Environmental Attention,Affect, and Altruism1

Three experiments were conducted concerning the effect of attention to positive or negative images of the physical environment on altruistic behavior: I. Some subjects listed and described aspects of their residential environments that were particularly pleasant while others described particularly unpleasant aspects. II. Subjects were exposed to slides of either attractive or unattractive outdoor environments. III. Subjects viewed slides of either attractive or unattractive environments while adopting an attentional set that focused only on positive or negative aspects of the slides. After these manipulations, subjects in each experiment encountered an ostensibly unrelated confederate who sought their assistance as a favor. Experiment I subjects who had thought about pleasant environments spent significantly more time helping than those who thought about unpleasant enviornments. Experiment II subjects who saw slides of attractive environments offered significantly more aid for a longer time period than subjects who saw slides of unattractive environments. Experiment III subjects who focused on positive aspects of attractive enviornments gave more help than subjects who focused on negative aspects of attractive environments, though overall differences were not significant. Attentional set produced no differential helping effects in subjects who had viewed unattractive environments. In all three experiments mood or affect was discussed as mediating the impact of environments on behavior.     

Emotion Knowledge and Attention Problems in Young Children: a Cross-Lagged Panel Study on the Direction of Effects

Attention problems are likely to hinder children in acquiring knowledge of their own and others’ emotions. Children with little knowledge of emotions tend to have difficulties with representing emotions, interpreting them, and sharing them, so that they are likely to spend more time in making sense of them and may thus appear to be inattentive. In order to disentangle the direction of effects between emotion knowledge and attention problems, 576 four- to- six-year-olds were interviewed at T1 and about 12 months later (T2) about their emotion knowledge. Their kindergarten teachers rated their attention problems, and their conduct problems at T1 and T2. A cross-lagged panel model indicates that children’s emotion knowledge at T1 contributed to the explanation of their attention problems at T2, after language ability and attention problems at T1 were controlled. The other cross-path from attention problems (T1) to emotion knowledge (T2) was not significant. Adding gender, behavioral self-regulation, working memory, conduct problems, or SES as alternative explanations by third variables did not alter this direction of effects. How emotion knowledge impinges on attention problems is discussed.     

Decision-Making by Children and Young People in the Home: The Nurture of Trust,Participation and Independence

This article presents the findings of a qualitative research study of children and young people (aged 7–17 years) in Ireland. It seeks to investigate whether, for the children and young people involved, the home is a space where supportive, trusting family relationships can be nurtured; where independence grows with age; and where parents listen, discuss and explain decisions made. It furthermore outlines the views and experiences of parents with regard to children and young people’s participation in the home and will focus on relational and spatial aspects of child participation within the home. The study recognizes children and young people as social actors and is also informed by a relational and spatial approach to children’s participation which recognizes the respective roles and positions of children in facilitating child participation. The results indicate that age and issues of trust and tokenism were significant barriers in young people’s participation and decision making at home. Key enablers of children and young people’s participation included spaces where discussion can happen at home, good family relationships, being listened to by parents, trust and growing levels of independence with age, seeing decisions as fair and having the rationale for decisions explained to them by parents. Among suggestions for improvements the most important were designated family spaces for discussion, encouragement of active listening by parents, and promotion of explanation by adults of their decisions.     

Repeated Measurement of the Components of Attention With Young Children Using the Attention Network Test: Stability,Isolability, Robustness,and Reliability

The current study examined the robustness, stability, reliability, and isolability of the attention network scores (alerting, orienting, and executive control) when young children experienced repeated administrations of the child version of the Attention Network Test (ANT; Rueda et al., 2004 Rueda , M. R. , Fan , J. , McCandliss , B. D. , Halparin , J. D. , Gruber , D. B. , Lercari , L. P. , … Posner , M. I. ( 2004 ). Development of attentional networks in childhood . Neuropsychologia , 42 , 1029 – 1040 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Ten test sessions of the ANT were administered to 12 young children. Participants were asked to indicate the direction of a target fish, flanked by distractors, presented either above or below the fixation cross following different types of visual cues. Network scores, reflecting alerting, orienting, and executive control, were calculated using orthogonal subtractions of performance in selected conditions. Only the alerting network scores remained highly significant across the 10 sessions. The executive network scores showed some practice effects. The reliability of the network scores remained poor regardless of the amount of data. Based on the results, use of the ANT is cautioned against in young children when repeated testing is required.     

School Discipline and Home Background

This study investigated the relationship between type of home and the frequency and severity of discipline cases reported to the principal's office in a selected secondary school. All discipline cases over a 6-year period were recorded by home type, frequency, and severity, and comparisons were then made. In only one home type (united home, mother not employed) was there found a smaller proportion of discipline cases than proportion of homes. Frequency and degree of severity of cases increased with home disruption.     

Relations Between Emotion Regulation, Parenting, and Psychopathology in Young Maltreated Children in Out of Home Care

Young maltreated children, birth to three years, represent the age group with the highest rates of maltreatment in the United States (ACYF 2007). There are few studies to date that have investigated early childhood maltreatment and its effects on emotion regulatory processes and psychopathology. In response, the current investigation uses a dyadic assessment procedure to examine the relationship between parenting, emotion regulation, and symptoms of psychopathology among maltreating and non-maltreating parent–child interactions. The participants in this study were 123 children (66 maltreated and 57 nonmaltreated) from ages 1–3. Child and parent affect and child effortful control were observed during a parent–child interaction task. Symptoms of psychopathology were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist. The maltreated children exhibited more anger, more internalizing symptomatology, and less positive affect compared to non-maltreated children. Among maltreated children, emotion dysregulation was associated with internalizing symptomatology. Moreover, these data reveal parental positive affect was associated with lower child internalizing symptomatology and parental anger was associated with higher child internalizing symptomatology in the entire sample. This investigation offers evidence that emotion dysregulation subsequent to poor dyadic interactions is associated with early child maltreatment. These data suggest that maltreated children experience difficulties in emotion regulation which may be related to their higher levels of behavioral symptomatology.     

Attention in Children with Myelomeningocele

This study examined attentional functioning in 64 children with myelomeningocele and 27 of their siblings, all ranging from 8 to 15 years of age. The children were assessed using measures of Mirsky's (1996) four elements of attention: encode, sustain, focus/execute, and shift. Their academic achievement also was assessed, and their parents provided ratings of attentional behavior. Demographic and medical background variables were derived from parent questionnaires, and medical records for children with myelomeningocele. Children with myelomeningocele showed deficits across all four elements of attention compared to siblings. Demographic and medical background variables predicted individual differences in the four elements of attention among children with myelomeningocele. The four elements of attention predicted behavior ratings and academic achievement, although the predictive relationships were different for the two outcomes and for the children with myelomeningocele and their siblings.     

Attention Biases to Threat Link Behavioral Inhibition to Social Withdrawal over Time in Very Young Children

Behaviorally inhibited children display a temperamental profile characterized by social withdrawal and anxious behaviors. Previous research, focused largely on adolescents, suggests that attention biases to threat may sustain high levels of behavioral inhibition (BI) over time, helping link early temperament to social outcomes. However, no prior studies examine the association between attention bias and BI before adolescence. The current study examined the interrelations among BI, attention biases to threat, and social withdrawal already manifest in early childhood. Children (N = 187, 83 Male, M _age  = 61.96 months) were characterized for BI in toddlerhood (24 & 36 months). At 5 years, they completed an attention bias task and concurrent social withdrawal was measured. As expected, BI in toddlerhood predicted high levels of social withdrawal in early childhood. However, this relation was moderated by attention bias. The BI-withdrawal association was only evident for children who displayed an attention bias toward threat. The data provide further support for models associating attention with socioemotional development and the later emergence of clinical anxiety.     

Dependency and Independence in Young Children

The present study investigated the hypothesis that a positive relation exists between self-concept and moral judgment in young children. In the first experiment 40 kindergarten children between the ages of 5–1 and 6–6 with mental ability scores ranging from 82 to 144 were each administered a self-concept appraisal and a series of Piagetian moral dilemmas. Product-moment correlations and a multiple-regression analysis evaluated the relationship. When the self-concept and moral-judgment scores were collapsed, all of the moral-judgment factors correlated significantly with at least one self-concept factor. A second experiment tested the implications of the first. Eighty-five children between the ages of 5–11 and 8–4 were given the self-concept and moral-judgment measures. An eight-week communications-training session for randomly selected parents of children scoring below the mean on the self-concept measure was held. Posttesting showed no improvement in self-concept for the experimental group. Implications of these experiments are discussed.     

The Role of Parental Attitudes and Monitoring in the Risk Exposure of Young Children1

The parental monitoring literature debates the role of parental activity, as opposed to parental knowledge in childhood risk taking. We examined parents’ attitudes and behaviors regarding roadside supervision of children aged 4 to 6 years using self‐report and observational measures. Although parents perceived sons as less careful than daughters, they reported no sex differences in the age children would be allowed out unsupervised. There were no self‐report differences in supervision according to socioeconomic status. However, roadside observations showed that boys and children from a lower socioeconomic area received less supervision than girls or those from a higher socioeconomic area. Such findings contribute to our understanding of the sex and socioeconomic differences in accident involvement and the role of parental monitoring.     

Determinants of Joint Attention in Young Siblings' Play

The nature of joint attention (JA) engagement of 32 sibling pairs (M age older sibling = 55.21 months; M age younger sibling = 19.60 months) was assessed in a free play context. Relations among JA engagement states, both siblings' age, temperament, and language, and older sibling theory of mind were explored. The frequency of coordinated JA was related to features of temperament of both the younger siblings (emotionality) and the older siblings (activity level and sociability). Younger siblings' age was significantly related to siblings' engagement in coordinated JA, whereas the older siblings' age and theory of mind correlated with the frequency of passive JA engagement. Implications regarding the role of partner characteristics in young sibling JA interactions will be discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

儿童外显视空间注意转移

采用提示范式探讨了三、六年级儿童的外显视空间注意转移。实验结果表明：内源性提示下儿童表现出显著的提示效度效应,其效度效应量在年龄组间没有显著差异;较短SOAs的外源性提示下,儿童表现出显著的提示效度效应;较长SOAs的外源性提示下儿童没有表现出返回抑制效应。用注意的过滤器理论和对象文件模型讨论了本研究的结果     

Ritualistic Behavior in Young Children

The aim of this study was to examine ritualistic behavior at its developmental peak. Children 20–59 months of age were sampled through a national system of daycare centers in Israel (N = 228). The order of onset of the ritual behaviors measured was virtually identical to that reported for an American sample (D. W. Evans et al., 1997). Gender and age effects were found for fearfulness but not for ritualistic behavior. Maternal reports of ritualistic behavior were highly correlated with reported fears, and with shy and emotional temperament. Mothers of the children who were in the top 10% in their use of rituals according to maternal report, worried about their child's ritualistic behavior, even though maternal worry was not correlated with ritualistic behavior for the whole distribution.     

The Integration of Body Movement and Attention in Young Infants

The normal development of adaptive behavior in humans depends on the integration of visual attention and body movement, yet little is known about the initial state of movement-attention coupling at the beginning of postnatal life. We studied 1- and 3-month-old infants during extended periods of visual exploration and found that spontaneous shifts of gaze are preceded by rapid changes in general body movement. The results reveal a tight link between motor activation and overt attention on a time scale of seconds or less. This link undergoes substantial developmental change in the first few weeks after birth. During that time, phasic motor activation may play a key role in visual exploration by helping to unlock gaze when the environment is unchanging.     

Future Thinking in Young Children

ABSTRACT— The study of future thinking is gaining momentum across various domains of psychology. Mentally projecting the self forward in time (i.e., mental time travel) is argued to be uniquely human and of vital importance to the evolution of human culture. Yet it is only recently that developmentalists have begun to study when, and how, this capacity emerges. I begin by outlining the concept of mental time travel, along with newly developed methodologies to test children's ability to mentally project the self into the future. Data suggest that this ability is in place by ages 4 or 5 but also reveal conditions under which children may experience difficulty accurately predicting their future desires. I conclude by discussing how the research on children's mental time travel can be used to further our understanding of the development of future-oriented behaviors, including planning and delaying gratification.     

Reasoning Ability in Young Children

The astrological assumption of personality differences among individuals born under different sun signs was investigated. Significant differences were obtained between sun sign groups on four of the 18 scales of the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) as follows: Communality, Socialization, Flexibility, and Femininity. The overall pattern of results based on F ratios, multiple comparisons between means, and estimates of strength of association was interpreted as showing no meaningful relationships between sun sign and scores on Communality, Socialization, and Flexibility. Adopting even the most conservative standards of inference, however, all of the test statistics employed indicated a powerful effect on the Femininity scale. Implications for future research were discussed.     

Spatial Scaling in Young Children

This article examines the emergence of the ability to use a simple map to acquire information about distance in a larger space. It is commonly believed that scaling is a late achievement in childhood. The present study examined the origins of this ability by using the simplest of situations. In two experiments, we presented preschool children with a dot in a long thin rectangle, and asked them to use that representation to find an object in a corresponding location in a much larger sandbox. All 4-year-olds and a majority of 3-year-olds performed well on this task. We present a model that posits a simpler mechanism for scaling than that proposed in the existing literature.     

Attention and Memory in Children with Brain Tumors

The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test was utilized to examine attention, learning, and memory abilities in 42 children with cerebellar (N?=?18) and third ventricle tumors (N?=?24). Children with cerebellar tumors exhibited significant auditory attentional impairments and displayed adequate encoding and retrieval across subsequent learning and memory trials. In contrast, children with third ventricle tumors exhibited average auditory attentional abilities, but they displayed mild encoding deficits across trials 2–5. Furthermore, the third ventricle group's compromised performance on the delayed recall trial and average performance on the delayed recognition trial is suggestive of underlying retrieval deficits.     

Attention in Children: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

This commentary discusses conceptual and methodological issues in the assessment of attention in children. The five articles in this special issue are important advances in the study of attention in children with brain-related disorders. They provide important guidelines for future studies in this area: specification of the underlying model of attention, selection of tasks according to the model, and the use of multiple tasks in well-defined clinical populations.