Developmental Psychology

Potter, Christine E.; Lew-Williams, Casey

doi: 10.1037/dev0000610pmid: 30284882

Learning always happens from input that contains multiple structures and multiple sources of variability. Though infants possess learning mechanisms to locate structure in the world, lab-based experiments have rarely probed how infants contend with input that contains many different structures and cues. Two experiments explored infants’ use of two naturally occurring sources of variability—different sounds and different people—to detect regularities in language. Monolingual infants (9–10 months) heard a male and female talker produce two different speech streams, one of which followed a deterministic pattern (e.g., AAB, le-le-di) and one of which did not. For half of the infants, each speaker produced only one of the streams; for the other half of the infants, each speaker produced 50% of each stream. In Experiment 1, each stream consisted of distinct sounds, and infants successfully demonstrated learning regardless of the correspondence between speaker and stream. In Experiment 2, each stream consisted of the same sounds, and infants failed to show learning, even when speakers provided a perfect cue for separating each stream. Thus, monolingual infants can learn in the presence of multiple speech streams, but these experiments suggest that infants may rely more on sound-based rather than speaker-based distinctions when breaking into the structure of incoming information. This selective use of some cues over others highlights infants’ ability to adaptively focus on distinctions that are most likely to be useful as they sort through their inherently multidimensional surroundings.

Friend, Margaret; Smolak, Erin; Patrucco-Nanchen, Tamara; Poulin-Dubois, Diane; Zesiger, Pascal

doi: 10.1037/dev0000617pmid: 30359059

The present research extends recent work on the prediction of preschool language skills by exploring prediction from decontextualized vocabulary comprehension. Vocabulary comprehension was a stronger predictor than parent-reported production, yielding a quadrupling of variance accounted for relative to prior studies. Parallel studies (Studies 1 and 2) are reported for two linguistically and geographically distinct samples. In both samples, decontextualized vocabulary comprehension late in the second year provided the best balance between model fit and parsimony in predicting language skills at age three. In Study 3, vocabulary comprehension prospectively identified children with low language status 2 years earlier than other prospective studies but with similar sensitivity and specificity. The present paper provides evidence on three questions of practical and theoretical significance: the relation between decontextualized vocabulary prior to 30 months of age and language outcomes, how prediction from decontextualized vocabulary compares with parent-reported vocabulary, and finally how early stable predictions to language outcomes can be made.

Halpin, Peter F.; Wolf, Sharon; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Rojas, Natalia; Kabay, Sarah; Pisani, Lauren; Dowd, Amy Jo

doi: 10.1037/dev0000626pmid: 30407024

Relatively little research has addressed whether conceptual frameworks of early learning generalize across different national contexts. This article reports on a cross-country measurement invariance analysis of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA). The IDELA is a direct assessment tool for 3- to 6-year-old children, intended to measure Early Literacy, Early Numeracy, Motor, and Social-Emotional development. Its generalizability is evaluated using samples from 5 countries: Afghanistan (N = 2,629); Bolivia (N = 480); Ethiopia (N = 682); Uganda (N = 504); and Vietnam (N = 675). The 4-domain model of the IDELA was supported in each country, although the domains were highly correlated. Measurement invariance analysis revealed that most IDELA items do not provide a basis for comparing children’s development over the 5 countries. This research supports the use of the IDELA for program evaluation and within-country monitoring purposes, but cautions against its use for international comparisons.

Fujisawa, Keiko K.; Todo, Naoya; Ando, Juko

doi: 10.1037/dev0000627pmid: 30359061

Identifying the cognitive capacities associated with the development of school readiness is indispensable to support children’s successful school transition. It has been shown that executive function (EF) in preschoolers is associated with both concurrent preacademic and subsequent academic skills. However, most research has controlled for the effect of general cognitive ability (GCA), and little research has examined non-English speaking children, which hinders the understanding of the development of school readiness in culturally diverse contexts. In addition, behavioral genetic research on the genetic and environmental influences on this association has been conducted with school-age children. Thus, the genetic and environmental influences on associations between GCA, EF, and preacademic skills during preschool age are unknown. We conducted multivariate behavioral genetic analyses on two waves of longitudinal data at 42 and 60 months of age from 171 and 135 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic Japanese twins. The findings suggested that a genetic factor influenced GCA at 42 months and mediated preacademic ability at 60 months. In addition, another genetic factor emerged by 60 months that genetically mediated EF and math ability, independent of GCA. Preacademic ability at 60 months was affected by shared environments that influenced EF, rather than GCA, at 42 months. Moreover, shared environments that influenced preacademic ability at 42 months affected later GCA at 60 months. Finally, nonshared environments that had emerged by 60 months mediated these relationships, though the magnitude of this effect was modest.

Lougheed, Jessica P.; Benson, Lizbeth; Cole, Pamela M.; Ram, Nilam

doi: 10.1037/dev0000619pmid: 30335428

The timing of events (e.g., how long it takes a child to exhibit a particular behavior) is often of interest in developmental science. Multilevel survival analysis (MSA) is useful for examining behavioral timing in observational studies (i.e., video recordings) of children’s behavior. We illustrate how MSA can be used to answer 2 types of research questions. Specifically, using data from a study of 117 children 36 months old (SD = .38) during a frustration task, we examined the timing of their recurring anger expressions, and how this is related to (a) negative affectivity, a dimension of temperament related to the ability to regulate emotions, and (b) children’s strategy use (distraction, bids to their mother). Contrary to expectations, negative affectivity was not associated with the timing of children’s recurring anger expressions. As expected, children’s recurring anger expressions were less likely to occur in the seconds when children were using a distraction strategy, whereas they were more likely when children made bids to their mother. MSA is a flexible analytic technique that, when applied to observational data, can yield valuable insights into the dynamics of children’s behaviors.

Riggs, Anne E.

doi: 10.1037/dev0000618pmid: 30359056

To acquire social conventional knowledge, children must distinguish between behaviors that are practiced by groups of people versus those that are practiced by individuals. How do children infer the scope (i.e., level of generality) of social behavior? Prior work has addressed this question by focusing on the cues or instruction that adults provide to children. The current research takes a novel approach by examining whether children form scope inferences on the basis of statistical evidence alone. Two studies with 4- to 5-year-olds (N = 70) and 7- to 8-year-olds (N = 40) investigated whether children track and integrate different forms of statistical evidence to infer the scope of social behaviors. Children were presented with combinations of frequency evidence (i.e., constancy of a behavior) and negative evidence (i.e., an alternative behavior) that together indicated whether a behavior was practiced by a wide group of people, a narrower group of people, or a specific individual. Children’s inferences about who else would demonstrate a behavior were consistent with the evidence they observed, though younger children required a more supportive version of the task. To support their inferences for shared behaviors, older children provided conventional explanations whereas younger children often provided psychological explanations. Together, the findings suggest an alternative account of how children acquire social conventional knowledge above and beyond any direct instruction or overt social cues provided by adults.

Kachel, Ulrike; Tomasello, Michael

doi: 10.1037/dev0000632pmid: 30359057

The problem with collaboration is that there are temptations to defect. Explicit joint commitments are designed to mitigate some of the risks, but people also feel committed to others implicitly when they both know together that they each hold the other’s fate in their hands. In the current study, pairs of 3-year-old and 5-year-old children (N = 192) played a collaborative game. One child was offered individual rewards (bribed) to opt out of the collaboration. In 3 different conditions, the level of the commitment was manipulated. Three-year-old children were more likely to resist the bribes when there was an explicit joint commitment to the partner than when they were only playing in parallel, with their reactions to an implicit commitment falling in between. Five-year-olds were more likely to resist bribes in both the implicit and explicit commitment conditions than in the no-commitment condition. Thus, children at both ages showed some level of commitment to a collaborative partner in the face of bribes to defect, but only 5-year-olds clearly appreciated that a common-ground understanding of interdependence between partners generates an implicit commitment or obligation.

Diesendruck, Gil; Chiang, Wen-Chi; Ferera, Matar; Benozio, Avi

doi: 10.1037/dev0000620pmid: 30431290

Adults value scarce objects, such as rare precious stones and limited edition items. This valuation may derive from an understanding of market forces and sociological considerations, but it may also be related to more basic cognitive and motivational processes. The present studies addressed these possibilities by investigating the development and cross-cultural prevalence of a preference for scarce objects. Children (N = 366) from Israel and Taiwan, ranging from 4 to 11 years of age, were given a choice between a scarce and an abundant reward. We found that whereas a preference for the scarce appeared among Israelis by age 7, it never appeared among the Taiwanese. These findings indicate that a scarcity preference emerges already at age 7, but only among children living in a culture that emphasizes self-individuality. These findings are discussed in light of cultural accounts of the development of self-motivations.

Suarez-Rivera, Catalina; Smith, Linda B.; Yu, Chen

doi: 10.1037/dev0000628pmid: 30489136

Parents support and scaffold more mature behaviors in their infants. Recent research suggests that parent–infant joint visual attention may scaffold the development of sustained attention by extending the duration of an infant’s attention to an object. The open question concerns the parent behaviors that occur within joint-attention episodes and support infant sustained attention to an object. In the study, parent–infant dyads played with objects on a tabletop while their eye-gaze was recorded with head-mounted eye-trackers. Parent hand contact with the objects as well as speech were coded and analyzed to identify the presence of parent touch and talk during bouts of infant visual attention. This study, consistent with prior research, showed that joint attention is associated with longer infant visual attention. The relevant parent behaviors considered, parent talk and touch, not only were highly likely to occur when both the parent and infant visually attended to the same object, but were also associated with infant attention to an object that was longer than infant attention that did not include these parent behaviors. Parent talk was the most potent behavior that coincided with longer infant looks. In sum, joint attention extends infant attention and joint attention involves more than mutual coordination of eye-gaze, it involves multimodal parent behaviors coordinated with the infant’s visual attention.

Speidel, Ruth; Valentino, Kristin; McDonnell, Christina G.; Cummings, E. Mark; Fondren, Kaitlin

doi: 10.1037/dev0000623pmid: 30335434

The manner in which mothers engage in emotional discussion, or reminisce, with their young children about past emotional experiences poses important ramifications for child socioemotional and cognitive development. Maltreating mothers may have difficulty engaging in emotionally supportive reminiscing. The current study examined the role of maternal sensitive guidance during reminiscing as a process variable that may explain associations between child maltreatment and 3 child self-regulatory dimensions: lability/negativity, emotion regulation, and inhibitory control. Participants included 111 maltreating and 65 demographically matched, nonmaltreating mothers and their 3- to 6-year-old children (N = 176). The dyads participated in a joint reminiscing task about 4 past emotional shared experiences. Mothers reported on their children’s emotion regulation and lability/negativity while children participated in a behavioral assessment of inhibitory control. Results indicated that maltreating mothers engaged in less sensitive guidance when reminiscing compared with nonmaltreating mothers. In the main analysis, maternal sensitive guidance mediated relations between maltreatment and child emotion regulation and inhibitory control, respectively, but not lability/negativity.