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Co-authored by film education practitioners and developmental psychologists, this article seeks to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue between the emergent discourses of film education and developmental psychology. In particular, it explores the possible implications for our understandings of film education of recent psychological research into: (1) the cognitive and social consequences for young people of developing a sense of self; and (2) understandings of children's development of visual cognition. Seeking areas of commonality and mutual resonance between different disciplinary vocabularies and methodologies, ultimately we present a series of proposals for how film education may benefit from further interface with developmental psychology.

ABSTRACT Cross‐sectional research employing the mirror mark test of self‐recognition has dominated research focused on the development of self‐reflection in children. However, the mirror mark test may fail to capture the complexity of self as a social object, and the developmental antecedents and consequences of self‐reflection remain largely uncharted. Here, we provide an overview of the extant longitudinal data on mirror self‐recognition and present our own longitudinal findings based on a multidimensional parent‐report measure of children's self‐development. Offering a snapshot of development over 3 months for 74 children aged between 14 and 36 months, and mirroring extant longitudinal data for mirror self‐recognition, our results suggest that increases in self‐reflection are longitudinally related to developments in pretend play, prosocial behaviour, imitation and declarative pointing. However, although baseline self‐reflection was statistically predictive of children's prosocial behaviour at follow‐up, no strong developmental predictor of self‐reflection emerged. We conclude that more longitudinal research, moving beyond or supplementing mirror self‐recognition, is needed to identify the cognitive and social precursors of self‐reflection. Nevertheless, growth in ‘moral’ behaviour emerges as a significant developmental consequence of this capacity in a western sample. Further research is needed to explore cultural variability in developmental pathways to and from self‐reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests whether developments in self‐knowledge and autobiographical memory across early to late childhood are related. Self‐descriptions and autobiographical memory reports were collected from 379 three‐ to eleven‐year‐old predominantly white Scottish children, Mage = 90.3 months, SD = 31.1, 54% female. Episodic memory was measured in an enactment task involving recall and source monitoring of performed and witnessed actions. The volume and complexity of self‐knowledge and autobiographical memory reports increased with age, as did source monitoring ability and recall bias for own actions. Regression analyses and structural equation modeling confirmed a close association between these developments. These results inform our theoretical understanding of the development of the self‐memory system in childhood, which may contribute to the gradual offset of childhood amnesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural comparisons suggest that an understanding of other minds may develop sooner in independent versus interdependent settings, and vice versa for inhibitory control. From a western lens, this pattern might be considered paradoxical, since there is a robust positive relationship between theory of mind (ToM) and inhibitory control in western samples. In independent cultures, an emphasis on one's own mind offers a clear route to 'simulate' other minds, and inhibitory control may be required to set aside one's own perspective to represent the perspective of others. However, in interdependent cultures, social norms are considered the key catalyst for behaviour, and metacognitive reflection and/or suppression of one's own perspective may not be necessary. The cross‐cultural generalizability of the western developmental route to ToM is therefore questionable. The current study used an age‐matched cross‐sectional sample to contrast 56 Japanese and 56 Scottish 3–6‐year‐old's metacognition, ToM and inhibitory control skills. We replicated the expected cultural patterns for ToM (Scotland > Japan) and inhibitory control (Japan > Scotland). Supporting western developmental enrichment theories, we find that inhibitory control and metacognition predict theory of mind competence in Scotland. However, these variables cannot be used to predict Japanese ToM. This confirms that individualistic mechanisms do not capture the developmental mechanism underlying ToM in Japan, highlighting a bias in our understanding of ToM development. Research Highlights: We replicate an independent cultural advantage for theory of mind (Scotland > Japan) and interdependent advantage for inhibitory control (Japan > Scotland). From a western lens, this pattern might be considered paradoxical, since there is a robust positive relationship between theory of mind and inhibitory control. Supporting western developmental enrichment theories, we find that the development of inhibitory control mediates the link between metacognition and theory of mind in Scotland. However, this model does not predict Japanese theory of mind, highlighting an individualistic bias in our mechanistic understanding of theory of mind development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The self‐memory system depends on the prioritization and capture of self‐relevant information, so may be disrupted by difficulties in attending to, encoding and retrieving self‐relevant information. The current study compares memory for self‐referenced and other‐referenced items in children with ADHD and typically developing comparison groups matched for verbal and chronological age. Children aged 5–14 (N = 90) were presented with everyday objects alongside an own‐face image (self‐reference trials) or an unknown child's image (other‐referenced trials). They were asked whether the child shown would like the object, before completing a surprise source memory test. In a second task, children performed, and watched another person perform, a series of actions before their memory for the actions was tested. A significant self‐reference effect (SRE) was found in the typically developing children (i.e. both verbal and chronological age‐matched comparison groups) for the first task, with significantly better memory for self‐referenced than other‐referenced objects. However, children with ADHD showed no SRE, suggesting a compromised ability to bind information with the cognitive self‐concept. In the second task, all groups showed superior memory for actions carried out by the self, suggesting a preserved enactment effect in ADHD. Implications and applications for the self‐memory system in ADHD are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability for self-related thought is historically considered to be a uniquely human characteristic. Nonetheless, as technological knowledge advances, it comes as no surprise that the plausibility of humanoid self-awareness is not only theoretically explored but also engineered. Could the emerging behavioural and cognitive capabilities in artificial agents be comparable to humans? By employing a cross-disciplinary approach, the present essay aims to address this question by providing a comparative overview on the emergence of self-awareness as demonstrated in early childhood and robotics. It argues that developmental psychologists can gain invaluable theoretical and methodological insights by considering the relevance of artificial agents in better understanding the behavioural manifestations of human self-consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When bilinguals speak, both fluent language systems become activated in parallel and exert an influence on speech production. As a consequence of maintaining separation between the two linguistic systems, bilinguals are purported to develop enhanced executive control functioning. Like bilinguals, individuals who speak two dialects must also maintain separation between two linguistic systems, albeit to a lesser degree. Across three tests of executive function, we compared bilingual and bidialectal children's performance to that of a monolingual control group. No evidence for a bidialectal advantage was found. However, in line with a growing number of recent partial and failed replications, we observed a significant bilingual advantage only in one measure in one task. This calls the robustness of the bilingual advantage into question. A comprehensive review of studies investigating advantages of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in bilingual children reveals that the bilingual advantage is likely to be both task and sample specific, and the interaction between these factors makes qualification of the effect challenging. These findings highlight the importance of tracking the impact of dual linguistic systems across the lifespan using tasks calibrated for difficulty across different ages.

Self-cues such as personal pronouns are known to elicit processing biases, such as attention capture and prioritisation in working memory. This may impact the performance of tasks that have a high attentional load like mathematical problem-solving. Here, we compared the speed and accuracy with which children solved numerical problems that included either the self-cue "you," or a different character name. First, we piloted a self-referencing manipulation with N = 52, 7 to 11 year-olds, testing performance on addition and subtraction problems that had either a single referent ("You"/"Sam") or more than one referent. We took into account operation and positioning of the pronoun and also measured performance on attention and working memory tasks. We found a robust accuracy advantage for problems that included "you," regardless of how many characters were included. The accuracy advantage for problems with a self-pronoun was not statistically associated with individual differences in attention or working memory. In our main study (9 to 11 year-olds, N = 144), we manipulated problem difficulty by creating consistently and inconsistently worded addition and subtraction problems. We found significantly higher speed and accuracy for problems that included "you." However, this effect varied by task difficulty, with the self-pronoun effect being strongest in the most difficult inconsistently worded, subtraction problems. The advantage of problems with a self-pronoun was not associated with individual differences in working memory. These findings suggest that self-cues like the pronoun "you" can be usefully applied in numerical processing tasks, an effect that may be attributable to the effects of self-cues on attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article questions why U.S. civil rights organizations haven't advocated for abolishing consent searches, which constitute over 90 percent of all searches. It criticizes the Supreme Court's consent loophole, arguing it perpetuates racial profiling. It suggests U.S. states legislate to eliminate this loophole, proposing model legislation.

The self is a complex and multidimensional construct with both reflective and experiential aspects. The experience of selfhood has been well documented in both developmental psychology and dementia research. However, these research fields have rarely come together. This is unfortunate since a lack of sensitive measurement of self in adults with dementia has historically led to erroneous assumptions that people diagnosed with dementia experience total loss of self. Dementia causes profound self‐alterations, particularly associated with gaps in autobiographical and semantic self‐knowledge. However, important experiential manifestations of self may remain intact. Focusing on the emergence of different levels of self‐processes in early childhood, and reflecting on conceptual similarities as well as methodological perspectives, the aim of this article is to explore how developmental approaches may be applied to provide a promising new direction into the experience of selfhood in dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]