Knowledge Alert - JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

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Kevin McGrew
Educational Psychologist
Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics
Web: www.themindhub.com
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Journal Name: JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY (ISSN: 0022-0965)
Issue: Vol. 115 No. 3, 2013
IDS#: 168XE
Alert Expires: 10 JAN 2014
Number of Articles in Issue: 16 (16 included in this e-mail)
Organization ID: c4f3d919329a46768459d3e35b8102e6
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*Pages: 389-404 (Article)
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Title:
Anger and selective attention to reward and punishment in children

Authors:
He, J; Jin, XY; Zhang, M; Huang, X; Shui, RD; Shen, MW

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):389-404; JUL 2013

Abstract:
Anger is a negative emotion associated with approach motivation and may
influence children's attention preference. Three experiments examined
the effect of anger on the attentional biases accompanying reward versus
punishment cues in Chinese 5- and 6-year-olds. Experiment I tested
children who were prone to report angry feelings in an unfair game.
Experiment 2 measured children who were rated by parents and teachers
for temperamental anger. Experiment 3 explored children who reported
angry feelings in a frustrating attention task with rigged and
noncontingent feedback after controlling for temperament anger. Results
suggested that both the angry and anger-prone children were faster to
engage attention toward the reward cues than toward the punishment cues
in the three experiments. Furthermore, the angry children in the
frustrating attention task (and those with poor attention focusing by
parental report) were slower in disengaging attention away from the
reward versus punishment cues (especially after negative feedback).
Results support the approach motivation of anger, which can facilitate
children's attention toward the appetitive approach-related information.
The findings are discussed in terms of the adaptive and maladaptive
function of anger. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 405-421 (Article)
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Title:
Early number knowledge and cognitive ability affect early arithmetic ability

Authors:
Ostergren, R; Traff, U

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):405-421; JUL 2013

Abstract:
Previous literature suggests that early number knowledge is important
for the development of arithmetic calculation ability. The
domain-general ability of verbal working memory also has an impact on
arithmetic ability. This longitudinal study tested the impact of early
number knowledge and verbal working memory on the arithmetic calculation
ability of children in preschool (N = 315) and then later in Grade 1
using structural equation modeling. Three models were used to test
hypotheses drawn from previous literature. The current study
demonstrates that both early number knowledge and the domain-general
ability of verbal working memory affect preschool and Grade 1 arithmetic
ability. Early number knowledge had a direct impact on the growth of
arithmetic ability, whereas verbal working memory had only an indirect
effect via number knowledge and preschool arithmetic ability. These
results fit well with von Aster and Shalev's developmental model of
numerical cognition (Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 2007,
Vol. 49, pp. 868-873) and highlight the importance of considering
arithmetic ability as independent from early number knowledge. Results
also emphasize the importance of training early number knowledge before
school entry to promote the development of arithmetic ability. (C) 2013
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 422-435 (Article)
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Title:
Working memory and social functioning in children

Authors:
McQuade, JD; Murray-Close, D; Shoulberg, EK; Hoza, B

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):422-435; JUL 2013

Abstract:
This study extends previous research and examines whether working memory
(WM) is associated with multiple measures of concurrent social
functioning (peer rejection, overall social competence, relational
aggression, physical aggression, and conflict resolutions skills) in
typically developing fourth- and fifth-grade children (N = 116). Poor
central executive WM was associated with both broad social impairments
(peer rejection and poor overall social competence) and specific social
impairments (physical aggression, relational aggression, and impaired
conflict resolution skills); poor verbal storage was associated only
with greater peer rejection, and spatial storage was not associated with
any measures of social impairment. Analyses also examined whether
specific impairments in aggressive behavior and conflict resolution
skills mediated the association between central executive and broad
measures of social functioning. Greater physical aggression and impaired
conflict resolution skills were both significant mediators; relational
aggression was not. Implications for theory and future research are
discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 436-452 (Article)
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Title:
How to bet on a memory: Developmental linkages between subjective recollection and decision making

Authors:
Hembacher, E; Ghetti, S

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):436-452; JUL 2013

Abstract:
The current study investigated the development of subjective
recollection and its role in supporting decisions in 6- and 7-year-olds,
9- and 10-year-olds, and adults (N=78). Participants encoded items and
details about them. Later, they were asked to recognize the items,
recall the details, and report on subjective feelings of recollection
and familiarity for test items. Critically, they were required to select
a subset of trials to be evaluated for the possibility of a reward. All
age groups were more likely to report subjective recollection when they
accurately recalled details, demonstrating an ability to introspect on
subtle differences in subjective memory states, although 6- and
7-year-olds could do so reliably only for color details. However, only
9- and 10-year-olds and adults were more likely to select trials that
were associated with subjective recollection, suggesting that a
connection between this subjective experience and decision making
emerges later during middle childhood. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights
reserved.

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*Pages: 453-467 (Article)
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Title:
The genetic and environmental etiologies of individual differences in early reading growth in Australia, the United States, and Scandinavia

Authors:
Christopher, ME; Hulslander, J; Byrne, B; Samuelsson, S; Keenan, JM;
Pennington, B; DeFries, JC; Wadsworth, SJ; Willcutt, E; Olson, RK

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):453-467; JUL 2013

Abstract:
This first cross-country twin study of individual differences in reading
growth from post-kindergarten to post-second grade analyzed data from
487 twin pairs from the United States, 267 twin pairs from Australia,
and 280 twin pairs from Scandinavia. Data from two reading measures were
fit to biometric latent growth models. Individual differences for the
reading measures at post-kindergarten in the United States and Australia
were due primarily to genetic influences and to both genetic and shared
environmental influences in Scandinavia. In contrast, individual
differences in growth generally had large genetic influences in all
countries. These results suggest that genetic influences are largely
responsible for individual differences in early reading development. In
addition, the timing of the start of formal literacy instruction may
affect the etiology of individual differences in early reading
development but have only limited influence on the etiology of
individual differences in growth. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights
reserved.

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*Pages: 468-480 (Article)
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Title:
Plane thinking: Mental representations in number line estimation as a function of orientation, scale, and counting proficiency

Authors:
Simms, V; Muldoon, K; Towse, J

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):468-480; JUL 2013

Abstract:
Young children typically show strong biases when estimating the
placement of numbers on or along a scale. Number line estimation changes
in accuracy and linearity across development. However, existing research
is almost entirely based on a horizontal number line, which presupposes
that numbers are scaled on a horizontal plane only. We present data that
broaden our understanding of number line estimation by also including
vertically oriented scales. This study presented 4- to 7-year-olds with
the number line estimation task presented in both horizontal and
vertical orientations and on different scales. Our results suggest that
children store numbers as accurately in the vertical plane as in the
horizontal plane, although some developmental changes are observed. Our
results highlight how even simple experimental manipulations can reveal
the complexities of internal representations of number. (C) 2013
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 481-496 (Article)
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Title:
Is rapid automatized naming related to reading and mathematics for the same reason(s)? A follow-up study from kindergarten to Grade 1

Authors:
Georgiou, GK; Tziraki, N; Manolitsis, G; Fella, A

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):481-496; JUL 2013

Abstract:
We examined (a) what rapid automatized naming (RAN) components
(articulation time and/or pause time) predict reading and mathematics
ability and (b) what processing skills involved in RAN (speed of
processing, response inhibition, working memory, and/or phonological
awareness) may explain its relationship with reading and mathematics. A
sample of 72 children were followed from the beginning of kindergarten
until the end of Grade 1 and were assessed on measures of RAN, general
cognitive ability, speed of processing, attention, working memory,
phonological awareness, reading, and mathematics. The results indicated
that pause time was the critical component in both the RAN-reading and
RAN-mathematics relationships and that it shared most of its predictive
variance in reading and mathematics with speed of processing and working
memory. Our findings further suggested that, unlike the relationship
between RAN and reading fluency in Grade 1, there is nothing in the RAN
task that is uniquely related to math. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights
reserved.

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*Pages: 497-516 (Article)
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Title:
Longitudinal stability and predictors of poor oral comprehenders and poor decoders

Authors:
Elwer, A; Keenan, JM; Olson, RK; Byrne, B; Samuelsson, S

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):497-516; JUL 2013

Abstract:
Two groups of fourth-grade children were selected from a population
sample (N=926) to be either poor oral comprehenders (poor oral
comprehension but normal word decoding) or poor decoders (poor decoding
but normal oral comprehension). By examining both groups in the same
study with varied cognitive and literacy predictors, and examining them
both retrospectively and prospectively, we could assess how distinctive
and stable the predictors of each deficit are. Predictors were assessed
retrospectively at preschool and at the end of kindergarten, Grade 1,
and Grade 2. Group effects were significant at all test occasions,
including those for preschool vocabulary (worse in poor oral
comprehenders) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) (worse in poor
decoders). Preschool RAN and vocabulary prospectively predicted Grade 4
group membership (77-79% correct classification) within the selected
samples. Reselection in preschool of "at-risk" poor decoder and poor
oral comprehender subgroups based on these variables led to significant
but relatively weak prediction of subtype membership at Grade 4.
Implications of the predictive stability of our results for
identification and intervention of these important subgroups are
discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 517-535 (Article)
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Title:
Make your own kinds of cues: When children make more accurate inferences than adults

Authors:
Ruggeri, A; Katsikopoulos, KV

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):517-535; JUL 2013

Abstract:
In everyday decision making, we do not always have the luxury of using
certain knowledge but often need to rely on cues, that is, pieces of
information that can aid reasoning. We ask whether and under what
circumstances children can focus on informative cues and make accurate
inferences in real-world problems. We tested second-, third-, and
fifth-grade children and young adults on two problems: which of two real
cars is more expensive and which of two real cities has more
inhabitants. We manipulated whether cues were given to the participants
or the participants needed to generate their own cues. The main result
was that when generating their own cues, younger children matched older
children and young adults in accuracy or even outperformed them. On the
other hand, when cues were given, children were less accurate than young
adults. A possible explanation for this result is that children, on
their own, tend to generate "perceptual" cues (e.g., "Which car is
longer?") that are informative in the problems we studied. However,
children are not able to recognize the most informative cues in a set
that is given to them because they are not familiar with all cues (e.g.,
non-perceptual cues such as which car has more horsepower). (C) 2012
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 536-551 (Article)
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Title:
Beyond words: Comprehension and production of pragmatic prosody in adults and children

Authors:
Hupp, JM; Jungers, MK

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):536-551; JUL 2013

Abstract:
Prosody includes suprasegmental components of speech, such as intonation
and rate, which add meaning beyond the words being spoken. Sensitivity
to pragmatic prosody could improve communication within conversations.
These studies investigated adults' and preschoolers' sensitivity to
pragmatic prosody. Experiment 1 demonstrated that adults and children
comprehend pragmatic prosody; they selected fast actions when
descriptions were spoken fast versus when descriptions were spoken
slowly. Experiment 2 demonstrated that adults and children spontaneously
produce pragmatic prosody their descriptions of fast actions were faster
than their descriptions of slow actions even when it was not necessary
for the task. These studies conclude that children, like adults, are
capable of using and producing pragmatic prosody; however, children are
less sensitive than adults to subtle prosodic distinctions. (C) 2013
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 552-561 (Article)
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Title:
Individual differences in preschoolers' emotion content memory: The role of emotion knowledge

Authors:
Channell, MM; Barth, JM

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):552-561; JUL 2013

Abstract:
This study examined the relation between preschool children's emotion
knowledge and their ability to recall emotionally salient information.
In total, 42 participants (ages 35-65 months) viewed a brief video in
which a child played with different toys and expressed one of four basic
emotions (happy, sad, angry, or afraid) or a neutral expression in each
of 10 vignettes. Children were tested on memory accuracy from the
vignettes, and their emotion knowledge was also measured. Results
indicated that preschoolers' emotion knowledge was significantly related
to memory accuracy for emotion information above and beyond the effect
of age or receptive language skills. Tests of a mediation model revealed
that emotion knowledge fully mediated the effect of age (or general
developmental level) on memory accuracy. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.

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*Pages: 562-569 (Article)
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Title:
Blocking in children's causal learning depends on working memory and reasoning abilities

Authors:
McCormack, T; Simms, V; McGourty, J; Beckers, T

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):562-569; JUL 2013

Abstract:
A sample of 99 children completed a causal learning task that was an
analogue of the food allergy paradigm used with adults. The cue
competition effects of blocking and unovershadowing were assessed under
forward and backward presentation conditions. Children also answered
questions probing their ability to make the inference posited to be
necessary for blocking by a reasoning account of cue competition. For
the first time, children's working memory and general verbal ability
were also measured alongside their causal learning. The magnitude of
blocking and unovershadowing effects increased with age. However,
analyses showed that the best predictor of both blocking and
unovershadowing effects was children's performance on the reasoning
questions. The magnitude of the blocking effect was also predicted by
children's working memory abilities. These findings provide new evidence
that cue competition effects such as blocking are underpinned by
effortful reasoning processes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights
reserved.

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*Pages: 570-578 (Article)
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Title:
Young children selectively seek help when solving problems

Authors:
Cluver, A; Heyman, G; Carver, LJ

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):570-578; JUL 2013

Abstract:
There is strong evidence that children show selectivity in their
reliance on others as sources of information, but the findings to date
have largely been limited to contexts that involve factual information.
The current experiments were designed to determine whether children
might also show selectivity in their choice of sources within a
problem-solving context. Children in two age groups (20-24 months and
30-36 months, total N = 60) were presented with a series of conceptually
difficult problem-solving tasks and were given an opportunity to
interact with adult experimenters who were depicted as either good
helpers or bad helpers. Participants in both age groups preferred to
seek help from the good helpers. The findings suggest that even young
children evaluate others with reference to their potential to provide
help and use this information to guide their behavioral choices. (C)
2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 579-589 (Article)
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Title:
Parafoveal processing efficiency in rapid automatized naming: A comparison between Chinese normal and dyslexic children

Authors:
Yan, M; Pan, JG; Laubrock, J; Kliegl, R; Shu, H

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):579-589; JUL 2013

Abstract:
Dyslexic children are known to be slower than normal readers in rapid
automatized naming (RAN). This suggests that dyslexics encounter local
processing difficulties, which presumably induce a narrower perceptual
span. Consequently, dyslexics should suffer less than normal readers
from removing parafoveal preview. Here we used a gaze-contingent moving
window paradigm in a RAN task to experimentally test this prediction.
Results indicate that dyslexics extract less parafoveal information than
control children. We propose that more attentional resources are
recruited to the foveal processing because of dyslexics' less
automatized translation of visual symbols into phonological output,
thereby causing a reduction of the perceptual span. This in turn leads
to less efficient preactivation of parafoveal information and, hence,
more difficulty in processing the next foveal item. (C) 2013 Elsevier
Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 590-597 (Article)
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Title:
Children and adults use attractiveness as a social cue in real people and avatars

Authors:
Principe, CP; Langlois, JH

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):590-597; JUL 2013

Abstract:
Observing social interactions between children and adults is a major
method in the toolkit of psychologists who examine social development
and social relationships. Although this method has revealed many
interesting phenomena, it cannot determine the effect of behavior
independent of other traits. Research on the role of attractiveness in
social development provides an example of this conundrum: Are attractive
and unattractive children/adults treated differently because of their
attractiveness (independent of their behavior), do they behave
differently and thus elicit differential treatment, or both? Virtual
world and avatar-based technologies allow researchers to control the
social behaviors of targets; however, whether children and adults use
the facial attractiveness of avatars as a social cue in the same way as
they do with real peers is currently unknown. Using Mii avatars from the
popular Nintendo Wii video game console, Study 1 found that the facial
attractiveness ratings of real people strongly predicted the
attractiveness ratings of avatar faces based on the former group. Study
2 revealed that adults (n = 46) and children (n = 42) prefer attractive
avatars as social partners. The results of this set of methodological
studies may help to clarify future research on the relationship between
attractiveness and behavior throughout the lifespan. Furthermore, the
use of avatars may allow studies to experimentally examine the effects
of attractiveness in situations where such research is not ethical
(e.g., peer victimization). (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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*Pages: 598-606 (Article)
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Title:
Eye contrast polarity is critical for face recognition by infants

Authors:
Otsuka, Y; Motoyoshi, I; Hill, HC; Kobayashi, M; Kanazawa, S; Yamaguchi,
MK

Source:
*JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY*, 115 (3):598-606; JUL 2013

Abstract:
Just as faces share the same basic arrangement of features, with two
eyes above a nose above a mouth, human eyes all share the same basic
contrast polarity relations, with a sclera lighter than an iris and a
pupil, and this is unique among primates. The current study examined
whether this bright dark relationship of sclera to iris plays a critical
role in face recognition from early in development. Specifically, we
tested face discrimination in 7- and 8-month-old infants while
independently manipulating the contrast polarity of the eye region and
of the rest of the face. This gave four face contrast polarity
conditions: fully positive condition, fully negative condition, positive
face with negated eyes ("negative eyes") condition, and negated face
with positive eyes ("positive eyes") condition. In a familiarization and
novelty preference procedure, we found that 7- and 8-month-olds could
discriminate between faces only when the contrast polarity of the eyes
was preserved (positive) and that this did not depend on the contrast
polarity of the rest of the face. This demonstrates the critical role of
eye contrast polarity for face recognition in 7- and 8-month-olds and is
consistent with previous findings for adults. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.

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