Accelerating the Development of Second-Order False Belief Reasoning: A Training Study With Different Feedback Methods

One-hundred-six 5-year-olds’ (M_age = 5;6; SD = 0.40) were trained with second-order false belief tasks in one of the following conditions: (a) feedback with explanation; (b) feedback without explanation; (c) no feedback; (d) active control. The results showed that there were significant improvements in children's scores from pretest to posttest in the three experimental conditions even when children's age, verbal abilities, or working memory scores were controlled for. The training effect was stable at a follow-up session 4 months after the pretest. Overall, our results suggest that 5-year-olds’ failures in second-order false belief tasks are due to lack of experience and that they can be helped over the threshold by exposure to many stories involving second-order false belief reasoning, including why questions.     

Behavioral Inhibition in Early Childhood and Adjustment in Late Adolescence in China

This study examined relations between behavioral inhibition in toddlerhood and social, school, and psychological adjustment in late adolescence in China. Data on behavioral inhibition were collected from a sample of 2-year-olds (initial N = 247). Follow-up data were collected at 7 years for peer relationships and 19 years for adjustment across domains. The results showed that early inhibition positively predicted later social competence and school adjustment. Peer relationships in middle childhood served as a protective factor in the development of depression of inhibited children. The results indicate the distinct functional meaning of behavioral inhibition in the Chinese context from a developmental perspective.     

Young Children From Three Diverse Cultures Spontaneously and Consistently Prepare for Alternative Future Possibilities

This study examined future-oriented behavior in children (3–6 years; N = 193) from three diverse societies—one industrialized Western city and two small, geographically isolated communities. Children had the opportunity to prepare for two alternative versions of an immediate future event over six trials. Some 3-year-olds from all cultures demonstrated competence, and a majority of the oldest children from each culture prepared for both future possibilities on every trial. Although there were some cultural differences in the youngest age groups that approached ceiling performance, the overall results indicate that children across these communities become able to prepare for alternative futures during early childhood. This acquisition period is therefore not contingent on Western upbringing, and may instead indicate normal cognitive maturation.     

Children’s and Adults’ Views of Punishment as a Path to Redemption

The current work investigated the extent to which children (N=171 6- to 8-year-olds) and adults (N = 94) view punishment as redemptive. In Study 1, children—but not adults—reported that “mean” individuals became “nicer” after one severe form of punishment (incarceration). Moreover, adults expected “nice” individuals’ moral character to worsen following punishment; however, we did not find that children expected such a change. Study 2 extended these findings by showing that children view “mean” individuals as becoming “nicer” following both severe (incarceration) and relatively minor (time-out) punishments, suggesting that the pattern of results from Study 1 generalizes across punishment types. Together, these studies indicate that children—but not adults—may view punishment as a vehicle for redemption.     

Relations Among Father's Presence,Family Conflict,and Adolescent Adjustment in Northern Ireland

Burgeoning evidence identifies the influence of fathers and, relatedly, fathers in the family context (e.g., family conflict), on adolescent adjustment. However, little is known about the significance of fathers’ presence in contexts of environmental risk. In a unique social–political context of economic and sociopolitical adversity, this study examined relations between adolescent adjustment, fathers’ presence, and family conflict in families in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Based on responses from 999 adolescents (M = 12.18 years; SD = 1.82) and their mothers, participating from 2006 to 2012, fathers’ presence was linked with reduced internalizing symptoms, and family conflict was related to both internalizing and externalizing problems. The discussion considers the implications for understanding family dynamics related to adolescent adjustment in contexts of environmental adversity.     

Empirical Tests of a Brain-Based Model of Executive Function Development

Executive function (EF) plays a foundational role in development. A brain-based model of EF development is probed for the experiences that strengthen EF in the dimensional change card sort task in which children sort cards by one rule and then are asked to switch to another. Three-year-olds perseverate on the first rule, failing the task, whereas 4-year-olds pass. Three predictions of the model are tested to help 3-year-olds (N = 54) pass. Experiment 1 shows that experience with shapes and the label “shape” helps children. Experiment 2 shows that experience with colors—without a label—helps children. Experiment 3 shows that experience with colors induces dimensional attention. The implications of this work for early intervention are discussed.     

School-Age Children Adapt the Dynamics of Lexical Competition in Suboptimal Listening Conditions

Although the ability to understand speech in adverse listening conditions is paramount for effective communication across the life span, little is understood about how this critical processing skill develops. This study asks how the dynamics of spoken word recognition (i.e., lexical access and competition) change during soft speech in 8- to 11-year-olds (n = 26). Lexical competition and access for speech at lower intensity levels was measured using eye-tracking and the visual world paradigm. Overall the results suggest that soft speech influences the magnitude and timing of lexical access and competition. These results suggest that lexical competition is a cognitive process that can be adapted in the school-age years to help cope with increased uncertainty due to alterations in the speech signal.     

Types of parental psychological control and rural and urban Chinese adolescents’ psychological well-being and academic functioning

The present study took a differentiated perspective on parental psychological control to examine its impact on adolescent adjustment among urban (n = 349, females: 53%) and rural (n = 293, females: 54%) Chinese adolescents (M_age = 12.14 years). Four times over the first 2 years of Junior High school (from October, 2016 to April, 2018), adolescents reported on parental psychological control, their psychological well-being (life satisfaction and depressive symptoms), and academic relative autonomy. Adolescents’ grades also were obtained. The findings show generally negative effects of social comparison shame, love withdrawal and harsh psychological control (but not shared shame or parental relationship-oriented guilt induction) on adolescents’ psychological well-being, and negative effects of social comparison shame on adolescents’ academic functioning.     

Links between justice sensitivity and moral reasoning,moral emotions,and moral identity in middle childhood

Associations between moral-related traits, such as justice sensitivity (JS), the tendency to negatively respond to injustice, and moral development are largely unknown. From May to December 2018, 1329 5- to 12-year-olds (M = 8.05, SD = 1.02; 51.2% girls, 1.3% transgender and gender-nonconforming) from Germany rated their JS, moral reasoning, emotions, and identity; parents and teachers rated children's theory of mind (ToM) and empathy. Victim JS (caring for own justice) predicted more attributions of positive emotions to norm transgressors in structural equation models (β = .295). Altruistic JS (caring for other's justice) predicted less attributions of positive emotions (β = −.343) and a stronger moral identity (β = .392) unless ToM was considered. Particularly altruistic JS showed associations with advanced moral development. Hence, moral-related traits deserve more attention by moral-development research.     

Five-year-old children value reasons in apologies for belief-based accidents

Accidents can be intent-based (unintended action-unintended outcome) or belief-based (intended action-unintended outcome). As compared to intent-based accidents, giving reasons is more crucial for belief-based accidents because the transgressor appears to have intentionally transgressed. In Study 1, UK-based preschoolers who were native English speakers (N = 96, 53 girls, collected 2020–2021) witnessed two intent-based or belief-based accidents; one transgressor apologized, the other apologized with a reason. Five-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, favored the reason-giving transgressor following a belief-based accident but not an intent-based accident (where an apology sufficed). In Study 2, 5-year-olds (N = 48, 25 girls, collected 2021) distinguished between “good” and “bad” reasons for the harm caused. Thus, 5-year-old children recognize when reasons should accompany apologies and account for the quality of these reasons.     

Too Much Familiarity! The Developmental Path of the Fluency Heuristic in Children

We tested whether changes in attribution processes could account for the developmental differences observed in how children’s use fluency to guide their memory decisions. Children ranging in age from 4 to 9 years studied a list of familiar or unfamiliar cartoon characters. In Experiment 1 (n = 84), participants completed a recognition test during which the perceptual fluency of some items was enhanced using a prime. In Experiment 2 (n = 96), participants completed a source recollection judgment on their recognition decisions. Primed items were recognized at a higher rate than unprimed items. However, while young children rely on fluency for all items, older children use fluency only for unfamiliar items. This pattern came together with a reduction in familiarity-based—but not recollection-based—memory responses.     

Seeing Iconic Gesture Promotes First- and Second-Order Verb Generalization in Preschoolers

This study investigated whether seeing iconic gestures depicting verb referents promotes two types of generalization. We taught 3- to 4-year-olds novel locomotion verbs. Children who saw iconic manner gestures during training generalized more verbs to novel events (first-order generalization) than children who saw interactive gestures (Experiment 1, N = 48; Experiment 2, N = 48) and path-tracing gestures (Experiment 3, N = 48). Furthermore, immediately (Experiments 1 and 3) and after 1 week (Experiment 2), the iconic manner gesture group outperformed the control groups in subsequent generalization trials with different novel verbs (second-order generalization), although all groups saw interactive gestures. Thus, seeing iconic gestures that depict verb referents helps children (a) generalize individual verb meanings to novel events and (b) learn more verbs from the same subcategory.     

Perceived parental social support and psychological control predict depressive symptoms for lesbian,gay, bisexual,transgender, queer,or questioning youth in the United States

Salient practices in the parenting literature—support and control—have seldom been applied to understanding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ) youth mental health. We examine associations among perceived parental social support, psychological control, and depressive symptoms for LGBTQ youth in the United States (n = 536; M_age = 18.98; 48.1% women; 25.2% Black or African American; 37.1% Hispanic or Latino/a/x). Data were collected in 2011–2012. Results indicated joint effects of social support and psychological control predicting youth depressive symptoms. Multiple group analysis yielded a significant interaction of parenting practices for youth whose parent(s) did not know their LGBTQ identity. Findings support further consideration of parental support and control in relation to LGBTQ youth well-being.     

Young Children’s Ability to Produce Valid and Relevant Counter-Arguments

In collaborative problem solving, children produce and evaluate arguments for proposals. We investigated whether 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 192) can produce and evaluate arguments against those arguments (i.e., counter-arguments). In Study 1, each child within a peer dyad was privately given a reason to prefer one over another solution to a task. One child, however, was given further information that would refute the reasoning of their partner. Five-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, identified and produced valid and relevant counter-arguments. In Study 2, 3-year-olds were given discourse training (discourse that contrasted valid and invalid counter-arguments) and then given the same problem-solving tasks. After training, 3-year-olds could also identify and produce valid and relevant counter-arguments. Thus, participating in discourse about reasons facilitates children’s counter-argumentation.     

The Development of Simile Comprehension: From Similarity to Scalar Implicature

Similes require two different pragmatic skills: appreciating the intended similarity and deriving a scalar implicature (e.g., “Lucy is like a parrot” normally implies that Lucy is not a parrot), but previous studies overlooked this second skill. In Experiment 1, preschoolers (N = 48; ages 3–5) understood “X is like a Y” as an expression of similarity. In Experiment 2 (N = 99; ages 3–6, 13) and Experiment 3 (N = 201; ages 3–5 and adults), participants received metaphors (“Lucy is a parrot”) or similes (“Lucy is like a parrot”) as clues to select one of three images (a parrot, a girl or a parrot-looking girl). An early developmental trend revealed that 3-year-olds started deriving the implicature “X is not a Y,” whereas 5-year-olds performed like adults.     

Fine Motor Control Underlies the Association Between Response Inhibition and Drawing Skill in Early Development

Previous research shows that the development of response inhibition and drawing skill are linked. The current research investigated whether this association reflects a more fundamental link between response inhibition and motor control. In Experiment 1, 3- and 4-year-olds (n = 100) were tested on measures of inhibition, fine motor control, and drawing skill. Data revealed an association between inhibition and fine motor control, which was responsible for most of the association observed with drawing skill. Experiment 2 (n = 100) provided evidence that, unlike fine motor control, gross motor control and inhibition were not associated (after controlling for IQ). Alternative explanations for the link between inhibition and fine motor control are outlined, including a consideration of how these cognitive processes may interact during development.     

The Production Effect Improves Memory in 7- to 10-Year-Old Children

The production effect—whereby reading words aloud improves memory for those words relative to reading them silently—was investigated in two experiments with 7- to 10-year-old children residing in Brisbane, Australia. Experiment 1 (n = 41) involved familiar printed words, with words read aloud or silently appearing either in mixed- or blocked-list formats in a within-subject design. Recognition for words read aloud was better than for those read silently, an effect consistent across both list formats. These results were confirmed in Experiment 2 (n = 40) using longer lists of printed novel nonwords. Final analyses indicated that the production effect was comparable for words and nonwords. Findings are discussed in relation to the distinctiveness account and the use of production as a mnemonic in children.     

Developmental trajectories of Korean and heritage language proficiencies and their association with maladjustment among Korean multicultural adolescents

This study identified changes in Korean and heritage language proficiencies across five waves (2011–2015) and examined the association between linguistic acculturation trajectories and adjustment (2016) among Korean adolescents with immigrant family backgrounds (N = 1441; 51.21% female; M_{age(baseline)} = 9.97). All adolescents were from multiethnic families with 91.65% comprising a non-Korean Asian mother (e.g., Japan, Philippines, China, Thailand) and Korean father. Parallel process latent class growth modeling and multivariate regression analysis were conducted to estimate the trajectories of linguistic acculturation and their effects on adolescents' future adjustment. Linguistic acculturation trajectories were classified into three latent groups. Bilingual adolescents demonstrated better adjustment over adolescents in other trajectories. Findings highlight the importance of considering patterns of change in linguistic acculturation for understanding Korean multicultural adolescents' adjustment.     

Training self-other distinction facilitates perspective taking in young children

People sometimes commit ‘egocentric errors’, failing to ignore their own perspective when interpreting others' communication. Training imitation-inhibition, when participants perform the opposite action from another person, facilitates subsequent perspective-taking in adults. This study tested whether imitation-inhibition training also facilitates perspective-taking in 3- to 6-year-olds, an age where egocentric perspective may be particularly influential. Children participated in a 10-min imitation-inhibition, imitation, or non-social-inhibition training (white, n = 25 per condition, 33 female, period: 2018–2021), then the communicative-perspective-taking Director task. Training had a significant effect (F(2, 71) = 3.316, p = .042, η² = .085): on critical trials, the imitation-inhibition-group selected the correct object more often than the other groups. Imitation-inhibition training specifically enhanced the perspective-taking process possibly by highlighting the distinction between self and other.     

Coparenting Among Lesbian,Gay, and Heterosexual Couples: Associations With Adopted Children's Outcomes

Coparenting is associated with child behavior in families with heterosexual parents, but less is known about coparenting among lesbian‐ and gay‐parent families. Associations were studied among self‐reported divisions of labor, coparenting observations, and child adjustment (M_age = 3 years) among 104 adoptive families headed by lesbian, gay, or heterosexual couples. Lesbian and gay couples reported sharing child care, whereas heterosexual couples reported specialization (i.e., mothers did more child care than fathers). Observations confirmed this pattern—lesbian and gay parents participated more equally than heterosexual parents during family interaction. Lesbian couples showed the most supportive and least undermining behavior, whereas gay couples showed the least supportive behavior, and heterosexual couples the most undermining behavior. Overall, supportive coparenting was associated with better child adjustment.