Journal of Experimental Child Psychology最新文献

{"title":"Spatial language development in preterm and full-term infants: The role of object exploration and parents’ spatial input","authors":"Mert Kobaş ,&nbsp;Ö.Ece Demir-Lira ,&nbsp;İpek Akman ,&nbsp;Tilbe Göksun","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106264","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106264","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Infants learn object features and relations among objects by exploring them. Object exploration and parents’ verbal input related to these spatial characteristics may lead to cascades for the development of spatial language. This longitudinal study examined whether infant object exploration and parents’ spatial input at Time 1 (<em>M</em>_age = 13.7 months) predicted spatial language of preterm infants (mean gestational age = 30 weeks) and full-term infants (mean gestational age = 38.9 weeks) at Time 2 (<em>M</em>_age = 26 months). The object exploration and parents’ spatial input at Time 1 were coded from the semi-structured free play sessions, and infant spatial language was assessed via a parental report at Time 2. Our results showed no differences between preterm and full-term groups on object exploration. However, parents’ spatial input differed based on neonatal condition, in which preterm infants received less input than full-term infants. Parents’ spatial input co-occurred with 44% of the object exploration events, with a significant difference between groups (preterm: <em>M</em> = 36.1%; full-term: <em>M</em> = 52.1%). Importantly, the interaction between object exploration and parents’ spatial input at Time 1 predicted children’s spatial language knowledge at Time 2 regardless of children’s neonatal status. Infants who explored objects for longer periods and received greater spatial input from their parents at Time 1 knew more spatial words at Time 2 than infants who explored objects less and received less input at Time 1. These findings suggest that early object exploration and parents’ spatial input together can lead to a cascading effect on later spatial language development for both preterm and full-term infants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106264"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143847325","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":"Measuring adverse childhood experiences by interviewing children at 9 and 10 years of age: Prevalence, concordance with mother-reports, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, and subjective experience of being asked about adverse childhood experiences in FinnBrain Birth cohort study","authors":"Eeva-Leena Kataja ,&nbsp;Jetro J. Tuulari ,&nbsp;Linnea Karlsson ,&nbsp;Susanne Sinisalo ,&nbsp;Tuomo-Artturi Autere ,&nbsp;Laura Perasto ,&nbsp;Aino Juusola ,&nbsp;Essi Salama ,&nbsp;Anna-Katariina Aatsinki ,&nbsp;Hasse Karlsson","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106238","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106238","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How children experience the screening of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is little studied. Moreover, the similarity between parental and child reports is unknown. We interviewed 9-year-olds (a subsample of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study; <em>N</em> = 344) by using the Pediatric ACEs and Related Life Events Screener questionnaire (PEARLS; covering 10 traditional ACEs and 7 expanded items). Furthermore, we asked about the subjective harm caused by ACEs, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and how the children experienced the interview. The mothers (<em>N</em> = 348) filled out the PEARLS youth questionnaire that provided a parental report on ACEs. In total, 39.2% of children self-reported zero ACEs, and the corresponding percentage for mother-reports was 30.2%. In addition, 7.8% of children reported having been exposed to ≥ 4 (of 17 possible) ACEs, which is an often-used cutoff score for adverse health outcomes. The corresponding percentage for mother-reports was higher at 14.7%. There was low concordance between mother- and child reports in cases where ACEs did happen 4.9% of children with at least 1 ACE reported PTSD symptoms. In general, 1.7% of children felt that it was difficult to answer the questions, whereas 78.6% felt that it was easy. Negative feelings (e.g., anxiety, depression) related to the interview were reported by 0.9% to 1.4% of the children. In addition, 2% reported only negative feelings, whereas 80% reported only positive feelings. The prevalence of ACEs at 9 and 10 years of age in the FinnBrain Birth Cohort was comparable to that in many retrospective adult studies in European general populations. The prevalence of PTSD symptoms was low and was not clearly linked to the number of self-reported ACEs. The observation that most children found the interview to be easy, neutral, or positive is encouraging, whereas the uneasiness of few children at the interview needs to be acknowledged.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106238"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143843733","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":"Integration of symbolic and non-symbolic numerical information in children: Task dependence and its link to math abilities","authors":"Xueying Ren ,&nbsp;Marc N. Coutanche ,&nbsp;Julie A. Fiez ,&nbsp;Melissa E. Libertus","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106263","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106263","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>From birth, children can access the approximate number system for noisy numerical estimates. With age, they acquire an exact number system for precise numerical information representation. The relations between these two systems and their correlations with math abilities in children remain unclear. In this study, 8- to 10-year-old children (<em>N</em> = 119) completed two tasks to test the integration of symbolic and non-symbolic numerical information (i.e., “symbolic integration”) and how this integration relates to children’s formal math abilities. For the number comparison task, involving dot arrays and Arabic numerals, children indicated which of two sequentially presented stimuli was larger. These stimuli were either in the same format (dot–dot or numeral–numeral) or in a mixed format (dot–numeral or numeral–dot). For the number–letter discrimination task, participants identified numerals or letter pairs co-occurring with dot arrays that either matched or mismatched the numeral’s quantity. In the number comparison task, we found that children were significantly slower when comparing mixed-format stimuli versus same-format conditions, suggesting a lack of symbolic integration (i.e., “symbolic estrangement”). In contrast, in the number–letter discrimination task, children were significantly faster in tasks where the dot arrays and numerals matched, indicating symbolic integration. While we found correlations between number processing and math skills at the condition level for both tasks, neither of the derived measures of symbolic estrangement or symbolic integration correlated with children’s performance on a standardized math assessment. Thus, we conclude that numerical integration or estrangement is task dependent and that symbolic integration has limited impact on 8- to 10-year-old children’s math abilities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106263"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143843732","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":"Friendship status and recipient’s emotions both affect children’s sharing behavior","authors":"Martina Vogelsang,&nbsp;Annika Schäfer,&nbsp;Alina Ehrenreich,&nbsp;Mirjam Ebersbach","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106256","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106256","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Studies on the development of sharing resources as one aspect of prosocial behavior have revealed that single recipient characteristics affect preschoolers’ sharing decisions. In the current study, we investigated (a) whether preschoolers also take multiple recipient characteristics simultaneously into account and (b) whether preschoolers’ general prosocial behavior affects their sharing decisions. A 2 (Friendship Status: friend vs. non-friend) × 2 (Emotional State of the Recipient: sad vs. happy) within-participants design was used. In the context of a dictator game, German preschoolers (<em>N</em> = 82; age range = 4.5–7.0 years) were provided with 6 stickers per trial that they could share with another fictitious child. The other child was introduced as either a friend or a non-friend who was either sad or happy. The number of shared stickers served as the dependent variable. In addition, preschoolers’ general prosocial behavior was assessed, also including comforting and helping. Results showed that preschoolers shared more stickers with friends than with non-friends and shared more with sad recipients than with happy recipients. There was no significant interaction between these factors. Furthermore, preschoolers’ general prosocial behavior did not predict their sharing decisions. This study suggests that preschoolers take multiple recipient characteristics simultaneously into account when sharing resources and that sharing resources might differ from other aspects of prosocial behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106256"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143839072","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":"Learning novel transitive verbs in causative action events: A cross-linguistic comparison between English- and Japanese-speaking infants","authors":"Yuriko Oshima-Takane ,&nbsp;Tessei Kobayashi ,&nbsp;Erica Chan","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106258","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106258","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigated whether typologically different languages, English and Japanese, influence the early representations of novel transitive verbs in dynamic causative events. We hypothesized that Japanese, with its syntactic and pragmatic advantages for verb learning, facilitates this process earlier than English. Using a habituation method with a three-switch design, we compared Japanese-speaking 20-month-olds with their English-speaking counterparts to determine whether Japanese-speaking infants map novel transitive verbs onto actions only, similar to adults, earlier than English-speaking infants. The results showed that Japanese-speaking infants mapped the novel transitive verbs onto actions only, whereas English-speaking infants mapped them onto both actions and objects affected by the actions. This finding suggests that Japanese-speaking infants acquire adult-like representations of novel transitive verbs earlier than their English-speaking counterparts, providing evidence that properties of languages affect the development of initial representations of novel transitive verbs in infants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106258"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143828199","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":"Sharpening the number sense: Developmental trends in numerosity perception","authors":"Irene Oeo Morín ,&nbsp;Fien Depaepe ,&nbsp;Bert Reynvoet","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106262","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106262","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Numerosity perception, the ability to process and estimate the number of objects in a set without explicitly counting, has been widely studied, and one well-established finding is that children become more accurate at perceiving numerosity with age. The question remains, however, what the underlying cognitive processes and mechanisms are that drive this improvement. Some authors have suggested that this is due to an increased numerical precision (i.e., the sharpening hypothesis), whereas others have proposed that the more accurate performance is due to the improved ability to inhibit non-numerical features of the display such as object size and spacing of items (i.e., the filtering hypothesis). The current study examined the developmental trajectory of numerosity perception across three age groups (<em>M</em> = 5.65, <em>M</em> = 11.03, and <em>M</em> = 20.10 years). As expected, more accurate performance was observed with age. Regression and analyses of variance revealing the contribution of numerical and non-numerical predictors in performance show that the performance in all age groups was primarily driven by numerical information and that its contribution increased with age. In addition, a consistent bias toward non-numerical features was observed in all age groups. These results support the sharpening hypothesis for children from 5 years of age to early adulthood, suggesting that from this age onward children increasingly focus on numerical information as they get older. These results have important implications for the understanding of the development and specific improvements of numerical perception.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106262"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143834956","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’s and adults’ social partner choices are differently affected by statistical information","authors":"Rongzhi Liu ,&nbsp;Gil Diesendruck ,&nbsp;Fei Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106260","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106260","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The current study investigated how U.S. adults (<em>N</em> = 99) and 5- and 6-year-old children (<em>N</em> = 112) use statistical information in their social partner choices. We found that children integrated base rate information (the distribution of traits within groups) and individual-level statistical information (the frequency of an individual’s past behaviors) in their partner choices, but adults only relied on the individual-level statistical information and neglected base rate information. In addition, adults and children were affected by non-statistical information: Adults showed risk-seeking and risk-averse tendencies, and children showed only risk-seeking tendencies in their partner choices. These findings provide evidence that both statistical and non-statistical information affect social decisions, and adults and children are influenced by each type of information in distinct ways. The current study suggests future directions to further investigate the role of statistical learning in our social cognition and to develop a unifying account of how non-statistical information interacts with statistical information in our social decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106260"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143823862","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":"The development of gross motor skills in children: Insights from the Motor Assessment Test for Children","authors":"Jernice S.Y. Tan ,&nbsp;Coral B.S. Lim","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106255","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106255","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigated the gross motor skills (GMS) of 424 children aged 2.5 to 6 years with the Motor Assessment Test for Children (MATCH). Results from multivariate analysis of variance revealed (a) positive age effects in stability, locomotion, and object manipulation; (b) higher stability scores for girls than for boys and higher object manipulation scores for boys than for girls; and (c) GMS differences even within 6-month age intervals for some motor tasks. The positive age effect indicates that GMS proficiency changes with physical development, whereas gender effects may stem from genetic and/or environmental factors. We recommend that educators be aware of pronounced early childhood motor development and implement varied approaches that cater to diverse developmental levels. To facilitate ongoing monitoring, annual motor assessments are advised. Educators should acknowledge gender-type play behaviors with a naturalistic approach while advocating inclusive play opportunities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106255"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143821158","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":"The serial mediation effect of parents’ metamemory repertoire and metacognitive talk on children’s associative memory","authors":"Marie Geurten ,&nbsp;Laurence Picard","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106261","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106261","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recently, studies have revealed that parent–child interactions are one of the key drivers of children’s memory development. Here, we investigated whether some specific parental behaviors and characteristics—the richness of parents’ metamemory repertoire and their propensity to use metacognitive talk when interacting with their children—could mediate the well-known influence of parental education level on children’s memory performance. To do so, 54 parent–child dyads with children aged 24 to 46 months were recruited and tested at two time points. Parents’ metamemory repertoire was estimated using a questionnaire requiring the generation of as many different strategies as possible to solve various memory scenarios. The frequency of parents’ metacognitive comments during a standardized discussion about a past event with their children was used as a measure of metacognitive talk. An associative recognition memory task was used to assess children’s memory performance. Our results revealed that the effect of parental education level on children’s memory was serially mediated by children’s exposure to metacognitive talk via the richness of parents’ strategic memory repertoire. Specifically, parents with higher educational attainment were likely to nominate more memory strategies than parents with a lower level of education. In turn, having a rich metamemory repertoire increased the likelihood of being metacognitive when interacting with children, which has a positive effect on children’s memory performance. The importance of these findings for the sociocultural models of memory development is discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106261"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143799926","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":"Game-based cognitive training and its impact on executive functions and math performance: A randomized controlled trial","authors":"Alanny Nunes de Santana ,&nbsp;Antonio Roazzi ,&nbsp;Alena Pimentel Mello Cabral Nobre","doi":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106257","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106257","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Executive functions (EFs) are the focus of interventions aimed at their development and subsequent improvement of indirectly trained skills such as academic performance. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of near-transfer effects (EFs improvement) and far-transfer effects (mathematics improvement) of the <em>Cucca Curiosa</em> intervention in Brazilian children aged 7 to 10 years, with 28 participants per age group. This stratified trial included 112 children randomly assigned to the experimental group (EG) or control group (CG). Child Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Battery  (NEUPSILIN-Inf), Five-Digit Test (FDT), Day–Night Stroop task, and Mathematics Test (TEMA) were administered at pretest and posttest levels. The EG participated in the 1-week Cucca Curiosa program, consisting of five sessions (averaging 13 min, with a maximum of 26 min), whereas the CG remained in passive waiting. Data analysis revealed that the intervention significantly improved children’s executive and mathematics performance in the short term. The mediation analysis identified that EFs are essential mediators that explain how the intervention improves mathematical performance, reinforcing the importance of focusing on the development of EFs as a strategy to improve academic performance. Further studies are necessary to assess long-term effects, transfer to other skills, and potential benefits in reducing psychopathological symptoms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Experimental Child Psychology","volume":"256 ","pages":"Article 106257"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143799925","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}