Cognitive Development最新文献

Participants were 82 children aged 9–11 and 169 adults aged 18–65, majority White European; data were collected in Northern Ireland between January and June 2022. Children’s awareness of autism was assessed by asking what they know about autism. Children and adults also judged the extent to which a hypothetical autistic peer had capacity for mental experiences (emotions and personality traits). Emotions and personality traits varied between non-uniquely, or uniquely human, and the effect of valence (positive/negative) was also examined. We describe the extent to which children and adults attribute capacity for mental experiences to an autistic peer, and examine potential dehumanization of the peer through relative denial of uniquely human mental experiences. Denial of uniquely human mental experiences predicted how happy participants expected themselves (adults) and others (children and adults) to be about including the peer. Findings suggest children of this age hold fairly accurate representations of autism, and that dehumanization of autistic people may contribute to their exclusion by neurotypical peers.

Understanding relative quantities is crucial for many formal mathematical and everyday experiences, and its development has been examined using both probability judgment and proportion matching frameworks. The current study examines individual difference and developmental patterns that emerge within and between these frameworks, using computerized tasks administered within-subjects to a socio-demographically diverse sample of elementary school students (N = 96, 52 female, M_age = 8.56-years, 5.1–12.4) between kindergarten and fifth-grade. The results indicate that performance between the two task frameworks was correlated, and that age was significantly correlated with performance on both tasks. There were also differences across tasks, and children were overall more successful in their probability judgements than proportion matching. The findings, therefore, indicate some individual difference and cognitive developmental commonality across frameworks, but also that they are differentially effective in prompting relative quantity problem-solving strategies, which has implications for developmental research and theory and suggests a more nuanced approach to when children understand relative quantities is needed.

Investigating children’s susceptibility to visual illusions (VIs) offers a unique window into the development of human perception. Although research in this field dates back to the seminal work of Binet in 1895, developmental trajectories for many VIs remain unclear. Here, for the very first time, we provide a comprehensive systematic review of research investigating children’s susceptibility to five of the most famous VIs: the Ebbinghaus, Ponzo, Müller-Lyer, Poggendorff, and Vertical-Horizontal illusions. Following PRISMA best-practice guidelines, 70 articles were identified across four databases (Scopus, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, and Web of Science). Our findings reveal opposing developmental trends across illusions; the magnitude of the Müller-Lyer, Poggendorff, and Vertical-Horizontal illusions tends to decrease with age, while the magnitude of the Ebbinghaus and Ponzo illusions typically increases with age. However, developmental trajectories identified by studies investigating the same illusion can vary dramatically due to substantial variability in methods and stimuli. Researchers are more likely to find decreasing VI magnitude with increasing age when employing the method of adjustment response paradigm, whereas the two-way alternative forced-choice paradigm typically reveals greater VI magnitude with increasing age. These findings suggest that conclusions regarding the development of VI susceptibility may be influenced by how they are studied and implicate the involvement of different cognitive abilities across response methods. These findings will benefit future research in dissociating the role of perceptual (e.g. the maturation of the brain's visual areas) and cognitive factors (e.g., attention span) in pinpointing the development trajectories for VI susceptibility.

The self-reference effect (SRE) is a memory benefit found in both adolescents and adults that occurs when new information is connected to the self, facilitating improved recall and recognition. The memory benefit extends to close others, with adults better remembering information encoded in reference to close others as compared to information encoded in connection to an unfamiliar other or neutral control condition, but this has not yet been shown in younger adolescents. The present study examined the role of self and close other in source memory in 41 adolescents (10–14 years old) and 44 young adults (18–25 years old). Findings showed that participants had significantly better memory for information connected to the self and close other compared to other referent conditions and that patterns of memory across conditions are similar in both young adults and adolescents. These findings add to our understanding of the use of self and other referencing in memory in adolescents.

This study provides first insights into aha-experiences in infancy and childhood. In two studies, a content analysis of parental reports from two different populations, a Norwegian sample and an international sample of English-speaking parents, was conducted. Parents described 606 aha-stories of their children (age 3 weeks to 16 years). Three main findings were replicated across two studies: (1) Even infants may have aha-experiences; (2) Children have aha-experiences on various topics related to action and cognition; (3) The focus of aha-experiences shifts from action to cognition with age (3 weeks-8 years, Odds Ratios > 1.567). These findings may have implications for understanding what motivates children's learning and cognitive development and for future research.

Cramman et al. (2018) proposed that numerical symbol identification may constitute a universally predictive measure of early mathematical development. While a broad pathway to learning number symbols is unsurprising, lack of systematic variation in acquisition order relative to factors such as teaching, age, country, progression stage, is. This study evidences unidimensionality of measurement of the order of ability clusters of numbers, showing that variations are minor across eight countries and, importantly, six instructional languages. This invariance suggests early symbol identification could represent a universal measurement which could a) instructionally inform teaching and learning of classroom mathematics, b) work predictively as an educational research tool and c) offer a foundation for valid international comparisons of the mathematical development of children. Tentatively, this study suggests numerical symbol identification may be a universal measure to assess mathematical cognition in early years education that is unaffected by language of instruction, gender, time of assessment and country.

Little is known about how word recognition processes, such as decoding, change when reading fluency improves during the school year. Such knowledge may have practical importance by determining which aspects of reading are most malleable at a certain age and reading level. The development of word-recognition subprocesses of third- and fourth-grade Finnish students (n = 81) with variable reading fluency was explored from longitudinal (6-month) text reading eye-tracking data. Generic development of the word recognition system was assessed from longitudinal changes in first fixation, average refixation durations and the number of first-pass fixations. The development of orthographic word representations and decoding was studied by examining the longitudinal changes in word frequency and word length effects, respectively. According to the results, the gain in reading fluency was mainly associated with decreases in first fixation and refixation durations. These decreases, in turn, inhibited the reduction in the number of fixations. However, students who could overcome this inhibitory effect, that is, by reading both with shorter fixation durations and with fewer fixations, developed most in reading fluency. The results seem to indicate that reading fluency development is driven by increased efficiency in representing letter strings in working memory. Over time, this development may lead to fewer fixations made into a word and, thus, more letters processed during each fixation.

In order to examine young children, developmental science has relied extensively on puppets, dolls, and animated stimuli. While some scholars regarded this as a royal road to the child’s mind and competencies, others conceived of it as a dead end. This article introduces the debate on the use of puppets and other simplified stimuli in developmental psychology. It presents key theoretical and methodological arguments that are offered for both sides. In addition, it introduces a special issue that has collected theoretical and empirical contributions on how children process puppets, dolls, and animated stimuli as well as to illustrate the benefits and challenges of their use in developmental research. Finally, the article suggests avenues for further research.

Children favor knowledgeable people in information-seeking contexts, but is this preference maintained when other resources are available to resolve problems? This study addressed whether children relied on knowledge or wealth to decide who is qualified to help someone in need. Sixty-four 5- to 8-year-olds heard stories in which two bystanders (i.e., knowledgeable versus wealthy) witnessed a negative event. Children judged which bystander should assist a victim and which should supervise the situation. Children evaluated each bystander’s strategies and duty to help. Across ages, children indicated that the knowledgeable bystander should provide aid, supervise, and help more than the wealthy bystander, but made positive trait attributions about both bystanders. Children referenced how knowledge could produce solutions and with age, were better able to make knowledge- rather than wealth-related predictions about helpful behavior. These findings shed light on children’s understanding of wealth and draw connections between children’s reasoning about knowledge, wealth, and morality.

Prior studies on parental math talk often emphasize utterance frequency, with few distinguishing between utterance types (e.g., questions, statements, and confirmations). This study identified parental math talk styles (i.e., combinations of utterance types) and examined associations with children’s math and language performance. Participants were 76 mostly middle-income, White parents and their four-year-old children. Dyads’ conversations while looking at pictures were transcribed and coded for math content and children completed math and language assessments. Cluster analyses identified three parental math talk styles: Math Discussers privileged math questions and statements over other utterances, Math Commentators privileged math statements over other utterances, and Math Elicitors privileged math questions over other utterances. Math Discussers tended to be more likely than Math Commentators to have children who spoke more about math. Parental math styles did not relate to children’s math or language skills. Findings suggest parental math talk styles are promising to understand early math support.