Preschoolers' use of reflective properties: identification of reflections on partially transparent surfaces

This exploratory study extended past studies of children's ability to reference the mirror as a tool in locating the source of reflected images to preschoolers' ability to use the affordances of a transparency. Thirty-six children (3.5 to 5 years old) were shown nonreflected lights and lights reflected on a partially transparent, glassy surface. Children did not spontaneously locate the source of the reflected image. However, they were able to verbally discriminate reflected from nonreflected images following training. These findings indicate that, although preschoolers may not spontaneously use transparencies as a perceptual tool, the ability to distinguish visual differences of reflected from nonreflected images on transparencies is likely within preschool children's developmental capacity.     

Parents' Appraisals,Reflected Appraisals,and Children's Self-Appraisals of Sport Competence: A Yearlong Study

This study investigated the contribution of the reflected appraisal process to the ontogeny of children's self-perceptions of physical competence. Emanating from symbolic interactionist thought, reflected appraisals refer to individuals' perceptions of others' evaluations of their abilities. The influence of parents' appraisals of their child's competence on the child's self-appraisals was hypothesized to be mediated by parents' reflected appraisals. Data were collected from a sample of 147 sixth graders and their parents in three waves over one school year. Structural equation modeling revealed that 1) parents' appraisals at Wave 1 influenced children's reflected appraisals of parents at Wave 2; 2) reflected appraisals at Wave 2 influenced children's self-appraisals at Wave 3, controlling for both the child's actual level in sport (as assessed by the child's grade in physical education) and the child's self-appraisals at Wave 1; and 3) the influence of parents' appraisals on their child's self-appraisals was nonsignificant when reflected appraisals were controlled for. This study supported the mediational role of the reflected appraisal process. The findings from this study provide a unique contribution to the sport socialization knowledge base by highlighting the role of the reflected appraisal process in the formation of children's self-appraisals of ability.     

Selective,but Only if It Is Free: Children Trust Inaccurate Individuals More when Alternative Sources Are Costly

The present research examines the effect of the costliness of an information source on children's selective learning. In three experiments (total N = 112), 4‐ to 7‐year‐olds were given the opportunity to acquire and endorse information from one of two sources. One source, a computer, was described as always accurate; the other source, a puppet, had a history of either accuracy or inaccuracy. For some children, learning from the computer required giving away stickers. The costliness of the computer clue reduced children's use of this source across all experiments, but its effect on children's use of the puppet varied based on the puppet's accuracy and the type of information learned. Children's trust in the puppet was above chance regardless of the cost of the computer when they were learning generalizable semantic information and the puppet had a history of accuracy. When the puppet was inaccurate or when children learned episodic information, the costliness of the computer significantly increased children's trust in the puppet. Hence, attaching a cost to a preferred knowledge source reduces children's selectivity and increases their trust in sources that they would not otherwise see as desirable. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attention to Explicit and Implicit Contrast in Verb Learning

Contrast information could be useful for verb learning, but few studies have examined children's ability to use this type of information. Contrast may be useful when children are told explicitly that different verbs apply, or when they hear two different verbs in a single context. Three studies examine children's attention to different types of contrast as they learn new verbs. Study 1 shows that 3.5-year-olds can use both implicit contrast (“I'm meeking it. I'm koobing it.”) and explicit contrast (“I'm meeking it. I'm not meeking it.”) when learning a new verb, while a control group's responses did not differ from chance. Study 2 shows that even though children at this age who hear explicit contrast statements differ from a control group, they do not reliably extend a newly learned verb to events with new objects. In Study 3, children in three age groups were given both comparison and contrast information, not in blocks of trials as in past studies, but in a procedure that interleaved both cues. Results show that while 2.5-year-olds were unable to use these cues when asked to compare and contrast, by 3.5 years old, children are beginning to be able to process these cues and use them to influence their verb extensions, and by 4.5 years, children are proficient at integrating multiple cues when learning and extending new verbs. Together these studies examine children's use of contrast in verb learning, a potentially important source of information that has been rarely studied.     

The influence of popular media characters on children's object choices

Children often prefer objects and food packaging bearing images of popular media characters. However, it is unclear what factors may influence this. This study investigated whether depictions of popular media characters on high-quality (brand new) and low-quality (dirty, broken) objects influenced 3- to 4-year-old children's (N = 84) object preferences, as well as which objects children selected to help them complete a functional task (e.g., using a bucket to transport several small items). We also investigated whether children's preferences were related to inhibitory control. We found children's preferences were influenced by images of popular characters, but not their choice of objects for functional use. Instead, children relied on object quality when selecting an object to complete a task. Inhibitory control was not related to children's object choices. These results suggest children may weigh object features differently when making decisions for different purposes.     

Classroom context,teacher expectations,and cognitive level: Predicting children's math ability judgments

Classroom practices that make ability differences salient communicate differential teacher expectations for students. This study reports on a new observational tool for measuring Classroom Ability-based Practices (CAP) and explores how young children's self-perceptions of ability in mathematics are related to their teachers' expectations for them and to their cognitive reasoning skills in classrooms that vary in usage of such ability-differentiated practices. The sample consisted of 193 children and their teachers in 15 first grade classrooms. The CAP was a reliable measure of ability-based differential teacher treatment and showed criterion validity as a moderator variable in predicting children's ability perceptions. In highly ability-differentiating classrooms, children's self-ratings were more congruent with teachers' expectations of students' mathematics ability. Also in highly ability-differentiating classrooms, higher cognitive levels predicted lower self-ability ratings in math. These findings extend our understanding of the social and cognitive factors that shape young children's self-judgments of math competence.     

4～6岁幼儿对口语和文字信息的信任及运用

研究以混合物分类为实验任务,探讨在面对口语和文字两种信息时,4~6岁中国幼儿的信任特点,在信任任务之后的即时和延时两个时间点上考察幼儿对所信任信息的运用,以及分析阅读水平对幼儿信息信任和运用的影响。研究结果表明:(1)4~6岁中国幼儿对不同类型信息都表现出高度信任,相较于口语信息,阅读水平高的幼儿表现出对文字信息的信任偏好;(2)幼儿在后续任务中较少运用所信任的信息,随着时间的推移,幼儿运用的口语信息持续减少,但文字信息的运用呈现先降后升的特点;(3)阅读水平在不同时间点上影响幼儿对所信任信息的运用,阅读水平低的幼儿在短时间内更多地运用口语信息,而阅读水平高的幼儿在更长时间里显著更多地使用文字信息。未来研究应进一步探究文字意识对幼儿文字信息信任和后续运用的作用。     

The Structural Relationships of Parenting Style,Creative Personality,and Loneliness

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationships between children's reports of their mother's and father's parenting style (leniency and acceptance), teacher's reports of children's creative personality, and teacher's reports of children's loneliness in school in a sample of South Korean sixth graders (N = 421). Using structural equation modeling, the results showed that parenting styles that reflected higher levels of leniency were associated with higher levels of loneliness and no relationship with children's creative personality. Parenting styles that reflected higher levels of acceptance were associated with higher levels of creativity in their children, but did not have a direct effect on loneliness. However, there was an indirect effect; the relationship between acceptance and loneliness was mediated by creativity.     

Exploring the longitudinal relationships between the use of grammar in text messaging and performance on grammatical tasks

Research has demonstrated that use of texting slang (textisms) when text messaging does not appear to impact negatively on children's literacy outcomes and may even benefit children's spelling attainment. However, less attention has been paid to the impact of text messaging on the development of children's and young people's understanding of grammar. This study therefore examined the interrelationships between children's and young adults’ tendency to make grammatical violations when texting and their performance on formal assessments of spoken and written grammatical understanding, orthographic processing and spelling ability over the course of 1 year. Zero‐order correlations showed patterns consistent with previous research on textism use and spelling, and there was no evidence of any negative associations between the development of the children's performance on the grammar tasks and their use of grammatical violations when texting. Adults’ tendency to use ungrammatical word forms (‘does you’) was positively related to performance on the test of written grammar. Grammatical violations were found to be positively associated with growth in spelling for secondary school children. However, not all forms of violation were observed to be consistently used in samples of text messages taken 12 months apart or were characteristic of typical text messages. The need to differentiate between genuine errors and deliberate violation of rules is discussed, as are the educational implications of these findings.     

Preschoolers' comprehension of goal structure in narratives

Preschool children's understanding and use of goals were studied in two experiments. Children heard stories in the presence of pictures or props. The stories were varied by goal success occurring early or late in the story, with late goal success resulting in more causal connections in the narrative. The results showed that children recalled goals spontaneously and that their recall benefited from goal structure of the stories. Pictures benefited the children when the stories were short. Enactment of the props versus static displays of the props did not enhance recall in the second experiment. Preschool children thus demonstrated ability to infer and use goal and causal information in stories for both picture and object support.     

Geometric,But Not Kinetic,Properties of Tools Affect the Affordances Perceived by Toddlers

We asked what rod properties affected children's reaching range. Children, 2 to 4 years old, held a rod (length 10-60 cm) with the tip in the air, walked toward a toy on a table, chose a place to stop, and displaced the toy with the rod's tip. In 2 experiments rod length, mass, and mass distribution were manipulated to determine whether and how geometric and kinetic properties affected chosen distance and posture. Chosen distance depended only on the length of the rod. Postures were affected by length and mass properties of the rod. Not all adaptations in posture were prospectively reflected in the distance. Although we found variations over age, we did not find clear developmental trends. The results are discussed in broader perspectives of development of affordances and tool use.     

When Children's Knowledge of Memory Improves Children's Performance in Memory

One of the strongest hypotheses in the field of metacognition research involves the positive effect of metamemory on memory performance. However, owing to the lack of appropriate instruments to appraise knowledge of memory, few studies have examined this effect among children. This study was conducted to create and validate an instrument to assess children's metamemory knowledge and link this knowledge with their memory performance and strategy use. A sample of 166 children was given a new three‐factor metamemory interview, and its psychometric properties were investigated. Regression analyses were carried out to investigate the link between metamemory and memory performance in a subgroup of 128 children from the validation study. Results confirmed the scale's good psychometric properties and revealed its ability to predict children's memory performance. However, none of the scale's factors could predict children's use of memory strategies. Implications for the study of children's metamemory development are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's active play imagery

ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study was to examine how children's use of imagery in their active play can facilitate Deci and Ryan's (2002) three basic psychological needs (i.e., competence, relatedness, and autonomy) in their active play. A secondary purpose was to examine the content of children's mental images associated with their active play.DesignFocus Groups.MethodOne hundred and four participants (male and female) aged 7–14 years old were recruited from various summer camps.ResultsThe results indicated children use active play imagery and their use of imagery facilitates the satisfaction of the three basic needs (i.e., imagery → behaviour → need satisfaction). With respect to autonomy, children imaged activities that are their favourite, enjoyable, and they do often. For relatedness they imaged friends, family, and others (e.g., professional athletes), while for competence they imaged themselves being good at the activity. Age and gender differences emerged for relatedness and competence. Furthermore, the content of children's images included when participants imaged as well as the speed of their images (i.e., slow motion, real time, or fast).ConclusionThese findings may enable the development of imagery interventions to increase children's motivation to be physically active.     

The Contribution of Executive Function to Source Memory Development in Early Childhood

Age-related differences in episodic memory judgments assessing recall of fact information and the source of this information were examined. The role of executive function (EF) in supporting early episodic memory ability was also explored. Four- and 6-year-old children were taught 10 novel facts from two different sources (experimenter or puppet), and memory for both fact and source information was later tested. Measures of working memory, inhibitory control, and set shifting were obtained to produce an indicator of children's EF. Six-year-olds recalled more fact and source information than did 4-year-olds. Regression analyses revealed that age, language ability, and EF accounted for unique variance in children's fact recall and source recall performance. These findings suggest a link between episodic memory and EF, and we propose that developmental investigations should further explore this association.     

Young children's self‐benefiting lies and their relation to executive functioning and theory of mind

It is well established that children lie in different social contexts for various purposes from the age of 2 years. Surprisingly, little is known about whether very young children will spontaneously lie for personal gain, how self‐benefiting lies emerge, and what cognitive factors affect the emergence of self‐benefiting lies. To bridge this gap in the literature, we situated children between 2 and 4 years of age in a zero‐sum game where children must lie to their opponent if they wanted to win a desirable reward. We found that the majority of young children did not lie even when they experienced personal losses repeatedly. However, some children spontaneously lied during the game; as the game progressed, more children lied. Further, we found that children's theory of mind understanding and executive functioning in terms of a combination of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility had significant positive and unique correlations with how frequently children lied for personal gain. The present results taken together with the existing findings regarding children's lies for self‐protection and politeness purposes suggest that the act of lying begins early in life. Further, its emergence and development are influenced by children's specific cognitive abilities in the domains of theory of mind understanding and executive functioning.

Highlights

• The study investigated whether very young children will spontaneously lie for personal gain.
• This study used a zero‐sum game to elicit children's self‐benefiting lies. Results showed the majority of young children did not lie, and it is related to children's theory of mind understanding and executive functioning.
• The act of lying begins early in life, and its emergence and development are influenced by children's specific cognitive abilities in the domains of theory of mind understanding and executive functioning.

     

A lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution in young children: Relationships with linguistic ability and mothers' mental‐state language

This study examines the contribution of children's linguistic ability and mothers' use of mental‐state language to young children's understanding of false belief and their subsequent ability to make belief‐based emotion attributions. In Experiment 1, children (N = 51) were given three belief‐based emotion‐attribution tasks. A standard task in which the protagonist was a story character and the emotional outcomes were imagined, and two videos in which the story protagonist was a real infant and the emotional outcomes were observable (high and low expressed emotion conditions). Children's verbal ability (semantic competence) was also measured. In Experiment 2, children (N = 75) were given two belief‐based emotion tasks: the standard story task and the high expressed emotion video. In addition, children's verbal ability (syntactic competence) and mothers' use of mental‐state attributes when describing their children were also measured. The results showed that: (1) the lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution was a stable feature of children's reasoning across the three tests; and (2) children who were more linguistically advanced and whose mothers' described them in more mentalistic terms were more likely to understand the association between false belief and emotion. The findings underline the continuing importance of verbal ability and linguistic input for children's developing theory‐of‐mind understanding, even after they display an understanding of false belief.     

Relations Among Preschool Children's Understanding of Visual Perspective Taking,False Belief,and Lying

This study investigated the relations among preschool children's ability to understand that other people see things differently than they do, that other people can believe things differently than the children know to be true, and that they can manipulate others' beliefs through intentional lying. Children between the ages of 3 and 5 were given tasks that tested their knowledge of Level 2 visual perspective taking, understanding of false belief, and the discriminative use of deceptive ploys. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III) was administered as a measure of language proficiency. The children's scores on the three types of tasks were correlated with each other and with children's age, but not with scores on the PPVT-III. Most children either passed all the tasks or failed all the tasks. Regression analyses indicated that scores on visual perspective taking and false belief independently predicted each other, and scores on false belief and the discriminative use of deception independently predicted each other. The results provide evidence that advances in visual perspective taking, false belief understanding, and the discriminative use of deceptive ploys are developmentally related and occur in close synchrony.     

If it's an animal it has axons: Experience and culture in preschool children's reasoning about animates

To claim that young children's biological thought is anthropocentric or that their induction depends on similarity rather than categories is to overlook the role of experience in reasoning. We tested four groups of 4-year-olds differing in two aspects of exposure to biological information: (a) their direct experience with nature (urban versus rural) and (b) biological expertise of their parents (expert biologists versus laypeople). We used a modified version of a novel feature projection task—in which projections are made from humans, mammals and insects to an array of nine targets representing various ontological kinds. Children's exposure to biology had consequences on their patterns of induction. There was an effect of parents’ expertise: laypeople's children's projections were based on similarity, while experts’ children's projections were based on the category animal. There was also an effect of direct experience: rural children were more restricted in their responses than were urban children. Although we found asymmetries in projections between humans and animals, humans were not a better source of knowledge about animates than were mammals or insects. These results show that the early emergence of domain specific biological thought and the use of biological categories in induction are highly contingent on children's experience.     

Preschoolers affect others' reputations through prosocial gossip

Providing evaluative information to others about absent third parties helps them to identify cooperators and avoid cheaters. Here, we show that 5‐year‐olds, but not 3‐year‐olds, reliably engage in such prosocial gossip. In an experimental setting, 5‐year‐old children spontaneously offered relevant reputational information to guide a peer towards a cooperative partner. Three‐year‐old children offered such evaluative information only rarely, although they still showed a willingness to inform in a non‐evaluative manner. A follow‐up study revealed that one component involved in this age difference is children's developing ability to provide justifications. The current results extend previous work on young children's tendency to manage their own reputation by showing that preschoolers also influence others' reputations via gossip.