“Why do dogs pant?”: Characteristics of parental explanations about science predict children's knowledge

Using a new method for examining parental explanations in a laboratory setting, the prompted explanation task, this study examines how characteristics of parental explanations about biology relate to children's knowledge. Parents (N = 148; M_age = 38; 84% female, 16% male; 67% having completed college) of children ages 7–10 (M_age = 8.92; 47% female, 53% male; 58% White, 9.5% Black, 9.5% Asian) provided answers to eight how and why questions about biology. Parents used a number of different approaches to address the questions, including providing more mechanistic responses to how questions and more teleological responses to why questions. The characteristics of parental explanations—most notably, how frequently parents provided correct responses—predicted children's performance on measures of verbal intelligence and biological knowledge. Additional exploratory analyses and implications for children's learning are discussed.     

Changes in Beliefs About Category Homogeneity and Variability Across Childhood

Effective category‐based induction requires understanding that categories include both fundamental similarities between members and important variation. This article explores 4‐ to 11‐year‐olds’ (n = 207) and adults’ (n = 49) intuitions about this balance between within‐category homogeneity and variability using a novel induction task in which participants predict the distribution of a property among members of a novel category. Across childhood, children learned to recognize variability within categories—showing increasing sensitivity to the role of property type and domain in constraining inferences. Children below the age of 6 showed evidence for a domain‐general assumption that categories are homogeneous—generalizing properties broadly to 100% of category members. These studies support important developmental changes in category representations that may influence category‐based induction.     

Incidence,type and intensity of abuse in street children in India

ObjectiveThe aims of this cross-sectional survey were to examine the prevalence, type and intensity of abuse in street children in Jaipur city, India.MethodBased on purposive random sampling, 200 street children, inclusive of equal number of boys and girls, were selected from the streets of Jaipur city, India, and administered an in-depth interview schedule which included five areas of abuse, namely, “general abuse,” “health abuse,” “verbal abuse,” “physical abuse,” and “psychological abuse.” Data was interpreted using percentages, t-test and correlations.ResultsStreet children reported experiences of abuse in all the five areas under study. Larger numbers of children (61.8%) scored in the “moderate” category of abuse while 36.6% children indicated abuse in “severe” and “very severe” categories on the intensity of abuse. Highest mean scores were obtained on the “verbal” and “psychological” area of abuse. Gender differences were significant in health and overall abuse, indicating boys to be significantly more abused than girls. There were significant positive correlations of abuse with increasing “age” and “income” of street children; and the occurrence of “multi-type” maltreatment and neglect in street children was clearly present.ConclusionDifferent forms of abuse are prevalent in street children in India. This area of study needs attention both by the researchers and the social workers.Practice implicationschildren who are identified in severe and very severe categories of abuse should be worked with in a follow up study with the help of governmental and nongovernmental agencies working in the field for child welfare.     

Categories in conflict: Combating the application of an intuitive conception of inheritance with category construction

The idea that characteristics acquired by an organism during its lifetime can be inherited by offspring and result in evolution is a substantial impediment to student understanding of evolution. In the current study, we performed a preliminary examination of how acquiring physical changes in a question prompt may differentially cue intuitive and scientific justifications of inheritance and evolution and how this varies based on how student learned the concept. Middle school students in a suburban northeastern district (N = 314) either learned about evolutionary change with a category construction task (with different levels of feedback support) or completed a worksheet. Three days later students responded to two free response scenarios (one where a physical change is acquired). Responses were coded based on student justifications for either science accuracy or intuitive nature. Specific reasons were coded by justification type with high inter-rater agreement (k > 0.93). Results showed that students were more likely to apply intuitive reasoning when a physical change was acquired (50%) than if the change was behavioral in nature (16%). Additionally, students who completed the category construction task provided significantly more scientifically accurate justifications about inheritance (M = 1.12) than control students (M = 0.47), and significantly less intuitive justifications (M = 0.67) than control (M = 1.13). Finally, category construction produced the most scientific reasoning when feedback was provided. Taken together, these results suggest that intuitive reasoning is differentially applied based on physical organismal changes, intuitive reasoning is less frequent when learning via category construction, and the category construction task is more effective for this population with the inclusion of feedback.     

Asking Children to “Be Helpers” Can Backfire After Setbacks

Describing behaviors as reflecting categories (e.g., asking children to “be helpers”) has been found to increase pro-social behavior. The present studies (N = 139, ages 4–5) tested whether such effects backfire if children experience setbacks while performing category-relevant actions. In Study 1, children were asked either to “be helpers” or “to help,” and then pretended to complete a series of successful scenarios (e.g., pouring milk) and unsuccessful scenarios (e.g., spilling milk while trying to pour). After the unsuccessful trials, children asked to “be helpers” had more negative attitudes. In Study 2, asking children to “be helpers” impeded children's helping behavior after they experienced difficulties while trying to help. Implications for how category labels shape beliefs and behavior are discussed.     

EXAMINATION OF EARLY CHILDHOOD PRACTITIONERS’ GENERAL PERCEPTION OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN YOUNG CHILDREN

This study attempts to explore and discuss preschool teachers’ perception of gender differences in young children through their verbal expression. The teachers (Study I, n —121, Study II, n= 31) in this study perceive female preschoolers as positive and sensitive learners. While many learner qualities such as inventive, problem‐solver, builder, hands‐on, questioning, etc. are identified more often for boys than girls, overall the teachers’ perception of the boys’ group is less “teachable” and “easy to work with” than the girls group. In addition, one of the most intriguing and concerning observations is that girls are perceived as “passive learners” and therefore they are more “teachable” than boys. As implications of the study, the paper discusses an important understanding of gender‐fair and gender‐congruent pedagogical awareness for developmentally and culturally appropriate practice in early childhood education.

This study was originally presented at the 1999 AERA Annual Meeting, April 19‐23, Montreal, Canada, and was titled Examination of Preschool Teachers’ Biased Perception on Gender Difference.     

Success at Scale: Outcomes of Community-Based Neurodevelopment Intervention (CASITA) for Children Ages 6–20 months With Risk of Delay in Lima,Peru

This study is a randomized controlled trial of a 12-week community-based group parenting intervention (“CASITA”) in Lima, Peru. CASITA improved neurodevelopment in a pilot study of 60 Peruvian children and subsequently scaled to 3,000 households throughout the district. The objective of this study was to assess intervention effectiveness when implemented at scale. A total of 347 children ages 6–20 months (52.7% male, 100% identified as “mestizo”) at risk for developmental difficulties were randomized to immediate or delayed CASITA. At 3 months after enrollment, the immediate arm showed significantly higher overall development, based on the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire and Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scores (Cohen’s ds = .36 and .31, respectively). Programs demonstrably effective at scale could help address children’s development risks worldwide.     

Labels of giftedness and gender-typicality: Effects on adults' judgments of children's traits

The study examines the impressions adults form of children as a function of labels of giftedness and gender-typicality. Participants read about a child described as male/female, “gifted”/“average,” and gender-typical/gender-atypical in academic interests; they then responded on 30 adjective scales. Compared with children labeled “average,” children labeled “gifted” are seen as closer to odd than to fits in well. Gender-atypical boys were considered more odd and gender-atypical girls were rated less odd than were gender-typical children, regardless of giftedness. There was no additive negative effect of being both gifted and gender-atypical. Basically, participants described gifted and gender-atypical children differently; some overlap exists between adjectives used to describe these children (e.g., odd). Giftedness and gender-atypicality are related but separate concepts, each with many facets. The interrelationships and diversity of the two concepts must be assessed when individuals consider the impression that gifted or gender-atypical children make on others.     

“American = English Speaker” Before “American = White”: The Development of Children's Reasoning About Nationality

Adults implicitly judge people from certain social backgrounds as more “American” than others. This study tests the development of children's reasoning about nationality and social categories. Children across cultures (White and Korean American children in the United States, Korean children in South Korea) judged the nationality of individuals varying in race and language. Across cultures, 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children (N = 100) categorized English speakers as “American” and Korean speakers as “Korean” regardless of race, suggesting that young children prioritize language over race when thinking about nationality. Nine‐ and 10‐year‐olds (N = 181) attended to language and race and their nationality judgments varied across cultures. These results suggest that associations between nationality and social category membership emerge early in life and are shaped by cultural context.     

When judging what you know changes what you really know: Soliciting metamemory judgments reactively enhances children’s learning

Recent studies established that making concurrent judgments of learning (JOLs) can significantly alter (typically enhance) memory itself—a reactivity effect. The current study recruited 190 Chinese children (M_age = 8.68 years; 101 female) in 2020 and 2021 to explore the reactivity effect on children's learning, its developmental trajectory and associated metacognitive awareness. The results showed that making JOLs significantly enhanced retention for students in Grades 1, 3, and 5, with Cohen's ds ranging from 0.40 to 1.33. Grade 5 students exhibited a larger reactivity effect than Grade 1 and 3 students. Children's metacognitive appreciation of the effect was weak. Firsthand experience of the reactivity effect, induced by taking a memory test, enhanced their awareness and calibrated their judgment accuracy.     

类别感知对类别学习中额外特征学习的影响

两个实验采用联结学习范式,分别探讨知觉类别和语义类别材料中,类别感知对特征学习的影响.结果发现,即使是在联结学习范式中,当学习者感知学习材料存在类别时,不仅关注可以有效预测结果的特征,也会关注类别中的其他特征.同时,在知觉类别和语义类别材科中都发现了相同的结果.本实验结果说明,当学习者感知学习材料中存在类别时,即使是在联结学习范式中,学习者也会像类别学习范式中一样,学习额外特征,支持对存在类别的感知,是影响学习者特征学习的重要原因.     

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.     

Learning the rules of the game: The role of generic “you” and “we” in shaping children's interpretations of norms

A critical skill of childhood is learning social norms. We examine whether the generic pronouns “you” and “we,” which frame information as applying to people in general rather than to a specific individual, facilitate this process. In one pre-registered experiment conducted online between 2020 and 2021, children 4- to 9-year-old primarily living in the midwestern U.S. (N = 146, 75 girls, 71 boys, M_age = 7.14, SD = 1.69, 82% White) interpreted actions described with generic pronouns (vs. “I”) as normatively correct and selected the speaker who used generic pronouns as the rule-follower, particularly when generic pronouns were presented first. There were no significant effects of age. These results illustrate how generic pronouns influence how children discern unfamiliar norms and form interpersonal judgments.     

Learning through Feature Prediction: An Initial Investigation into Teaching Categories to Children with Autism through Predicting Missing Features

Individuals with autism have difficulty generalising information from one situation to another, a process that requires the learning of categories and concepts. Category information may be learned through: (1) classifying items into categories, or (2) predicting missing features of category items. Predicting missing features has to this point been little used in special education. Children with autism were taught novel category information through either classification or feature prediction tasks. Both methods resulted in successful category learning. Furthermore, feature prediction learning resulted in better performance when predicting missing features of items at test. These results suggest that while both tasks are valuable tools for teaching categories to children with autism, the feature prediction task provides more successful post-learning use of the information acquired.     

Minimal Groups Increase Young Children's Motivation and Learning on Group‐Relevant Tasks

Three experiments (N = 130) used a minimal group manipulation to show that just perceived membership in a social group boosts young children's motivation for and learning from group‐relevant tasks. In Experiment 1, 4‐year‐old children assigned to a minimal “puzzles group” persisted longer on a challenging puzzle than children identified as the “puzzles child” or children in a control condition. Experiment 2 showed that this boost in motivation occurred only when the group was associated with the task. In Experiment 3, children assigned to a minimal group associated with word learning learned more words than children assigned an analogous individual identity. The studies demonstrate that fostering shared motivations may be a powerful means by which to shape young children's academic outcomes.     

Multidimensional profiles of learning orientations and school achievement: a person-oriented approach in middle-school students

A person-oriented approach was applied to the study of early adolescents’ learning orientations to identify different profiles and their association with school achievement. A total of 244 middle-school students (male: 128; female: 116; M-age ± SD = 12.51 ± .93) completed a self-report questionnaire to explore cognitive, metacognitive, and affective dimensions of learning orientations. School achievements were collected in a range of school subjects. Cluster analyses and one-way MANOVA were carried out to verify the existence of profiles. Chi-square tests were used to test the association between profiles of learning orientations and school achievement. The results showed two profiles differently associated with school achievement: students “Dragged by the current” (Profile 1) showed low school achievement across school subjects, meanwhile students “At the helm” (Profile 2) reached excellent school achievement. In promoting middle-school students’ achievement, it is important for teachers to consider students’ profiles of learning orientations.

     

The role of spatial ability in mixed reality learning with the HoloLens

The use of mixed reality in science education has been increasing and as such it has become more important to understand how information is learned in these virtual environments. Spatial ability is important in many learning contexts, but especially in neuroanatomy education where learning the locations and spatial relationships between brain regions is paramount. It is currently unclear what role spatial ability plays in mixed reality learning environments, and whether it is different compared to traditional physical environments. To test this, a learning experiment was conducted where students learned neuroanatomy using both mixed reality and a physical plastic model of a brain (N = 27). Spatial ability was assessed and analyzed to determine its effect on performance across the two learning modalities. The results showed that spatial ability facilitated learning in mixed reality (β = 0.21, P = 0.003), but not when using a plastic model (β = 0.08, P = 0.318). A non-significant difference was observed between the modalities in terms of knowledge test performance (d = 0.39, P = 0.052); however, mixed reality was more engaging (d = 0.59, P = 0.005) and learners were more confident in the information they learned compared to using a physical model (d = 0.56, P = 0.007). Overall, these findings suggest that spatial ability is more relevant in virtual learning environments, where the ability to manipulate and interact with an object is diminished or abstracted through a virtual user interface.     

Um Compasso Para Aprender: A Randomized Trial of a Social-Emotional Learning Program in Homicide-Affected Communities in Brazil

Despite global demand, the large-scale effects of social-emotional learning (SEL) programming in developing countries remain underexplored. Using a randomized control trial, this study examined the effectiveness of a school-wide SEL intervention—Programa Compasso (PC)—among 3,018 sociodemographically diverse, Portuguese-speaking children (M_age = 9.85 years) attending 90 public primary schools across Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2017. Average impacts of PC on children’s executive function, emotion knowledge, and behavior problems after one school year were null. Moderation analyses did, however, reveal evidence for positive impacts of PC on children’s labeling of emotional expressions and inhibitory control within low-homicide communities (d = 0.15 SDs), and null effects on these same outcomes in high-violence areas. Implementation and cultural considerations are discussed.     

Explaining Constrains Causal Learning in Childhood

Three experiments investigate how self‐generated explanation influences children's causal learning. Five‐year‐olds (N = 114) observed data consistent with two hypotheses and were prompted to explain or to report each observation. In Study 1, when making novel generalizations, explainers were more likely to favor the hypothesis that accounted for more observations. In Study 2, explainers favored a hypothesis that was consistent with prior knowledge. Study 3 pitted a hypothesis that accounted for more observations against a hypothesis consistent with prior knowledge. Explainers were more likely to base generalizations on prior knowledge. Findings suggest that attempts to explain drive children to evaluate hypotheses using features of “good” explanations, or those supporting generalizations with broad scope, as informed by children's prior knowledge and observations.     

What does it look like and what can it do? Category structure influences how infants categorize

Despite a large body of research demonstrating the kinds of categories to which infants respond, few studies have directly assessed how infants' categorization unfolds over time. Four experiments used a visual familiarization task to evaluate 10-month-old infants' (N = 98) learning of exemplars characterized by commonalities in appearance or function. When learning exemplars with a common function, infants initially responded to the common feature, apparently forming a category, and only learned the individual features with more extensive familiarization. When learning exemplars with a common appearance, infants initially learned the individual features and apparently only formed a category with more extensive familiarization. The results are discussed in terms of models of category learning.