Cognition in children

In this study, the relationships among cognitive styles of teachers, students
and reading rnaterials were studied. Children in second and fourth
grade classr:ooms were matched with their teachers on elements on their
cognitive style maps. A construct of cognitive style developed by Dr.
Joseph Hill of Oakland Community College was used. This construct
examines the subject in four areas: 1) the subject's use of theoretical
symbols, such as, words and numbers, 2) his reactions to qualitative
codes, such as, sensory or kinesic information, 3) the cultural deterrninants
of his actions and 4) the modes of reasoning he prefers. This study indicated that it was possible to map young children and their
teachers and arrive at a comparison of teachers' and students' maps.
Interaction did occur in the classroom based on the similarities and
differences between students and teachers. Achievement in reading
was affected by this interaction.

The quality of early caregiving and educational environments has a significant
effect on children’s later cognitive outcomes. Early childhood teachers are an important
determining factor in the quality of these environments. Due to inconsistencies in practice
across the early childhood field, there is a call for better prepared teachers. Teacher
preparation itself is criticized for its lack of innovative and effective practices. While
research finds that more effective teacher preparation programs are those that are steeped
in clinical practice, these types of experiences are inconsistent and fragmented in the
early childhood field. Part of the issue is the lack of knowledge on how to integrate highquality
clinical experiences carefully into early childhood teacher preparation in order to
prepare all preservice teachers successfully for the classroom.

Our everyday world consists of people and objects that are usually specified by dynamic and concurrent auditory and visual attributes, which is known to increase perceptual salience and, therefore, facilitate learning and discrimination in infancy. Interestingly, early experience with faces and vocalizations has two seemingly opposite effects during the first year of life, 1) it enables infants to gradually acquire perceptual expertise for the faces and vocalizations of their own race and, 2) it narrows their ability to discriminate the faces of other-race faces (Kelly et al., 2007). It is not known whether multisensory redundancy might help older infants overcome the other-race effect reported in previous studies. The current project investigated infant discrimination of dynamic and vocalizing other-race faces in younger and older infants using habituation and eye-tracking methodologies. Experiment 1 examined 4-6 and 10-12-month-old infants' ability to discriminate either a native or non-native face articulating the syllable /a/. Results showed that both the 4-6- and the 10-12-month-olds successfully discriminated the faces,regardless of whether they were same- or other-race faces. Experiment 2 investigated the contribution of auditory speech cues by repeating Experiment 1 but in silence. Results showed that only the 10-12-month-olds tested with native-race faces successfully discriminated them. Experiment 3 investigated whether it was speech per se or sound in general that facilitated discrimination of the other-race faces in Experiment 1 by presenting a synchronous, computer-generated "boing" sound instead of audible speech cues. Results indicated that the 4-6-month olds discriminated both types of faces but that 10-12-month-olds only discriminated own-race faces. These results indicate that auditory cues, along with dynamic visual cues, can help infants overcome the effects of previously reported narrowing and facilitate discrimination of other-race static, silent faces. Critically, our results show that older infants can overcome the other race-effect when dynamic faces are accompanied by speech but not when they are accompanied by non- speech cues. Overall, a generalized auditory facilitation effect was found as a result of multisensory speech. Moreover, our findings suggest that infants' ability to process other- race faces following perceptual narrowing is more plastic than previously thought.

The current study assessed whether the accuracy of children’s self-reports of
events experienced differs as a function of age and how the question is asked. Additional
factors like metamemory and distractibility were assessed. Primary-school students (M=
7.7 years) and middle-school students (M = 9.7 years) completed two different versions
of an event frequency measure, two times, at one week intervals. In one of the measures
of event frequency, no memory prompts were provided (uncued questionnaire condition),
while in the other measure, recall categories for aiding recollections were provided (cued
questionnaire condition). Participants’ self-reported event frequencies for the cued and
uncued questionnaires were compared with trained observers’ event frequencies for the
cued and uncued conditions. Older children reported event frequency more accurately
than younger participants. Participants also reported events with greater accuracy with
the aid of memory prompts than without, an effect that was especially strong among the
younger children. Neither metamemory nor distractibility was accountable for the differences within age groups. The findings suggest that age-related improvements in
accuracy of event frequency across the transition into adolescence may, in part, be due to
improvements in the ability to recall and recount those events in the absence of memory
cues.

Many studies have supported the overall health benefits of mindfulness meditation practices for adults, but research exploring such benefits for children is sparse. The present study explored the psychophysiological effects of mindfulness meditation over a 10 week-period on a sample of 2nd-and 4th-grade children. Electroencephalograph (EEG) asymmetry and coherence were recorded at baseline and immediately after the meditation intervention for the experimental group, and at baseline and after 10 weeks for the control group. Measures of affect, behavioral motivation, creativity, and depression were also administered. The primary findings indicated that when improvement in depressive symptoms occurred for 4th-grade students who were somewhat engaged in meditation practice, left-sided frontal EEG activity was also more prominent. Additionally, 4th-grade students who actively participated in meditation practice experienced decreases in self-reported levels of negative affect. Results suggest that mindfulness meditation is beneficial for improving 4th-grade students’ mood and brain regions associated with mood.

Current studies are rapidly investigating strategy choice on tasks such as math and reading that children encounter in day to day life; it follows that strategy development should also be examined in the naturalistic settings where children actually perform these tasks. From a sociocultural learning perspective, we examined five year old children's arithmetic strategy use, in a game context, with the most likely of mentors for a young child, his or her parents. Children played three games of a modified version of "Chutes and Ladders" with one of their parents. Children's strategy use and parents' behavior were coded and analyzed. Results indicate that parents usually provided appropriate support to their children, providing more direction and assistance to the children who required them, and less to those who did not.

Children's (Grades 4-8) perceptions of peer reactions to academic performance, affect, and conduct were examined in relation to achievement outcomes as measured by school grades, achievement test scores, and peer-based behavioral and affect judgments. Both sexes thought same-sex peers were more supportive of academic performance in boys than in girls. The hypothesis that expectations of peer reactions are related to achievement was partially supported, especially for the younger male subjects, whose achievement was systematically related to perceptions about the reactions of the female peer group to other girls. Theoretical and practical implications of the research findings were discussed.

The present study, a cross-sectional design involving 7 to 10 year olds, analyzed similarities and differences between gifted and nongifted children in spontaneous strategy acquisition through the concept of utilization deficiency (Miller, 1990). Children were classified into four strategic categories: utilizationally deficient, strategic and nonstrategic non-utilizationally deficient, and a new category termed quasi-utilizationally deficient. Strategy development between gifted and nongifted children was compared through a series of sort/recall trials. The targeted strategy was an organizational one which begins to be manifested in middle schoolage children. Additionally, the experiment examined the possible influences of metacognition, IQ, and motivation (e.g., self-attributions and self-efficacy) on the occurrence and outcome of strategy use in these two populations. The use of the strategic classifications proved successful in delineating both differences and similarities between the two groups.

The development and correlates of utilization deficiencies in second-, third-, and fourth-graders were examined in two separate testing sessions, separated by a one-week interval. In the first session, children received a series of tests assessing self-attributions, metamemory, and intelligence. These factors were proposed to influence the development of utilization deficiencies. In the second session, children were given five sort/recall trials using a different list of categorically related words on each trial and then classified as utilizationally deficient according to their patterns of strategy use and recall over trials. Analysis of mean levels of recall and strategy use demonstrated utilization deficiencies for third graders. Analysis of data for individual subjects revealed that utilization deficiencies were associated with enhanced performance for second and third graders, but lower performance for fourth graders. Attributions of effort were found to be associated with utilization deficiencies for the third graders. The nonsignificant associations of intelligence and metamemory with utilization deficiencies are discussed in terms of domain specific cognition.

The development of the concept of self was measured in second, fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Recall of psychological and physical adjectives were used as a cognitive measure of the concept of self. The adjectives were presented under three conditions (self referent, semantic, and control). The children also asked to rate the adjectives for similarity or dissimilarity to themselves. Differences between grades for levels of recall for physical versus psychological adjectives were examined. In contrast to earlier research, a developmental trend was not discovered. Increased recall was found for adjectives presented under the self referent condition for all grades.