The Ghost in the Touchscreen: Social Scaffolds Promote Learning by Toddlers

This study examined the effect of a “ghost” demonstration on toddlers’ imitation. In the ghost condition, virtual pieces moved to make a fish or boat puzzle. Fifty‐two 2.5‐ and 3‐year‐olds were tested on a touchscreen (no transfer) or with 3D pieces (transfer); children tested with 3D pieces scored above a no demonstration baseline, but children tested on the touchscreen did not. Practice on the touchscreen (n = 23) by 2.5‐ and 3‐year‐olds prior to the ghost demonstration did not improve performance. Finally, children who learned the puzzle task via a social demonstration and were tested on the touchscreen (n = 26) performed better than the ghost conditions. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that social demonstrations enhance learning from novel touchscreen tools during early childhood.     

Young Word Learners’ Interpretations of Words and Symbolic Gestures Within the Context of Ambiguous Reference

Early in development, many word‐learning phenomena generalize to symbolic gestures. The current study explored whether children avoid lexical overlap in the gestural modality, as they do in the verbal modality, within the context of ambiguous reference. Eighteen‐month‐olds’ interpretations of words and symbolic gestures in a symbol‐disambiguation task (Experiment 1) and a symbol‐learning task (Experiment 2) were investigated. In Experiment 1 (N = 32), children avoided verbal lexical overlap, mapping novel words to unnamed objects; children failed to display this pattern with symbolic gestures. In Experiment 2 (N = 32), 18‐month‐olds mapped both novel words and novel symbolic gestures onto their referents. Implications of these findings for the specialized nature of word learning and the development of lexical overlap avoidance are discussed.     

Learning About Tool Categories via Eavesdropping

Prior research has found that toddlers will form enduring artifact categories after direct exposure to an adult using a novel tool. Four studies explored whether 2‐ (N = 48) and 3‐year‐olds (N = 32) demonstrate this same capacity when learning by eavesdropping. After surreptitiously observing an adult use 1 of 2 artifacts to operate a bell via a monitor, 3‐year‐olds returned to the demonstrated kind of tool as “for” the task and avoided it for an alternative task over 2 days. Two‐year‐olds performed similarly after eavesdropping on someone with more discriminable artifacts via the method of a window rather than a monitor. These results demonstrate that toddlers can acquire enduring artifact categories after less than 40 s of surreptitious observation.     

Developmental Changes in Executive Functioning

Although early studies of executive functioning in children supported Miyake et al.'s (2000) three‐factor model, more recent findings supported a variety of undifferentiated or two‐factor structures. Using a cohort‐sequential design, this study examined whether there were age‐related differences in the structure of executive functioning among 6‐ to 15‐year‐olds (N = 688). Children were tested annually on tasks designed to measure updating and working memory, inhibition, and switch efficiency. There was substantial task‐based variation in developmental patterns on the various tasks. Confirmatory factor analyses and tests for longitudinal factorial invariance showed that data from the 5‐ to 13‐year‐olds conformed to a two‐factor structure. For the 15‐year‐olds, a well‐separated three‐factor structure was found.     

The “Batman Effect”: Improving Perseverance in Young Children

This study investigated the benefits of self‐distancing (i.e., taking an outsider's view of one's own situation) on young children's perseverance. Four‐ and 6‐year‐old children (N = 180) were asked to complete a repetitive task for 10 min while having the option to take breaks by playing an extremely attractive video game. Six‐year‐olds persevered longer than 4‐year‐olds. Nonetheless, across both ages, children who impersonated an exemplar other—in this case a character, such as Batman—spent the most time working, followed by children who took a third‐person perspective on the self, or finally, a first‐person perspective. Alternative explanations, implications, and future research directions are discussed.     

Development of Phonological Constancy: 19‐Month‐Olds,but Not 15‐Month‐Olds,Identify Words in a Non‐Native Regional Accent

By 12 months, children grasp that a phonetic change to a word can change its identity (phonological distinctiveness). However, they must also grasp that some phonetic changes do not (phonological constancy). To test development of phonological constancy, sixteen 15‐month‐olds and sixteen 19‐month‐olds completed an eye‐tracking task that tracked their gaze to named versus unnamed images for familiar words spoken in their native (Australian) and an unfamiliar non‐native (Jamaican) regional accent of English. Both groups looked longer at named than unnamed images for Australian pronunciations, but only 19‐month‐olds did so for Jamaican pronunciations, indicating that phonological constancy emerges by 19 months. Vocabulary size predicted 15‐month‐olds' identifications for the Jamaican pronunciations, suggesting vocabulary growth is a viable predictor for phonological constancy development.     

Enhancing the Executive Functions of 3‐Year‐Olds in the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task

Executive functions enable flexible thinking, something young children are notoriously bad at. For instance, in the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) task, 3‐year‐olds can sort cards by one dimension (shape), but continue to sort by this dimension when asked to switch (to color). This study tests a prediction of a dynamic neural field model that prior experience with the postswitch dimension can enhance 3‐year‐olds' performance in the DCCS. In Experiment 1A, a matching game was used to preexpose 3‐year‐olds (n = 36) to color. This facilitated switching from sorting by shape to color. In 3 , 3‐year‐olds (n = 18) were preexposed to shape. This did not facilitate switching from sorting by color to shape. The model was used to explain this asymmetry.     

“Everything Happens for a Reason”: Children's Beliefs About Purpose in Life Events

Do children believe that “everything happens for a reason?” That is, do children endorse purpose‐based, teleological explanations for significant life events, as they do for social behavior, artifacts, biological properties, and natural kinds? Across three experiments, 5‐ to 7‐year‐olds (N = 80), 8‐ to 10‐year‐olds (N = 72), and adults (N = 91) chose between teleological and nonteleological accounts of significant life events and judged how helpful those accounts were for understanding an event's cause. Five‐ to 7‐year‐olds favored teleological explanations, but this preference diminished with age. Five‐ to 7‐year‐olds and 8‐ to 10‐year‐olds also found teleological explanations more helpful than did adults. Perceiving purpose in life events may therefore have roots in childhood, potentially reflecting a more general sensitivity to purpose in the social and natural worlds.     

Escape From Metaignorance: How Children Develop an Understanding of Their Own Lack of Knowledge

Previous research yielded conflicting results about when children can accurately assess their epistemic states in different hiding tasks. In Experiment 1, ninety‐two 3‐ to 7‐year‐olds were either shown which object was hidden inside a box, were totally ignorant about what it could be, or were presented with two objects one of which was being put inside (partial exposure). Even 3‐year‐olds could assess their epistemic states in the total ignorance and the complete knowledge task. However, only children older than 5 could assess their ignorance in the partial exposure task. In Experiment 2 with one hundred and one 3‐ to 7‐year‐olds, similar results were found for children under 5 years even when more objects were shown in partial exposure tasks. Implications for children’s developing theory of knowledge are discussed.     

When Peer Performance Matters: Effects of Expertise and Traits on Children's Self‐Evaluations After Social Comparison

The present research examined the influence of peer characteristics on children's reactions to upward social comparisons. In Experiment 1, one hundred twenty‐six 5‐, 8‐, and 10‐year‐olds were told that they were outperformed by an expert or novice peer. Older children reported higher self‐evaluations after comparisons with an expert rather than a novice, whereas 5‐year‐olds reported high self‐evaluations broadly. In Experiment 2, ninety‐eight 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds and 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds were told that the peer possessed a positive or negative trait that was task relevant (i.e., intelligence) or task irrelevant (i.e., athleticism). Older children reported higher self‐evaluations after hearing about positive rather than negative traits, irrespective of relevance. Younger children reported high self‐evaluations indiscriminately. Results inform the understanding of social comparison development in childhood.     

The Role of Stimulus Novelty on Children's Inflexible Dimensional Switching

Children's ability to flexibly shift attention between different representational schemes was investigated using the dimensional change card sorting task. Across three experiments (N = 56 three‐year‐olds and N = 40 four‐year‐olds in 2 ; N = 14 three‐year‐olds in 3 ; and N = 14 three‐year‐olds in 4 ) the role of perceptual information on children's cognitive flexibility was investigated by manipulating different aspects of the task materials between pre‐ and postswitch phases. Better performance was observed when either task‐relevant (the color or shape of the images on the cards) or task‐irrelevant information (the background color or shape of the actual cards) was changed, with this improvement occurring when the changes were salient enough to induce a stimulus novelty effect.     

The Development of Occupational Sex‐role Stereotypes,Occupational Preferences and Academic Subject Preferences in Children at Ages 8, 12 and 16

This paper reports data from a questionnaire‐based UK study aimed at examining occupational sex‐role stereotypes and occupational preferences of male and female pupils at three ages. Data were collected from 594 children in total (108 8‐year‐olds, 307 12‐year‐olds and 177 16‐year‐olds) who responded to questions that asked for their views on who (males, females or both) should perform certain occupations and how much they would like to have each of the occupations as their career. The children were also asked to indicate their favourite school subject. Analysis indicated that the youngest age group held significantly more stereotyped views regarding who should perform certain jobs than the older children and that, generally, boys sex‐typed appropriateness of occupations to a significantly greater degree than girls, although this difference was not significant in the youngest age group. Furthermore, analysis of the occupational preference ratings revealed significant differences between male and female subjects for many occupations, with higher ratings generally being awarded to stereo‐typically gender‐appropriate careers. Significant differences between the three age groups were also observed in the preference ratings for many occupations, with a tendency for the majority of occupations to be perceived less favourably with increasing age of respondent. Finally, school subject preferences were considered. No consistent or stable pattern of preference emerged for males and females across age‐groups, confirming recent suggestions that gender stereotyping of school subjects is weakening.     

Cross‐Age Peer Tutoring of Reading and Thinking: Influence on thinking skills

Outcomes for methods to accelerate thinking skills involving some peer interaction have been more consistently positive than those for purely teacher‐directed or materials‐led methods. However, methods involving mainly or only peer interaction are rare. This paper describes and evaluates such a method for peer tutoring in thinking skills, which scaffolds interactive discourse based on a differentiated real book the tutorial pair has chosen to read together. This pilot study aimed to partial the impact on quality of thinking of a peer‐tutored thinking intervention from that of a peer‐tutored reading intervention, controlling for time on task and amount of peer interactivity. Experimental peer tutees were a whole class (n=28) of seven‐year‐olds; experimental tutors a whole class (n=31) of 11‐year‐olds. Comparison tutees were a whole class (n=27) of seven‐year‐olds; comparison tutors a whole class (n=30) of 11‐year‐olds. Classes/teachers within the same school were randomly assigned to conditions. In Phase 1, a paired reading intervention was implemented for six weeks for all groups. In Phase 2, the experimental classes of tutors and tutees engaged in the “paired thinking” (PT) method for 10 weeks, while the comparison group continued with paired reading. Both treatments involved one 20‐minute session weekly. Pre‐ and post‐test assessment of thinking skills and attitude to reading for all participants was conducted and post hoc subjective feedback gathered from participants. The experimental (PT) tutees showed significantly better performance in thinking skills than comparison (PR only) tutees, and some evidence of improved attitudes to reading. However, this was not true for the experimental (PT) tutors. Subjective feedback was very positive from the PT tutees and class teachers, but less positive from the PT tutors. Given the brevity and low cost in time and resources of the treatment, the finding of significant differences in measured thinking skills for the PT tutees is considered encouraging. Recommendations for refining organizational aspects of the implementation of PT and for future research are made.     

The influence of computer games on visual–motor integration in profoundly deaf children

The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of specialised software on the visual–motor integration of profoundly deaf children. The research sample was made up of 70 students aged from seven to 10, 43 of whom formed the experimental group and 27 the control group. The students in the experimental group used computers once a week during a period of five months. Levelling of the groups was conducted on the basis of gender, IQ and academic achievements. Examination of visual–motor integration was produced through a subtest of the Acadia test: ‘Visual–Motor Co‐ordination and Possibility of Sequence’. Students in the experimental group achieved higher scores than those in the control group but, of the experimental groups, only the results of the seven‐year‐olds were statistically significantly higher.     

Children's Norm Enforcement in Their Interactions With Peers

This study investigates how children negotiate social norms with peers. In Study 1, 48 pairs of 3‐ and 5‐year‐olds (N = 96) and in Study 2, 48 pairs of 5‐ and 7‐year‐olds (N = 96) were presented with sorting tasks with conflicting instructions (one child by color, the other by shape) or identical instructions. Three‐year‐olds differed from older children: They were less selective for the contexts in which they enforced norms, and they (as well as the older children to a lesser extent) used grammatical constructions objectifying the norms (“It works like this” rather than “You must do it like this”). These results suggested that children's understanding of social norms becomes more flexible during the preschool years.     

Children's concepts of gears and their promotion through play

The mechanical transmission of motion, which is observable in gears’ turning direction (TD) and turning speed (TS) can be understood as part of the core concept “force and motion”. Previous studies have suggested that most children before the age of nine have naïve concepts of gears’ TD and TS. However, these studies relied on children's explanation data and might have therefore underestimated young children's potential. Moreover, these studies did not examine whether preschoolers can overcome their naïve concepts through teaching. Recently, educators have proposed guided play as an educational approach that combines children's play with teacher guidance in a purposefully designed environment. We conducted two subsequent studies. In Study 1, we investigated the children's (naïve) concepts of gears’ TD and TS with a cross‐sectional approach using a nonverbal test procedure. This study comprised 248 children aged 5–10 years and 73 adults. The results showed that the proportion of children with adequate concepts increased with age. More specifically, 7‐ to 8‐year‐olds differed significantly from 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds, indicating a developmental shift around this age. However, naïve concepts of TS were more persistent with age than naïve concepts of TD. Altogether, the results indicated the potential to foster 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds’ concepts of both TD and TS in an intervention. Thus, in Study 2, we developed and tested a guided play intervention to foster 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children's concepts of TD and TS. We conducted a prepost‐intervention design with a guided play group (n = 19) and a free play group (n = 21). The results suggested stronger learning gains in the guided play group (d_TD = 0.337, d_TS = 0.758) than in the free play group (d_TD = 0.224, d_TS = 0.158).     

Bystanders’ roles and children with special educational needs in bullying situations among preschool-aged children

Despite the growing body of evidence that the origins of bullying lie in early childhood, very little is known about the nature of the phenomenon in preschool groups. The current understanding among studies conducted in the school environment is that bullying prevention can only be effective if training with individual children takes place parallel to broader interventions in the classroom. The aim of this study was to examine how bullying prevention should be focused among under school-aged children. Since we know that children with special educational needs (SEN) have been found to be extremely vulnerable to bullying and victimization, we examined the role of three- to six-year olds with SEN in bullying situations. In addition, we examined whether the peripheral roles of other children in bullying situations can already be observed in preschool groups. The data were collected from a survey of day care staff in the city of Vantaa (n = 771). According to staff reports, 18% of bullying took place in situations in which children with SEN were present. Bullies with SEN used more physical forms of bullying and bullies without SEN used more psychological forms of bullying. The findings also showed that the multiple, peripheral roles of the bystanders in bullying situations are already occurring in preschool groups, especially among boys. It is important to target intervention programs in preschools both on individual children and at group level.     

Phonological awareness in monolingual and bilingual English and Greek five‐year‐olds

This study examined and compared levels of phonological awareness in monolingual and bilingual English and Greek five‐year‐olds. Sixty‐eight children from Britain and Cyprus, matched on the basis of age, gender, non‐verbal and verbal IQ, were assigned to four groups: two bilingual (English‐Greek, Greek‐English) and two monolingual (English, Greek). Performance of the four groups on a set of six phonological tasks was compared. Bilingual children were given both English and Greek versions of the tasks; monolingual children were given the phonological tasks in their mother tongue only. Given the results of previous research, it was predicted that bilingual children would show higher levels of phonological awareness than monolingual. The children tested in Britain were already being taught to read in school, whereas those tested in Cyprus were not. On the basis of previous research, it was further predicted that there would also be effects of learning to read in an alphabetic language, such that the bilingual children tested in Britain would show higher levels of phonological awareness at the level of the phoneme than their counterparts tested in Cyprus. Results showed that the bilingual English‐Greek children significantly outperformed the monolingual English children, but this pattern was not replicated in the bilingual Greek‐English/monolingual Greek comparisons. This difference is discussed in terms of the bilingual enhancement effect, which, according to the present data, seems to occur only when bilingual children are exposed to a second language that is phonologically simpler than their first language. Results also showed that English‐Greek bilingual children performed significantly better than Greek‐English bilinguals, especially on tasks requiring phoneme awareness. This accords well with suggestions that learning to read in an alphabetic language promotes this level of phonological awareness.     

Early Childhood Behavioral Inhibition and Social and School Adjustment in Chinese Children: A 5‐Year Longitudinal Study

This study examined relations between early behavioral inhibition and social and school outcomes in Chinese children (N = 200). Data on behavioral inhibition were collected from a sample of 2‐year‐olds in China. Follow‐up data on social behaviors, peer relationships, and school performance were collected from multiple sources at 7 years of age. Behavioral inhibition was found to be positively associated with later cooperative behavior, peer liking, perceived social integration, positive school attitudes, and school competence, and negatively associated with later learning problems. Highly inhibited toddlers were generally better adjusted than others in social and school areas in middle childhood. The results indicate the distinct functional meaning of behavioral inhibition in Chinese children from a developmental perspective.     

Training Basic Visual Attention Leads to Changes in Responsiveness to Social‐Communicative Cues in 9‐Month‐Olds

This study investigated transfer effects of gaze‐interactive attention training to more complex social and cognitive skills in infancy. Seventy 9‐month‐olds were assigned to a training group (n = 35) or an active control group (n = 35). Before, after, and at 6‐week follow‐up both groups completed an assessment battery assessing transfer to nontrained aspects of attention control, including table top tasks assessing social attention in seminaturalistic contexts. Transfer effects were found on nontrained screen‐based tasks but importantly also on a structured observation task assessing the infants’ likelihood to respond to an adult's social‐communication cues. The results causally link basic attention skills and more complex social‐communicative skills and provide a principle for studying causal mechanisms of early development.