Yunyi Wu , Xinyun Cao , Mark Nielsen , Yichen Mao , Fuxing Wang
{"title":"Dragging but not tapping promotes preschoolers’ numerical estimating with touchscreens","authors":"Yunyi Wu , Xinyun Cao , Mark Nielsen , Yichen Mao , Fuxing Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105989","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105989","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>When solving mathematical problems, young children will perform better when they can use gestures that match mental representations. However, despite their increasing prevalence in educational settings, few studies have explored this effect in touchscreen-based interactions. Thus, we investigated the impact on young children’s performance of dragging (where a continuous gesture is performed that is congruent with the change in number) and tapping (involving a discrete gesture that is incongruent) on a touchscreen device when engaged in a continuous number line estimation task. By examining differences in the set size and position of the number line estimation, we were also able to explore the boundary conditions for the superiority effect of congruent gestures. We used a 2 (Gesture Type: drag or tap) × 2 (Set Size: Set 0–10 or Set 0–20) × 2 (Position: left of midpoint or right of midpoint) mixed design. A total of 70 children aged 5 and 6 years (33 girls) were recruited and randomly assigned to either the Drag or Tap group. We found that the congruent gesture (drag) generally facilitated better performance with the touchscreen but with boundary conditions. When completing difficult estimations (right side in the large set size), the Drag group was more accurate, responded to the stimulus faster, and spent more time manipulating than the Tap group. These findings suggest that when children require explicit scaffolding, congruent touchscreen gestures help to release mental resources for strategic adjustments, decrease the difficulty of numerical estimation, and support constructing mental representations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141421475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lucas Raynal , Evelyne Clément , Louise Goyet , Pia Rämä , Emmanuel Sander
{"title":"Neural correlates of unconventional verb extensions reveal preschoolers’ analogical abilities","authors":"Lucas Raynal , Evelyne Clément , Louise Goyet , Pia Rämä , Emmanuel Sander","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105984","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the current event-related potential (ERP) study, we assessed 4-year-olds’ ability to extend verbs to new action events on the basis of abstract similarities. Participants were presented with images of actions (e.g., peeling an orange) while hearing sentences containing a conventional verb (e.g., peeling), a verb sharing an abstract relation (i.e., an analogical verb, e.g., undressing), a verb sharing an object type (i.e., an object-related verb, e.g., pressing) with the action, or a pseudoverb (e.g., kebraying). The amplitude of the N400 gradually increased as a function of verb type—from conventional verbs to analogical verbs to object-related verbs to pseudoverbs. These findings suggest that accessing the meaning of a verb is easier when it shares abstract relations with the expected verb. Our results illustrate that measuring brain signals in response to analogical word extensions provides a useful tool to investigate preschools’ analogical abilities.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096524001243/pdfft?md5=1dc106257ebeda14364f3b1dacd12eb6&pid=1-s2.0-S0022096524001243-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141328806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhuolei Ding , Wenqing Li , Chuansheng Chen , Zhong Yang , Songxue Wang , Juanjuan Xu , Xun Liu , Mingxia Zhang
{"title":"The effect of choice on memory across development","authors":"Zhuolei Ding , Wenqing Li , Chuansheng Chen , Zhong Yang , Songxue Wang , Juanjuan Xu , Xun Liu , Mingxia Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105982","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105982","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Numerous studies have demonstrated the role of making choices as an internal motivator to improve performance, and recent studies in the domain of memory have focused on adults. To chart the developmental trend of the choice effect on memory, we conducted a series of seven experiments involving children, adolescents, and young adults. Participants (<em>N</em> = 512) aged 5 to 26 years performed a choice encoding task that manipulated the opportunities to choose and then took a memory test. Using different types of experimental materials and corroborated by a mini meta-analysis, we found that the choice effect on memory was significant in childhood and early adolescence but not significant in late adolescence and early adulthood. The developmental changes were statistically significant, particularly evident during the transition from early to late adolescence. These findings suggest that the internal value of choice decreases across development and contributes to our understanding of developmental differences in the role of choice in memory.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141328805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Virginia A. Marchman , Melanie D. Ashland , Elizabeth C. Loi , Mónica Munévar , Katherine A. Shannon , Anne Fernald , Heidi M. Feldman
{"title":"Early language processing efficiency and pre-literacy outcomes in children born full term and preterm","authors":"Virginia A. Marchman , Melanie D. Ashland , Elizabeth C. Loi , Mónica Munévar , Katherine A. Shannon , Anne Fernald , Heidi M. Feldman","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105980","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105980","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Language processing efficiency—that is, the skill at processing language in real time—assessed in toddlerhood is associated with later language outcomes in children born full term (FT) and preterm (PT) during school age. No studies to date have assessed patterns of relations between early language processing efficiency and pre-literacy skills, such as print knowledge and phonological awareness, and whether relations are similar in FT and PT children. In this study, participants (<em>N</em> = 94, 49 FT and 45PT) were assessed in the looking-while-listening (LWL) task at 18 months of age (corrected for degree of prematurity), deriving measures of processing speed and accuracy. At 4½ years of age, children were assessed on standardized tests of print knowledge, phonological awareness, and expressive language. Processing speed and accuracy predicted both pre-literacy outcomes (<em>r</em><sup>2</sup> change = 7.8%–19.5%, <em>p</em> < .01); birth group did not moderate these effects. Relations were significantly reduced when controlling for expressive language. Thus, early language processing efficiency supports later expressive language abilities, which in turn supports developing pre-literacy skills. Processing speed and phonological awareness were also directly related, indicating an independent role for processing speed in literacy development. Mediation effects were not moderated by birth group, suggesting a similar developmental pathway in FT and PT children.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141312039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shyness and risk-taking during peer observation in children and adolescents","authors":"Kristie L. Poole, Teena Willoughby","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105981","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Although temperamental shyness is conceptualized as a trait marked by cautiousness, we know relatively little about its relation to risk-taking. We examined how shyness was related to opportunities for risk-taking while considering how social context (i.e., presence of peers) and developmental stage (i.e., children and adolescents) might influence this relation. In the current study, 198 children (<em>M</em><sub>age</sub> = 10.17 years) and 221 adolescents (<em>M</em><sub>age</sub> = 13.46 years) completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) alone or during a peer observation manipulation. For children and adolescents, shyness was related to physiological arousal and self-reporting feeling anxious during the peer condition. However, peer observation did not influence the relation between shyness and behavioral responses during the BART. Across both alone and peer conditions, shyness was related to a longer response time for children and adolescents, which may reflect decisional conflict during risk-taking opportunities. Furthermore, shyness in children (but not in adolescents) was related to poorer performance (i.e., fewer points), whereas shyness was unrelated to risk-taking propensity (i.e., number of pumps) for both children and adolescents. Overall, although the presence of peers may induce anxiety during a risk-taking opportunity for children and adolescents higher in shyness, this does not appear to modify their risk-taking behaviors. Instead, shyer children and adolescents in general may take a longer time to decide whether to act in a risky manner, whereas shy children in particular may show poorer performance in obtaining a reward on a risk-taking task.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141303812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Martin H. Fischer , Arianna Felisatti , Xin Li , Samuel Shaki
{"title":"A cross-cultural comparison of finger-based and symbolic number representations","authors":"Martin H. Fischer , Arianna Felisatti , Xin Li , Samuel Shaki","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105979","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The current study examined predictions from embodied cognition for effects of finger counting on number processing. Although finger counting is spontaneous and nearly universal, counting habits reflect learning and culture. European cultures use a sub-base-five system, requiring a full hand plus additional fingers to express numbers exceeding 5. Chinese culture requires only one hand to express such numbers. We investigated the differential impact of early-acquired finger-based number representations on adult symbolic number processing. In total, 53 European and 56 Chinese adults performed two versions of the magnitude classification task, where numbers were presented either as Arabic symbols or as finger configurations consistent with respective cultural finger-counting habits. Participants classified numbers as smaller/larger than 5 with horizontally aligned buttons. Finger-based size and distance effects were larger in Chinese compared with Europeans. These differences did not, however, induce reliably different symbol processing signatures. This dissociation challenges the idea that sensory and motor habits shape our conceptual representations and implies notation-specific processing patterns.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141303811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monitoring and control processes within executive functions: Is post-error slowing related to pre-error speeding in children?","authors":"Ebru Ger, Claudia M. Roebers","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105975","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105975","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Both pre-error speeding and post-error slowing reflect monitoring and control strategies. Post-error slowing is relatively well-established in children, whereas pre-error speeding is much less studied. Here we investigated (a) whether kindergarten and first-grade children show pre-error speeding in a cognitive control task (Hearts and Flowers) and, if so, (b) whether post-error slowing is associated with pre-error speeding. We analyzed the data from 153 kindergartners and 468 first-graders. Both kindergartners and first-graders showed significant pre-error speeding and post-error slowing, with no differences between the two samples in the magnitude of each. The magnitude of pre-error speeding and post-error slowing was correlated within individuals in both samples and to a similar extent. That is, children who sped up more extremely toward an error also slowed down more extremely after an error. These findings provide evidence that pre-error speeding and post-error slowing are related in children as early as kindergarten age and may in concert reflect how optimal children’s monitoring and control of their performance is in a cognitive control task.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096524001152/pdfft?md5=7b59095de2176f8ff0ec808a42c59c36&pid=1-s2.0-S0022096524001152-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141297069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jinyi Zhang , Kathleen D. Vohs , Stephanie M. Carlson
{"title":"Imagining the future improves saving in preschoolers","authors":"Jinyi Zhang , Kathleen D. Vohs , Stephanie M. Carlson","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105966","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105966","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Preschoolers are notoriously poor at delaying gratification and saving limited resources, yet evidence-based methods of improving these behaviors are lacking. Using the marble game saving paradigm, we examined whether young children’s saving behavior would increase as a result of engaging in future-oriented imagination using a storyboard. Participants were 115 typically developing 4-year-olds from a midwestern U.S. metropolitan area (<em>M</em><sub>age</sub> = 53.48 months, <em>SD</em> = 4.14, range = 47–60; 54.8% female; 84.5% White; 7.3% Hispanic/Latino ethnicity; median annual household income = $150,000–$174,999). Children were randomly assigned to one of four storyboard conditions prior to the marble game: Positive Future Simulation, Negative Future Simulation, Positive Routine, or Negative Routine. In each condition, children were asked to imagine how they would feel in the future situation using a smiley face rating scale. Results showed that children were significantly more likely to save (and to save more marbles) in the experimental conditions compared with the control conditions (medium effect sizes). Moreover, imagining saving for the future (and how good that would feel) was more effective at increasing saving behaviors than imagining not saving (and how bad that would feel). Emotion ratings were consistent with the assigned condition, but positive emotion alone did not account for these effects. Results held after accounting for game order and verbal IQ. Implications of temporal psychological distancing and emotion anticipation for children’s future-oriented decision making are discussed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141297068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When is it appropriate to ask a question? The role of age, social context, and personality","authors":"Ashley Ransom , Azzurra Ruggeri , Samuel Ronfard","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105976","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105976","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>How do children decide when it is appropriate to ask a question? In Study 1 (preregistered), 50 4- and 5-year-olds, 50 7- and 8-year-olds, and 100 adults watched vignettes featuring a child who had a question, and participants indicated whether they thought the child should ask the question “right now.” Both adults and children endorsed more question-asking to a well-known informant than to an acquaintance and to someone doing nothing than to someone busy working or busy socializing. However, younger children endorsed asking questions to someone who was busy more often than older children and adults. In addition, Big Five personality traits predicted endorsement of question-asking. In Study 2 (preregistered, <em>N</em> = 500), mothers’ self-reports showed that children’s actual question-asking varied with age, informant activity, and informant familiarity in ways that paralleled the results of Study 1. In Study 3 (<em>N</em> = 100), we examined mothers’ responses to their children’s question-asking and found that mothers’ responses to their children’s question-asking varied based on the mother’s activity. In addition, mothers high in authoritarianism were less likely to answer their children’s questions when they were busy than mothers low in authoritarianism. In sum, across three studies, we found evidence that the age-related decline in children’s question-asking to their parents reflects a change in children’s reasoning about when it is appropriate to ask a question.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141201106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Miguel Lázaro , Teresa Simón , Ainoa Escalonilla , Trinidad Ruiz
{"title":"Mind the suffix: Pseudoword processing in children and adults","authors":"Miguel Lázaro , Teresa Simón , Ainoa Escalonilla , Trinidad Ruiz","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105977","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105977","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Previous evidence has shown that pseudowords made up of real morphemes take more time to process and generate more errors than pseudowords without morphemes in a lexical decision task. The explanation for these results is controversial because two possible arguments may be posited; the first is related to the morphological composition of the stimuli, and the second is related to the larger semantic interpretability of pseudowords with morphemes in comparison with pseudowords without morphemes (a semantic-based explanation). To disentangle this issue, we conducted an experiment with 92 children and 42 adults. For this purpose, a lexical decision task was implemented, controlling for semantic interpretability while manipulating the morphological status of pseudowords. The results show that the morphological composition of pseudowords generates larger latencies and more errors than pseudowords without morphemes, thereby corroborating that morphemes are activated during pseudoword processing even in the case of young readers.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096524001176/pdfft?md5=b7ad50af2d51e5aba984e638b18cd587&pid=1-s2.0-S0022096524001176-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141201105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}