs as predictors and morphosyntactic comprehension and production as outcome or mediating variables. The results showed that in children with DLD the EFs of verbal working memory and cognitive flexibility were directly associated with morphosyntactic comprehension and indirectly with morphosyntactic production. This indirect relationship was mediated by morphosyntactic comprehension. In TD children, there was a significant relationship only between verbal working memory and morphosyntactic comprehension. These results suggest that school-aged children with DLD depend more on EFs for morphosyntactic processing than their TD peers. Furthermore, EFs have a more critical influence on morphosyntactic comprehension than production. Interventions aimed at improving morphosyntax in DLD should include EF activities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":"75 ","pages":"Article 101609"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144614635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101611
Rafael Román-Caballero , Laura Trujillo , Paulina del Carmen Martín-Sánchez , Laurel J. Trainor , Florentino Huertas , Elisa Martín-Arévalo , Juan Lupiáñez
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