{"title":"Developmental effects of digitally contextualized reading on preschooler’s creative thinking: A quasi-experimental study","authors":"Qi Sun , Canming Wang , David Yun Dai , Xinyu Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106307","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106307","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>It has been argued that preschool years are an important period for fostering creative thinking skills. Digital technologies are increasingly used in class activities to enhance creativity. However, few studies have experimentally explored how digital technologies can create multisensory reading activities to promote creative thinking in preschoolers. This study introduced <em>digitally contextualized reading</em>, which transforms picture-based reading into an emotionally immersive video reading experience. Unlike traditional methods, this approach emphasizes multisensory immersion and interactive engagement. To examine its impact on creative thinking, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 251 children aged three to six in China (Intervention group N = 137) over six months, using pre- and post-tests. Results of independent t-tests, ANCOVA, and a two-way ANOVA showed that digitally contextualized reading significantly improved the fluency, elaboration, originality, and abstractness of creative thinking as measured by Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. These findings highlight the viable role of digital technologies in fostering creative thinking, and its potential to enrich educational practices and advance young learners’ creative abilities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"259 ","pages":"Article 106307"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144107068","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}
Alicia K. Jones , Nicole L. Nelson , Shalini Gautam , Jonathan Redshaw
{"title":"Children infer counterfactual information from others’ facial expressions","authors":"Alicia K. Jones , Nicole L. Nelson , Shalini Gautam , Jonathan Redshaw","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106306","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106306","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Being able to identify when other people experience regret and relief can be beneficial for adapting our own behaviour and when trying to act pro-socially. Although children begin to experience regret and relief for themselves around age 6, it remains unclear whether they can recognise these counterfactual emotions in others. Across two studies, we investigated if 4- to 9-year-old children (N = 192, mostly Australian and socioeconomically advantaged, data collected in 2023) could identify others’ regret and relief after making a decision that led to a better or worse outcome. Children watched videos of four different adult actors choosing between two boxes that concealed different amounts of cookies. Each actor first looked inside the chosen box and made a happy or sad facial expression, and children were then shown the contents of the actor’s chosen box. Critically, the actor then looked inside the non-chosen box and again made either a happy or sad facial expression, before children were asked what they thought was inside that box. In both studies, many children aged 6 years and older inferred that the non-chosen box contained more cookies than the chosen box when the actor made a sad face. Children were less likely, however, to infer that the non-chosen box contained fewer cookies than the chosen box when the actor made a happy face. Overall, these findings suggest that from around 6 years of age children can infer counterfactual information from others’ facial expressions, and that children may more readily recognise regret than relief.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"259 ","pages":"Article 106306"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144107069","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}
Jisun Kim , Caroline Byrd Hornburg , Gillian E. Grose , Tess Gavrielle Levinson , Lisa K. Fazio
{"title":"Picturing mathematicians: Examining how gender and math anxiety relate to students’ representations of mathematicians in late elementary and middle school","authors":"Jisun Kim , Caroline Byrd Hornburg , Gillian E. Grose , Tess Gavrielle Levinson , Lisa K. Fazio","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106290","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106290","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A common gender stereotype is that men are higher performers than women in math. This stereotype not only affects students’ math performance but also influences their interests and vocational options in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The “Draw-a-Mathematician Task” (DAMT) has been used to understand students’ perceptions of who is a mathematician. However, the existing studies with DAMT often do not consider the role of other individual traits that are closely associated with gender stereotypes, such as math anxiety. The current study examined how students’ math anxiety, gender, and grade level may be associated with their gendered representations of mathematicians and the level of math difficulty included in their drawings. Students (<em>N</em> = 261; 133 girls, 128 boys; 116 fourth graders, 89 sixth graders, 56 eighth graders) completed a math anxiety questionnaire and were then asked to draw a picture of a mathematician and explain where their ideas came from. Overall, girls drew more female mathematicians than boys, and the proportion of students drawing female mathematicians dropped steeply in eighth grade, particularly for girls. Girls showed higher levels of math anxiety than boys, and math anxiety increased across grades. However, math anxiety was unrelated to the content of students’ drawings. This study emphasizes the importance of efforts to support girls’ sense of belonging in mathematics, especially into secondary grades in which reported levels of math anxiety are higher.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"258 ","pages":"Article 106290"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143942417","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}
Elyssa A. Geer , Brianna L. Devlin , Tracy Zehner , Irem Korucu , Lindsey M. Bryant , David J. Purpura , Robert Duncan , Sara A. Schmitt
{"title":"Does executive function moderate the spatial-math link in preschoolers?","authors":"Elyssa A. Geer , Brianna L. Devlin , Tracy Zehner , Irem Korucu , Lindsey M. Bryant , David J. Purpura , Robert Duncan , Sara A. Schmitt","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106296","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106296","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the present study, we examine if the spatial-math link is moderated by executive function in preschoolers, with a particular interest in which aspects of executive function may serve as moderators for this relation. We collected data from a sample of 242 preschoolers from the Midwest United States. Individual moderation analyses were run for each of the five executive function measures to assess whether various executive functions moderate the spatial-math link. We found that only planning (<em>β</em> = .13, <em>p</em> = .017) significantly moderated the association between spatial assembly and numeracy skills. Specifically, these results indicated that the association between spatial and math skills was stronger when children also had stronger planning skills. The findings from this study provide preliminary evidence that one aspect of executive function (planning) strengthens the spatial-math link. Implications for future research are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"258 ","pages":"Article 106296"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143933624","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":"Reinforcement matters: Animated reinforcements disrupt young children’s word learning from a digital book","authors":"Gabrielle A. Strouse , Patricia A. Ganea","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106291","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106291","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ninety-seven 19- to 23-month-olds (53 boys, 44 girls; White (56%), multi-racial (25%), Asian (12%), Black (3%), other (3%)) listened to a digital book with a narration that labeled and requested the child touch an on-screen object. Conditions differed in how the book proceeded: <em>no contingency/no reinforcement</em> – the page turned regardless of the child’s actions, <em>contingency/no reinforcement</em> – any response triggered a page turn, <em>contingency/verbal reinforcement –</em> a correct response triggered a “good job!” and page turn, and <em>contingency/animated reinforcement –</em> a correct response triggered a sound, animation, and page turn. Contingency supported learning and children displayed more learning with verbal than animated reinforcement. Findings highlight the importance of attention to the design of contingent features, as simple animations may overload processing demands.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"258 ","pages":"Article 106291"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143933623","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":"A robot’s efficient demonstration cannot reduce 5- to 6-year-old children’s over-imitation","authors":"Tingzhuzhi Hu, Hui Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106280","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106280","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Children tend to imitate inefficient behaviors containing causally irrelevant actions—they over-imitate. Out-group members’ efficient demonstration cannot reduce children’s over-imitation of in-group members, due to their interpretation of irrelevant actions as norms which in-group members should follow. Children may perceive robots as culture-specific behavior transmitters since they also over-imitate robots. This study explores whether a robot’s efficient demonstration can reduce 5- to 6-year-old children’s over-imitation. In Experiment 1, most of 64 children imitated a human’s irrelevant actions in Phase 1, then reduced over-imitation after watching an efficient demonstration modeled by a robot or a human in Phase 2, but the rate of over-imitation decreased more when the model was a human. In Experiment 2, 64 children only had one chance to imitate after watching two demonstrations (an efficient one demonstrated by a human and an inefficient one demonstrated by a robot or another human), the over-imitation occurred more when the efficient model was a robot than a human. Compared with over-imitation rate of Phase 1 in Experiment 1, that was significantly decreased only when the efficient model was a human. The results indicate that children don’t perceive robots as social learning models, at least in the presence of alternative human models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"257 ","pages":"Article 106280"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143921976","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}
Ju Huang , Xin Chen , Xin Liao , Yujia Peng , Sha Xie , Xinli Chi
{"title":"Mindful parenting, parent-child relationship and preschoolers’ internalizing behaviors: A cross-lagged panel analysis","authors":"Ju Huang , Xin Chen , Xin Liao , Yujia Peng , Sha Xie , Xinli Chi","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106295","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106295","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study examined the bidirectional relationships among mindful parenting, parent–child relationships, and child internalizing behaviors (e.g., anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal) using a longitudinal design. A total of 1,201 Chinese preschoolers (50.3 % boys; age: <em>M</em> = 3.90 years, <em>SD</em> = 0.78) were assessed through parent reports at two time points, one year apart. Cross-lagged panel analysis revealed that mindful parenting at T1 positively predicted parent–child relationships (<em>β</em> = 0.17, <em>p</em> < 0.001) and negatively children’s internalizing behaviors (<em>β</em> = −0.07, <em>p</em> < 0.05) at T2. However, no evidence was found for the reverse relationship. This study also identified a bidirectional and negative associations between parent–child relationships and internalizing behaviors in preschooler (parent–child relationships → internalizing behaviors:<em>β</em> = −0.07, <em>p</em> < 0.05; internalizing behaviors → parent–child relationships: <em>β</em> = − 0.06, <em>p</em> < 0.05). Furthermore, the parent–child relationships mediated the effect of mindful parenting at T1 on child internalizing behaviors at T2. The mediating effect of the parent–child relationship was stronger at T2 than at T1, likely due to the gradual and cumulative benefits of mindful parenting over time. Child gender did not moderate these relationships. The findings highlight the role of mindful parenting in promoting child psychological development by enhancing parent–child relationships over time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"258 ","pages":"Article 106295"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143921879","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":"Parent education, not income-to-needs ratio, relates to preschool home executive function environment","authors":"Zachary T. Barnes , Peter Boedeker , Rong Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106292","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106292","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This brief report aimed to explore the relation between the components of socioeconomic status (income and parental education) and the Home Executive Function Environment (HEFE) in families with preschoolers. Using secondary data from the Preschool Social and Emotional Development Study, we found that while the income-to-needs ratio was not related to HEFE, parental education was. Specifically, those with college credits or a college degree scored higher on the HEFE compared to those with a high school diploma or less. Additionally, we found that scores on HEFE were lower when filled out by the father compared to mothers. The results add to previous work that parental education may drive socioeconomic differences in parenting practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"258 ","pages":"Article 106292"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143921878","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":"Children see private correction as a cue to friendship","authors":"Chuyi Yang, Zoe Liberman","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106282","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106282","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Children use a number of cues to infer friendship. For instance, children believe that people who are similar, spend time together, and are loyal to each other are friends (<span><span>Liberman & Shaw, 2019</span></span>). Here, in two studies (total <em>N</em> = 524), we investigated whether 4- to 12-year-old children infer friendship using a novel cue: managing someone’s reputation by correcting them in private. Children were asked whether an agent was better friends with a person they corrected in public, or one they corrected in private. Both younger (4- to 7-years-old) and older (8- to 12-years-old) children inferred stronger friendship between the agent and the privately corrected character (Study 1). In a second study, we asked whether an agent was better friends with a person they corrected in private, or a person who shared a different friendship cue (similarity, propinquity, loyalty). With age children became more likely to privilege private correction, and children who were attentive to the task expected private correction to be a stronger friendship cue than similarity (Study 2). These findings suggest that concerns for others’ reputations may play an important role in friendships, and protecting another person’s reputation may be increasingly indicative of friendship with development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"258 ","pages":"Article 106282"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143894349","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}
Elizabeth T. Hallers-Haalboom , Marissa Hofstee , Kris J.M. De Jaegher , Elisabeth H.M. Sterck , Sarah F. Brosnan , Marjolijn M. Vermande
{"title":"Comparison between young children’s and college students’ cooperative success in an online Stag Hunt: Do prior training, sex, relationship, and nature of communication matter?","authors":"Elizabeth T. Hallers-Haalboom , Marissa Hofstee , Kris J.M. De Jaegher , Elisabeth H.M. Sterck , Sarah F. Brosnan , Marjolijn M. Vermande","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106278","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106278","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cooperation is an important feature of human lives and society. Understanding the underlying social-contextual factors of differences in cooperative success across different ages is therefore crucial for understanding human development. The Stag Hunt is a widely used paradigm for studying cooperation. However, results of previous studies with young children and college students playing the Stag Hunt are difficult to compare because of methodological differences. The main goal of the current study was to compare cooperative success between children (136 dyads, <em>M</em> = 8.1 years) and college students (113 dyads, <em>M</em> = 22.8 years) using an online version of a coordination game, the Stag Hunt, with 10 trials, including versions with and without prior training on the reward structure. College students showed better abilities to cooperate compared to children. In addition, prior training improved overall cooperation, but the effect of training declined over the trials, while untrained college students, but not children, gradually learned to cooperate. Players’ sex and relationship type did not affect cooperation. The nature of communication during the game, however, played an important role in the cooperative success of both children and students, with communication about the reward structure improving cooperation and competitive expressions hindering it. Finally, communication unrelated to the game did not affect cooperative success in children and college students. The current study therefore highlights the importance of age, prior knowledge, and nature of the communication in coordination processes. Future research should take these into account when designing tasks and interpreting the results.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"257 ","pages":"Article 106278"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143887236","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}