Search

The multidimensional structure of spatial ability remains a debated issue. However, the developmental trajectories of spatial skills have yet to be investigated as a source of evidence within this debate. We tested the intrinsic versus extrinsic and static versus dynamic dimensions of the Uttal et al. (2013, Psychol. Bull., 139, 352) typology in relation to spatial development. Participants (N = 184) aged 6-11 completed spatial tasks chosen to measure these spatial dimensions. The results indicated that the developmental trajectories of intrinsic versus extrinsic skills differed significantly. Intrinsic skills improved more between 6 and 8 years, and 7 and 8 years, than extrinsic skills. Extrinsic skills increased more between 8 and 10 years than intrinsic skills. The trajectories of static versus dynamic skills did not differ significantly. The findings support the intrinsic versus extrinsic, but not the static versus dynamic dimension, of the Uttal et al. (2013, Psychol. Bull., 139, 352) typology., (© 2021 The Authors. British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

The aim of the study was to examine whether cognitive skills are related to persistence. Thus, children's (N = 157, mean age: 5.9 years) persistent and non-persistent behaviours (i.e., cheating and off-task) were assessed in an unsolvable task. Additionally, we assessed children's executive functions and temperament. Analysis for persistence showed that cognitive inhibition and cognitive flexibility predicted children's persistent behaviour, beyond age and temperament. Analyses for non-persistent behaviours revealed that temperament and weak executive functions predicted cheating, while age predicted off-task behaviour. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? So far, persistence has been conceptualized as a temperamental sub-dimension of self-regulation. What does this study add? A child's persistence depends not only on temperament but also on cognitive inhibition and cognitive flexibility. There are qualitative differences between the two non-persistent behaviours cheating and off-task. While cheating is related to weaker cognitive skills, off-task behaviour seems mainly age-related., (© 2019 The British Psychological Society.)

We investigated the effects of two context variables, presentation format (icon arrays or numerical frequencies) and time limitation (limited or unlimited time), on the proportional reasoning abilities of children aged 7 and 10 years, as well as adults. Participants had to select, between two sets of tokens, the one that offered the highest likelihood of drawing a gold token, that is, the set of elements with the greater proportion of gold tokens. Results show that participants performed better in the unlimited time condition. Moreover, besides a general developmental improvement in accuracy, our results show that younger children performed better when proportions were presented as icon arrays, whereas older children and adults were similarly accurate in the two presentation format conditions. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? There is a developmental improvement in proportional reasoning accuracy. Icon arrays facilitate reasoning in adults with low numeracy. What does this study add? Participants were more accurate when they were given more time to make the proportional judgement. Younger children's proportional reasoning was more accurate when they were presented with icon arrays. Proportional reasoning abilities correlate with working memory, approximate number system, and subitizing skills., (© 2018 The British Psychological Society.)

Executive functions or cognitive self-regulatory control processes are critical for children's ability to successfully navigate their academic and social environment. In this study, we focused on the development of one critical executive function skill, that of inhibitory control. In a longitudinal study, we tested 96 children at 24, 30, 36, 50, and 60 months of age with age-appropriate measures of inhibition. We found evidence for the developmental stability of inhibitory abilities. Inhibitory control at 30 months of age was strongly related to inhibitory control at 60 months of age even when verbal IQ was partialled out. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Prior research has shown that executive functions play a key role in children's academic as well as social development. However, evidence on the stability of individual differences in executive functions, especially in preschool children, is sparse and contradictory. What the present study adds? The present work was designed to investigate the stability of one particular executive function, namely inhibitory control, over a relatively large period of time, from 24 to 60 months of age. The most important finding is a robust correlation between Reverse Categorization at 30 months and Simon Says at 60 months (r = .56). We argue that this further highlights the importance of early EF interventions due to a possible 'ripple effect'., (© 2017 The British Psychological Society.)

In developmental research, religiousness is typically measured with omnibus affiliation or attendance variables that underspecify how the religious cultural contexts and experiences that affiliation represents influence developmental outcomes. This study explores associations between five aspects of a religious cultural context (family religiosity, religious schooling, church-based relationships with peers and adults, and view of God) in 844 seven- to 12-year-old Christian children to examine how they differentially predict self-esteem. Results of a structural equation model (SEM) analysis indicated that God image and peer church relationships directly predicted self-esteem, whereas God image mediated the influence of adult church relationships and family religious practices on self-esteem. A multiple group SEM analysis met the criterion for weak, but not strong, evidence that self-esteem is more related to younger children's adult church relationships but older children's peer church relationships. God image tended to be more related to younger children's family religious practices but older children's adult church relationships. Implications for developmental researchers and practitioners are discussed. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Religious affiliation is an omnibus variable representing multiple contexts of development. Self-esteem is an important outcome variable with different influences across development. Religious affiliation is associated with increased self-esteem. What does this study add? Children's experience in the contexts of religious affiliation influences development differently. It is not just affiliation, but specific religious contexts that influence children's self-esteem. The role of religious contexts in shaping children's self-esteem shifts across development., (© 2016 The British Psychological Society.)

The Evaluative Space Model of emotions allows for the coactivation of positive-appetitive and negative-avoidant systems, but few studies have examined mixed emotions in child development. Existing research suggests children's understanding of opposite valence emotion combinations emerges by approximately 11 years of age. However, it is not yet clear whether various opposite valence combinations are understood at different ages, nor whether children can understand them in others before they have experienced such mixed emotions themselves. Semi-structured interviews with 97 children investigated whether they regarded six combinations of opposite valence mixed emotions as possible, could provide reasons for them, and report their own experience of each in the context of mother-child relationships. Both understanding that such combinations are possible and ability to provide reasons for them increased after age 6 and up to age 11, but were still incomplete in 12-year-olds. Understanding of different opposite valence combinations developed at different rates. At each age, fewer children who showed understanding of these combinations in others reported having had a similar experience themselves. The findings suggest a need to systematically examine a range of mixed emotions in order to develop a comprehensive theory of the development of mixed emotion understanding. They also suggest extending research into adolescence., (© 2015 The British Psychological Society.)

We explored the developmental course of goal prediction and imitation as two commonly used measures of action understanding. In particular, we investigated the relationships between the measures in two complex multistep actions (hammering and pulling action) in children between 12 and 30 months (n = 64) in a between-subjects design. The results showed that the prediction of an action goal was related to the imitation in the hammering action, but not in the pulling action. The results are discussed in the light of current theories on goal prediction and imitation., (© 2015 The British Psychological Society.)

Sensitivity to facial and vocal emotion is fundamental to children's social competence. Previous research has focused on children's facial emotion recognition, and few studies have investigated non-linguistic vocal emotion processing in childhood. We compared facial and vocal emotion recognition and processing biases in 4- to 11-year-olds and adults. Eighty-eight 4- to 11-year-olds and 21 adults participated. Participants viewed/listened to faces and voices (angry, happy, and sad) at three intensity levels (50%, 75%, and 100%). Non-linguistic tones were used. For each modality, participants completed an emotion identification task. Accuracy and bias for each emotion and modality were compared across 4- to 5-, 6- to 9- and 10- to 11-year-olds and adults. The results showed that children's emotion recognition improved with age; preschoolers were less accurate than other groups. Facial emotion recognition reached adult levels by 11 years, whereas vocal emotion recognition continued to develop in late childhood. Response bias decreased with age. For both modalities, sadness recognition was delayed across development relative to anger and happiness. The results demonstrate that developmental trajectories of emotion processing differ as a function of emotion type and stimulus modality. In addition, vocal emotion processing showed a more protracted developmental trajectory, compared to facial emotion processing. The results have important implications for programmes aiming to improve children's socio-emotional competence., (© 2014 The British Psychological Society.)

The assessment of psychomotor development in young children from low‐ and middle‐income countries is impeded due to the lack of tools specifically designed for these resource‐constrained contexts. This cross‐sectional study aimed at analysing the measurement properties of the Kilifi Developmental Inventory (KDI) in two‐year‐old children. We administered the KDI to 289 children from Côte d'Ivoire and 230 children from Ghana. The postulated internal structure with two first‐order latent variables (locomotor performance and eye‐hand coordination) that loaded on a second‐order latent variable (psychomotor functioning) was supported. The reliability of most factors and scales was sufficient. Interrater reliability of most items was acceptable. Correlations were weak between the scale scores and age and gender, respectively. The findings are limited by the restricted age range of the sample. Overall, the KDI showed promising measurement properties for the assessment of psychomotor performance in children from sub‐Saharan countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental research on Gestalt laws has previously revealed that, even as young as infancy, we are bound to group visual elements into unitary structures in accordance with a variety of organizational principles. Here, we focus on the developmental trajectory of both connection‐based and object‐based grouping, and investigate their impact on object formation in participants, aged 9–21 years old (N = 113), using a multiple‐object tracking paradigm. Results reveal a main effect of both age and grouping type, indicating that 9‐ to 21‐year‐olds are sensitive to both connection‐based and object‐based grouping interference, and tracking ability increases with age. In addition to its importance for typical development, these results provide an informative baseline to understand clinical aberrations in this regard. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? The origin of the Gestalt principles is still an ongoing debate: Are they innate, learned over time, or both? Developmental research has revealed how each Gestalt principle has its own trajectory and unique relationship to visual experience. Both connectedness and object‐based grouping play an important role in object formation during childhood. What does this study add? The study identifies how sensitivity to connectedness and object‐based grouping evolves in individuals, aged 9–21 years old. Using multiple‐object tracking, results reveal that the ability to track multiple objects increases with age. These results provide an informative baseline to understand clinical aberrations in different types of grouping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A measure of subjective social status ( SSS) was examined among high ( White), and low ( Black and Roma) ethnic status children in Portugal within a developmental design including 6-8-year-old and 9-12-year-old children. White children favoured their in-group over the Black and Roma out-groups on the SSS measure, social preferences and positive as well as negative trait attributions. Generally, the Black and Roma showed equal SSS, preferences and trait attribution for their in-group and the high status White out-group, but not the other low-status out-group. With age White children generally demonstrated higher SSS for Black and Roma, preferred them more and attributed more positive traits. For low-status groups, an age effect was found only for Black children who preferred the Roma more with age and attributed more positive traits. Changes on preferences and trait attribution depending on age-group were mediated by SSS. It is concluded that minority group's SSS does not parallel the objective status hierarchy but, rather, is a dynamic reorganisation of group's relative positions serving strategies to cope with their minority condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined 3- and 7-year-olds' performance on two types of episodic foresight tasks: A task that required 'cool' reasoning processes about the use of objects in future situations and a task that required 'hot' processes to inhibit a salient current physiological state in order to reason accurately about a future state. Results revealed that 7-year-olds outperformed 3-year-olds on the episodic foresight task that involved cool processes, but did not show age differences in performance on the task that involved hot processes. In fact, both 3- and 7-year-olds performed equally poorly on the task that required predicting a future physiological state that was in conflict with their current state. Further, performance on the two tasks was unrelated. We discuss the results in terms of differing developmental trajectories for episodic foresight tasks that differentially rely on hot and cool processes and the universal difficulties humans have with predicting later outcomes that conflict with current motivational states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]