Children's Understanding of Logical Inconsistency

Five experiments involving 245 participants examined children's understanding of logical consistency. For instance, a character said that a man was both tall and very short. Only by 6 years of age did children show any understanding of logical inconsistency. This occurred despite: (1) good memory for the characters' claims; (2) the use of three different question forms including whether a person had made sense, said something silly, or whether both things a person said could be right; (3) the ability to identify other types of statements (e.g., factual inconsistencies) as not making sense; (4) the ability to compare and contrast the characters' claims in other ways; and (5) attempts to deepen children's processing of the claims by asking them to draw what each character said. Similar to false belief understanding, there was a monotonic relation between the number of older siblings a child had and logical consistency understanding on one of the tasks. It is argued that children may fail the different consistency tasks because of both logical factors (e.g., insufficient insight into logical necessity) and nonlogical factors tied to their social knowledge or insight into representation.     

Portraying intelligence: children’s drawings of intelligent men and women in Finnish and Russian Karelia

This study sets out to examine Finnish and Russian children’s representations of intellectual competence as contextualised in the hierarchies of abilities, age and gender. Finnish and Russian pupils, aged 11–12?years, were asked to draw pictures of an intelligent person and an ordinary person. It was found that gender appearance of intelligent men and women was less heterosexual than that of ordinary men and women. In Russian pictures, the intelligent characters, especially women, were widely separated from the ordinary ones in terms of cognitive-mental features. In Finnish depictions, the differentiation between the intelligent and ordinary characters, especially women, was not so categorical and was primarily based on status. It appears that Russian children are apt to relate their representations of intellectual ability to the institutionalised systems of cognitive competence, education and science, whereas Finnish children associate intelligence to social success as well. Further, cultural and gender-related hierarchies of age seemed to reflect in the children’s images.     

Pre‐schoolers’ feature placement on own and others’ person drawings

Young children find meaning in the drawings they create that may not be apparent to an adult observer. The purpose of this study is to access the children’s views using a drawing change task. Seventy‐three pre‐schoolers were asked to draw a person and then draw a person with a belly button. It was anticipated that tadpole (no separate body) drawers would include a body to accommodate this new feature. Instead belly buttons were included without modifications to the figure suggesting that in the children’s view tadpole figures are not as deficient as they might appear. When placing a belly button on a figure drawn by someone else 40% of tadpole drawers responded differently compared to their own. Possible explanations considered are the effect of active involvement in creating a drawing, the respect for another’s drawing intention, and lack of awareness of differences due to working memory limitations.     

The Air‐gap Phenomenon in Young Children's Pictures

In Experiment 1, 221 children aged 5;l‐10;2 were asked to crayon or paint an outdoor scene. The shift from leaving an air‐gap to filling in the sky occurred at approximately 8 years of age whether crayons or paint were used. In Experiment 2 four groups of children (mean age, 6;8) who normally left an air‐gap were asked to draw a photographic slide of an outdoor scene projected onto a screen. We manipulated the amount of exposure to the slide and also the information about it given by the experimenter. More children relinquished their air‐gap response when the experimenter had drawn their attention, verbally, to the full sky. When children received this information and were able to view the slide throughout the drawing session, there was also a tendency for more of them to draw the full sky and for those who left an air‐gap to draw the sky significantly deeper.     

Children's integration of facial and situational cues to emotion

Children at 4 age levels (3-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12 years) were shown a series of pictures in which facial and situational cues were (a) congruent, (b) conflicting, or (c) presented alone. Children rated the type (happy or sad) and intensity of the emotion felt by each character. Developmental changes in the relative weights assigned to facial and situational cues were examined using Anderson's information integration approach. The results showed that children's reliance on situational cues increased with age, but their reliance on facial expression decreased with age. Analysis of individual children's ratings indicated a developmental increase in the tendency to integrate facial and situational cues. Children's ability to resolve the conflicting cues (through stories) also increased with age, but there were no age differences in the types of resolutions used. At all age levels, children were less likely to resolve pictures involving an inconsistent positive expression than pictures showing an inconsistent negative expression.     

“What sort of person ought I to be?” – Repositioning EPs in light of the Children and Families Bill (2013)

The changes brought by the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) code of practice: 0 to 25 years, 2014, is an opportunity for educational psychologists (EPs) to reposition ourselves so that we can improve our contribution to the services for children and young people with special educational needs (SENs) or a disability. Underpinning such a repositioning is a reaffirmation of our core moral principles of promoting autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and social justice. Taking up a new position is difficult. However one way of thinking about it is reminding ourselves of our values. Values underpin our morality and interact with a person’s character (virtue). Socrates’ famous rhetorical questions remains unanswered for EPs “what sort of person ought I to be?” The purposes of this article is to draw attention to the moral principles that could underpin our work with the new code and lead us to build our practice around advocacy, practice based evidence and a social model of disability     

Young children's use of video as a source of socially relevant information

Although prior research clearly shows that toddlers have difficulty learning from video, the basis for their difficulty is unknown. In the 2 current experiments, the effect of social feedback on 2-year-olds' use of information from video was assessed. Children who were told "face to face" where to find a hidden toy typically found it, but children who were given the same information by a person on video did not. Children who engaged in a 5-min contingent interaction with a person (including social cues and personal references) through closed-circuit video before the hiding task used information provided to find the toy. These findings have important implications for educational television and use of video stimuli in laboratory-based research with young children.     

What really matters in the early literacy development of deaf children

With much earlier identification of hearing loss come expectations that increasing numbers of deaf children will develop literacy abilities comparable to their hearing age peers. To date, despite claims in the literature for parallel development between hearing and deaf learners with respect to early literacy learning, it remains the case that many deaf children do not go on to develop age-appropriate reading and writing abilities. Using written language examples from both deaf and hearing children and drawing on the developmental models of E. Ferreiro (1990) and D. Olson (1994), the discussion focuses on the ways in which deaf children draw apart from hearing children in the third stage of early literacy development, in the critical move from emergent to conventional literacy. Reasons for, and the significance of, this deviation are explored, with an eye to proposing implications for pedagogy and research, as we reconsider what really matters in the early literacy development of deaf children.     

Children's Understanding of the Stream of Consciousness

Children and adults were tested for their understanding that there is a virtually continuous flow of mental content in a waking person, a "stream of consciousness" that continues to run even when the person is not examining stimuli perceptually or trying to solve a problem. There was a marked increase with age from preschool to adulthood in subjects' tendency to say that a person who was just waiting quietly was having "some thoughts and ideas" rather than "a mind empty of thoughts and ideas." 4-year-olds also tended to say that the mind of a waiting person was "not doing anything," whether that person was another individual or themselves, and that a person who wanted to could keep his or her "mind completely empty of all thoughts and ideas" for 3 min. These results suggest that preschoolers' conceptions of people's mental lives may be quite different from those of older children and adults.     

Metamemory in children with autism

Five experiments are reported comparing metamemory abilities in children with autism, age- and language-matched mentally retarded children, and language-matched young normal controls. The mean language age of the participants in Experiment 1 was approximately 6 years, in Experiments 2, 3, and 4 approximately 8 years, and in Experiment 5 approximately 9 years. All the children were given one or more false belief tests. Experiment 1 assessed the children's understanding that a task variable (list length) and a person variable (age) will affect their own and others' performances on an immediate auditory-verbal recall task. Experiment 2 assessed the ability to utilize category cues in a picture recall task. Experiments 3 and 4 assessed the ability to verbalize strategies used in a memory span test and in one retrospective and two prospective memory situations. Experiment 5 assessed the children's knowledge and understanding of another person's memory. On the basis of available evidence and theory, we predicted that the children with autism would be impaired on all the metamemory tasks and that impairment would be associated with failure on tests of false belief. Our predictions were not supported. The children with autism were not impaired on any of the metamemory tasks, although they were less likely than controls to make spontaneous use of memory strategies involving other people. Unexpectedly few of the children failed the false belief tasks. These results are discussed in relation to theories concerning primary psychological deficits underlying autism.     

Epistemic states and traits: preschoolers appreciate the differential informativeness of situation-specific and person-specific cues to knowledge

Previous research has demonstrated that preschoolers can use situation-specific (e.g., visual access) and person-specific (e.g., prior accuracy) cues to infer what others know. The present studies investigated whether 4- and 5-year-olds appreciate the differential informativeness of these types of cues. In Experiment 1 (N = 50), children used others' prior labeling accuracy as a cue when learning labels for, but not the visual identity of, hidden objects. In Experiment 2 (N = 64), with both cues present, children attended more to visual access than prior accuracy when learning the visual identity of, but not labels for, hidden objects. These findings demonstrate that children appreciate the difference between situation- and person-specific cues and flexibly evaluate these cues depending on what information they are seeking.     

The effect of deservingness in invidious situations on the intensity of schadenfreude: a developmental study / El efecto del merecimiento sobre la intensidad de schadenfreude en situaciones de envidia: un estudio evolutivo

Objectives: envy is a negative social emotion that stems from a social comparison. This study explores the effect of deservingness on the intensity of schadenfreude (pleasure in another’s misfortune) in situations of invidious comparison. Method: the participants, 181 children between the ages of three and 10, were asked to describe what an envious character felt when the character (s/he) envied had lost an (deserved or undeserved) advantage. They were also asked to explain their answers. Results: the findings showed that schadenfreude was more intense when the lost advantage was undeserved than deserved only in young children. The difference between conditions decreased with age. The children’s explanations of schadenfreude were based on the damage to the envied person, whereas the responses of pity were justified by the misfortune and equitable ending (no one wins) of the story. Conclusions: the discussion addresses some of the possible factors, such as the acquisition of display rules, deservingness and perception of equality, that contribute to children’s understanding of emotions such as envy and schadenfreude.     

The impact of video modelling on improving social skills in children with autism

Children with autism often show a lack of the interactive social skills that would allow them to engage with others successfully. They therefore frequently need training to aid them in successful social interaction. Video modelling is a widely used instructional technique that has been applied to teach children with developmental disabilities such as autism, and has been shown to be effective in teaching a variety of skills. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of video modelling on social skills development in children with autism living in the United Arab Emirates. The research was carried out by Mohammed Alzyoudi, AbedAlziz Sartawi and Osha Almuhiri, all from the United Arab Emirates University. A sample of five boys with autism was chosen to participate in this study. The boys ranged in age between five and seven years. Each child was asked to watch a videotape which presented two individuals interacting in a role‐play setting. One person portrayed a therapist giving cues, while the second portrayed a child acting appropriately and demonstrating correct social behaviours. The boys were then asked to complete a social task and their performance was compared against baseline assessment measures. The results of this study indicate that this is an effective instruction method. Results are discussed and implications for further research and practice are provided.     

To be or to have: what types of objects comprise invidious comparison? / Ser o tener: ¿qué se comprende antes en la comparación envidiosa?

Envy is a negative and self-conscious emotion that emerges from social comparison. Children compare their possessions and skills with others to construct the Self. The aim of this study is to explore what type of objects — tangible and intangible — are more salient in invidious comparison in order to evaluate the intensity of envy and differences found according to age. Participants included children between the ages of three and nine years (N = 236), who were asked to score how an envious character in a story felt upon witnessing the misfortune of the envied person. In one case, the envied object was tangible (i.e., a scooter), in the other, it was intangible (i.e., being chosen due to possessing greater skill). The results indicated that envy is more intense for all of the age groups in the situations related to possessing greater skill rather than those related to possessing material objects. The younger children (3–6 years) showed more intense malicious envy than the older children. We then discuss the results regarding the role of intangible and tangible possessions in invidious comparison during childhood development.     

Young children's perceptionsof scientists: a preliminary study

Background

Since the 1950s, there has been a growing body of research dealing with perceptions children have of scientists. Typically, research studies in this area have utilized children's drawings in an effort to discern what those perceptions are. Studies assessing perceptions children have of scientists have shown that children have stereotypical images of scientists. Although there is no direct evidence to demonstrate the link between children's images of science and scientists with their career choice, several researchers (including this researcher) have assumed that children's attitudes towards science are greatly influenced by their perceptions of science and scientists.

Purpose

This study aimed to find out if there was a difference in the way 5- to 8-year-old children drew scientists, taking account of age, gender and socio-economic status.

Sample

For this study a convenience sample of 30 young children was used. Participants included young children between the ages of 5 and 8 years from a public elementary school in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. Although the sample of the study was obtained from one school in a metropolitan area, children involved in this preliminary study were from very different socio-economic backgrounds. As the sample size is very small for making comparisons, it was intended to have a similar number of children from different age groups and socio-economic backgrounds and both genders.

Design and methods

The researcher worked individually with each child who participated in this study in an interview setting. Although each child was asked a set of standard questions, and given a standard set of directions, each interview session was informal enough to allow the researcher to gain additional information about children's drawings and to clarify any of their responses. During the interview sessions, children's responses were noted by the researcher. Before the children were asked to draw their picture of a scientist, they were offered a set of coloured pencils or crayons and told to feel free to colour their drawing or any parts of it they would like to accentuate. At the end of the interview and drawing sessions, the researcher went through all the drawings and notes to get a ‘feel’ for and ascertain what was being said, identifying key themes in each drawing.

Results

The most common scientist type drawn in this study was the stereotypical scientist type: someone who conducts research, or someone who tries to invent a new material. But unlike previous studies, around 35% of the scientist figures drawn (n = 15) were of the social scientist type. Stereotypical images drawn by the current study participants included symbols of research, such as scientific instruments and laboratory equipment of all kinds, and symbols of knowledge, principally books and cabinets, technology and the products of science. An interesting finding of this study was that perceptions of young children differed due to their age. Children at the age of 8 years drew non-stereotypical scientist images, and they drew more detail than did their younger peers. When children were compared in terms of their gender, no significant differences were observed between girls and boys. But on the other hand, none of the boys drew female scientists, and five out of 30 children who were girls drew female scientists. While children of parents with lower socio-economic status drew more stereotypical scientist images, children of parents with higher economic status drew different images of scientists, a result which showed us that the scientist perceptions of young children differ with socio-economic status.

Conclusions

Emergent from this research has been a non-stereotypical perception of scientists, and some evidence exists that such a non-stereotypical perception differs due to age and socio-economic status. While these images may seem amusing, they also provide a reflection of the image that children have about what a scientist looks like. These images may have a powerful impact on present functioning and future plans of young children.     

Do the effects of early severe deprivation on cognition persist into early adolescence? Findings from the English and Romanian adoptees study

Cognitive outcomes at age 11 of 131 Romanian adoptees from institutions were compared with 50 U.K. adopted children. Key findings were of both continuity and change: (1) marked adverse effects persisted at age 11 for many of the children who were over 6 months on arrival; (2) there was some catch-up between ages 6 and 11 for the bottom 15%; (3) there was a decrease of 15 points for those over 6 months on arrival, but no differentiation within the 6-42-month range; (4) there was marked heterogeneity of outcome but this was not associated with the educational background of the adoptive families. The findings draw attention to the psychological as well as physical risks of institutional deprivation.     

Confusions between memories for performed and imagined actions: a developmental comparison

Children are often assumed to be more confused than adults are about the origin of self-generated memories (e.g., what they did or thought). The present experiments showed evidence in support of this assumption but only under some circumstances. In Experiment 1, 6- and 9-year-olds were as good as adults in distinguishing what they did from what they saw someone else do. However, children had particular trouble distinguishing what they did from what they imagined doing. Confusion between performed and imagined actions was evident across a range of actions. Clustering data also showed that information about origin is part of the memory for an event; all subjects recalled actions according to who performed what action (Experiment 1). Further, the presence of person categories as a basis for organization reduced clustering based on action class more for children than for adults (Experiment 1 vs. 2). Collectively, these findings indicate that children become sensitive to some distinctions in memories sooner than they do to others.     

Children with autism illuminate the role of social intention in word learning

To what extent do children with autism (AD) versus typically developing children (TD) rely on attentional and intentional cues to learn words? Four experiments compared 17 AD children (M age=5.08 years) with 17 language- and 17 mental-age-matched TD children (M ages=2.57 and 3.12 years, respectively) on nonverbal enactment and word-learning tasks. Results revealed variability in all groups, but particularly within the AD group. Performance on intention tasks was the most powerful predictor of vocabulary in the AD group but not in the TD groups. These findings suggest that word learning cannot be explained exclusively by either attentional or intentional processes, and they provide evidence of a special role for intentional understanding in the vocabulary development of AD children.