Development of manipulatory skills and the deployment of attention

Two independent tasks, object manipulation and auditory-visual matching, were used to examine the relationship between developing manual action skills and attention to intermodal object properties in 3.5- and 5.5-month-olds. Although handling skills improved with age, with older infants demonstrating more varied manipulation, there were no age differences for the matching task. When grouped by handling skills, a significant interaction between skill and event type was found for the two age groups combined and for 5.5-month-olds alone. Auditory-visual matching of social events did not vary with handling skills, whereas auditory-visualmatching of object events did. Infants at higher skill levels responded similarly to social and object events, whereas less skilled infants' matching preferences were weaker for object events. These findings indicate that infants increase their attention to auditory and visual properties of objects as this information becomes useful for guiding new actions. This effect is independent of age due to considerable individual variability in the development of object handling skills.     

Children's conscience and self-regulation

We focus on children's conscience, an inner guiding system responsible for the gradual emergence and maintenance of self-regulation. Drawing from our research program that has encompassed three large longitudinal studies cumulatively covering the first 6 years of life, we discuss two major components of conscience: moral emotions (guilt, discomfort following transgressions) and moral conduct compatible with rules and standards. We discuss the organization of young children's conscience, focusing on relations between moral emotions and moral conduct, and the development of conscience, focusing on its early form: the child's eager, willing stance toward parental socialization. We also review research on two major sets of influences that predict individual differences in moral emotions and moral conduct: biologically based temperament and socialization in the family. We discuss two inhibitory systems of temperament-fearfulness and effortful control-and several features of socialization, including the style of parental discipline and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Early conscience is an important early personality system, coherently organized, relatively stable over time, and subject to individual differences that emerge as a result of a complex interplay between children's temperamental individuality and socialization in the family.     

The role of strategic attention deployment in development of self-regulation: predicting preschoolers' delay of gratification from mother-toddler interactions

Toddlers' use of effective attention deployment strategies to cope with separation from the mother and with maternal behavior predicted the use of effective delay-of-gratification strategies at age 5, even though the contexts, measures, and manifest behaviors were different. Toddlers who used distraction strategies during a brief separation from the mother were able, at age 5, to delay immediate gratification longer for more valued rewards. Toddlers who explored at a distance from a controlling mother when she tried to engage the child also delayed longer and used more effective delay strategies at age 5, compared with toddlers who did not distance themselves. Toddlers whose mothers were not controlling showed the opposite pattern: Those who did not distance themselves from the mother's bids had longer preschool delay times and more effective strategies. Strategic attention deployment was shown to be an enduring self-regulatory skill visible in early development across domains, measures, and over time.     

Executive attention and self-regulation in infancy

This study investigates early executive attention in infancy by studying the relations between infant sequential looking and other behaviors predictive of later self-regulation. One early marker of executive attention development is anticipatory looking, the act of looking to the location of a target prior to its appearance in that location, a process that involves endogenous control of visual orienting. Previous studies have shown that anticipatory looking is positively related to executive attention as assessed by the ability to resolve spatial conflict in 3–4-year-old children. In the current study, anticipatory looking was positively related to cautious behavioral approach in response to non-threatening novel objects in 6- and 7-month-old infants. This finding and previous findings showing the presence of error detection in infancy are consistent with the hypothesis that there is some degree of executive attention in the first year of life. Anticipatory looking was also related to the frequency of distress, to looking away from disturbing stimuli, and to some self-regulatory behaviors. These results may indicate either early attentional regulation of emotion or close relations between early developing fear and later self-regulation. Overall, the results suggest the presence of rudimentary systems of executive attention in infants and support further studies using anticipatory looking as a measure of individual differences in attention in infancy.     

Children's use of multiple-counting skills: adaptation to task factors

The purpose of the study was to determine conditions under which young children enumerate by counting in multiples. Thirty-eight kindergartners and first-graders enumerated dot displays and gave verbal reports of their strategies; additionally, they were given an independent assessment of multiple-counting skill. Dot displays varied according to overall numerosity, perceptual arrangement (random, clustered, rectangular), and numerosity of subgroupings. Children were relatively accurate at enumerating small-numerosity and nonrandom displays. They were relatively likely to report counting by multiples, rather than by ones, on small-numerosity and clustered displays. Contingent upon their skill level, children counted by multiple units (twos, threes, and fours) that corresponded to the numerosity of subgroupings (2, 3, and 4). Contrasting effects of different numerosities and perceptual arrangements are discussed in terms of contextual support for the use, and development, of numerical skills among young children.     

The deployment of attention in short-term memory tasks: Trade-offs between immediate and delayed deployment

Memory at times depends on attention, as when attention is used to encode incoming, serial verbal information. When encoding and rehearsal are difficult or when attention is divided during list presentation, more attention is needed in the time following the presentation and just preceding the response. Across 12 experimental conditions observed in several experiments, we demonstrated this by introducing a nonverbal task with three levels of effort (no task, a natural nonverbal task, or an unnatural version of the task) during a brief retention interval in a short-term digit recall task. Interference from the task during the retention interval was greater when resources were drawn away from the encoding of the stimuli by other factors, including unpredictability of the end point of the list, rapid presentation, and a secondary task during list presentation. When those conditions complicate encoding of the list, we argue, attention is needed after the list so that the contents of passive memory (i.e., postcategorical phonological storage and/or precategorical sensory memory) may be retrieved and become the focus of attention for recall.     

Children's self-speech and self-regulation during a fear-provoking behavioral test

In this study a combined method of a behavioral test and a behavioral interview was used to assess children's spontaneous use of self-speech and self-regulation in a fear-provoking situation. Forty-four children, aged 8–12 yr, performed a series of more or less fear-provoking tasks in the swimming pool. The children were divided into high-, moderate- and low-anxious groups, based on their performance. Results showed that the report of self-speech fluctuated over the test and was found to be related to task characteristics. High fear was related to a specific type of self-speech, while lower levels of fear were not. About half of the children sampled reported use of self-regulation. Level of fear was related to the occurrence of self-regulation; the moderate-anxious children mostly reported self-regulation. No relation was found between level of fear and type of self-regulation. The findings are discussed in relation to various cognitive-behavioral assumptions.     

Movement and focused attention: A failure to replicate

Our original goal was to explore the nature of the grouping-by-movement phenomenon reported by Driver and Baylis (1989). In their studies, distractors that moved in common with a centrally located target had a larger influence on focused-attention performance than did more proximate but stationary distractors. These results seemed particularly important since they suggested, contrary to the predictions of space-based models of attention, that attention could be allocated to noncontiguous regions of the visual field. Their results also suggested mandatory processing of stimuli with common motion. Unfortunately, we were unable to replicate this grouping-by-movement effect. In the conditions of Experiment 1 in which we replicated Driver and Baylis’s methodology, stationary distractors produced a larger response-compatibility effect than did the more distant distractors that moved in common with the target. In Experiment 2, we redundantly coded the centrally located target and the far distractors with common movement and color. However, the results were identical to those obtained in Experiment J. The stationary near distractors that appeared in a different color from the target and the far distractors produced the largest response-compatibility effect. In a final experiment, we attempted to compensate for the reduced acuity of the moving distractors by adjusting their size by a cortical magnification factor. However, even with this manipulation, we found a larger response-compatibility effect for the stationary near distractors than for the moving distant distractors. Our results suggest that subjects are capable of selectively processing a target item that moves in common with distractors.     

Children's responses to overt and relational aggression

Investigated children's responses for coping with overt and relational aggression. Children in Grades 3 through 6 (N = 491) in a rural Midwestern public school district completed a survey designed to assess how students cope when they are the targets of peer aggression. Children endorsed greater use of internalizing and distancing strategies for coping with relational aggression and greater use of externalizing strategies for coping with overt aggression. In addition, older children reported greater use of externalizing and less use of internalizing and distancing strategies than younger children. Significant differences were also found between boys and girls. Regardless of type of aggression, girls endorsed greater use of problem-solving and support strategies and less use of externalizing strategies than boys. Coping of high target children and of children who frequently received prosocial treatment from peers were also examined.     

Children's attention to beliefs in interactive persuasion tasks

Whether and when children can apply their developing understanding of belief to persuasion was examined using interactive puppet tasks. Children selected 1 of 2 arguments to persuade a puppet to do something (e.g., pet a dog) after hearing the puppet's belief (e.g., "I think puppies bite"). Across 2 studies, 132 children (ages 3-7 years) engaged in these persuasion tasks and in false-belief reasoning tasks, presented in puppet and story formats. Belief-relevant argument selection increased with age, as did appropriate reasoning about false beliefs, and occurred more in puppet than story tasks. Results suggest that improvements in belief reasoning in early childhood may be reflected in social interactions such as persuasion.     

Movement and focused attention: a failure to replicate.

Our original goal was to explore the nature of the grouping-by-movement phenomenon reported by Driver and Baylis (1989). In their studies, distractors that moved in common with a centrally located target had a larger influence on focused-attention performance than did more proximate but stationary distractors. These results seemed particularly important since they suggested, contrary to the predictions of space-based models of attention, that attention could be allocated to noncontiguous regions of the visual field. Their results also suggested mandatory processing of stimuli with common motion. Unfortunately, we were unable to replicate this grouping-by-movement effect. In the conditions of Experiment 1 in which we replicated Driver and Baylis's methodology, stationary distractors produced a larger response-compatibility effect than did the more distant distractors that moved in common with the target. In Experiment 2, we redundantly coded the centrally located target and the far distractors with common movement and color. However, the results were identical to those obtained in Experiment 1. The stationary near distractors that appeared in a different color from the target and the far distractors produced the largest response-compatibility effect. In a final experiment, we attempted to compensate for the reduced acuity of the moving distractors by adjusting their size by a cortical magnification factor. However, even with this manipulation, we found a larger response-compatibility effect for the stationary near distractors than for the moving distant distractors. Our results suggest that subjects are capable of selectively processing a target item that moves in common with distractors.     

Children's artistic responses to musical intervals

In one experiment, White South African boys drew pictures in response to four musical intervals. In the second, the subjects were of both sexes and drawn from White, urban Black, and rural Black populations. Six intervals were used. Drawing content was similar cross-culturally. Consonances were perceived as generally positive; dissonances, generally negative. There was also an activity dimension. Children in a lower grade drew more concrete pictures than did those in a higher grade, regardless of age. Even young listeners were fairly consistent in their responses. This suggests that perception of musical meaning is a universal rather than culturally based phenomenon.     

Attending to threat: Race-based patterns of selective attention

The present research investigated the extent to which the stereotype that young Black men are threatening and dangerous has become so robust and ingrained in the collective American unconscious that Black men now capture attention, much like evolved threats such as spiders and snakes. Specifically, using a dot-probe detection paradigm, White participants revealed biased attention toward Black faces relative to White faces (Study 1). Because the faces were presented only briefly (30-ms), the bias is thought to reflect the early engagement of attention. The attentional bias was eliminated, however, when the faces displayed averted eye-gaze (Study 2). That is, when the threat communicated by the Black faces was attenuated by a relevant, competing socio-emotional cue—in this case, averted eye-gaze—they no longer captured perceivers’ attention. Broader implications for social cognition, as well as public policies that reify these prevailing perceptions of young Black men are discussed.     

Infant responding to joint attention, executive processes, and self-regulation in preschool children

Infant joint attention is related to behavioral and social outcomes, as well as language in childhood. Recent research and theory suggests that the relations between joint attention and social-behavioral outcomes may reflect the role of executive self-regulatory processes in the development of joint attention. To test this hypothesis two studies were conducted. The first, cross-sectional study examined the development of responding to joint attention (RJA) skill in terms of increasing executive efficiency of responding between 9 and 18 months of age. The results indicated that development of RJA was characterized by a decreased latency to shift attention in following another person's gaze and head turn, as well as an increase in the proportion of correct RJA responses exhibited by older infants. The second study examined the longitudinal relations between 12-month measures of responding to joint attention and 36-month attention regulation in a delay of gratification task. The results indicated that responding to joint attention at 12-months was significantly related to children's use of three types of self-regulation behaviors while waiting for a snack reward at 36 months of age. These observations are discussed in light of a developmental theory of attention regulation and joint attention in infancy.     

Assessing attention control in goal pursuit: a component of dispositional self-regulation

We examined the psychometric properties of the Self-Regulation Scale (SRS; Schwarzer, Diehl, & Schmitz, 1999), a measure of attention control in goal pursuit, in 2 independent studies. Study 1 included young adults (N = 443), whereas Study 2 included young, middle-aged, and older adults (N = 330). In both studies, the SRS showed good internal consistency. In Study 1, the SRS also showed satisfactory test-retest reliability over a 6-week period. We found support for the criterion validity of the SRS in terms of positive correlations with measures of general and domain-specific self-efficacy, proactive coping, and positive affect and in terms of negative correlations with depressive symptoms and negative affect. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that attention control accounted for unique portions of variance in relevant outcome variables above and beyond measures of self-efficacy and proactive coping.     

Anxiety and the deployment of visual attention over time

Two studies investigated the effects of anxiety on the time course of attention to threatening material. A rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm required report of words belonging to a prespecified semantic category with a distractor placed at varying positions preceding the target. Where there was little resemblance in meaning between distractors and targets, threat distractors briefly captured the attention of high state anxious individuals but only after a delay. Where distractors resembled the meaning of the targets, attention was captured more immediately, but processing of threat-related material was concentrated at different points in time as a function of both the degree of semantic resemblance between distractors and target, and state anxiety. The extent to which distractors are salient to the experimental task influences attentional capture and the temporal course of processing. The methodological implications of these results are discussed together with a new hypothesis about the effects of state anxiety on attention.     

Intelligent technologies to optimize performance: Augmenting cognitive capacity and supporting self-regulation of critical thinking skills in decision-making

The purpose of the present paper is to (a) discuss how intelligent systems can augment cognitive capacity, and through self-regulation, assist learners to engage in critical thinking and (b) provide an example that highlights the information-rich context of the work environment and the role of self-regulation in working in partnership with technology to achieve peak performance. Self-regulation from a social cognitive perspective is conceptualized as a fluid, cyclical process whereby learners use externally provided or self-generated feedback to evaluate and adjust their learning strategies. With advances in technology, this paper attempts to illustrate how workers in jobs of the future will be supported in new ways to analyze data, make interpretations and draw inferences, evaluate situations, and make decisions within a work context before, during, and post-work. Educational implications will be discussed.     

Children's control over attention to phonological and semantic properties of words

A study is reported in which children from 5 to 9 years old were examined as they gained awareness and control over the phonological and semantic properties of isolated words. Children were asked to match a stimulus words on the basis of either its sound or its meaning under conditions that varied in their support for the correct answer. The results are presented as discriminability data, indicating the child's ability to distinguish these properties under the different experimental conditions. Although all the children could select either of these properties in a simple control condition, adding various levels of distraction interrupted their ability to attend to the requested feature. In the age range examined, the youngest children were unable to attend selectively to either feature, older children adopted a default or bias to phonological properties, and only the oldest children were able to attend to meaning as well as sound. Even for the oldest children, however, performance was far from perfect.