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Yang QT, Sleight S, Ronfard S, Harris PL. Young children's conceptualization of empirical disagreement. Cognition 2023; 241:105627. [PMID: 37793266 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 09/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
Chinese and American children aged 5-11 years (total N = 144) heard two child informants make conflicting empirical claims about each of 4 scenarios. For example, one informant claimed that a ball would float when dropped in water whereas the other informant claimed that it would sink. Children were asked to judge whether each informant could be right, and to justify their overall judgment. In both samples, there was a change with age. Older children often said that each informant could be right whereas younger children, especially in China, were more likely to say that only one informant could be right. Nevertheless, in the wake of decisive empirical evidence (e.g., the ball was shown to sink when dropped in water), almost all children, irrespective of age, drew appropriate conclusions about which of the two informants had been right. Thus, with increasing age, children differ in their prospective - but not in their retrospective - appraisal of empirical disagreement. Absent decisive evidence, older children are more likely than younger children to suspend judgment by acknowledging that either of two conflicting claims could be right. We argue that children's tendency to suspend judgment is linked to their developing awareness of empirical uncertainty, as expressed both in the justifications they give when judging the disagreement and in their own beliefs about the scenarios. Implications for children's understanding of disagreement are discussed.
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Marks J, Schneider S, Voigt B. Future-oriented cognition: links to mental health problems and mental wellbeing in preschool-aged and primary-school-aged children. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1211986. [PMID: 37829062 PMCID: PMC10565826 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1211986] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Future-oriented cognition plays a manifold role for adults' mental health. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between future-oriented cognition and mental health in N = 191 children aged between 3 and 7 years. Parents completed an online-questionnaire including children's future-oriented cognition (e.g., episodic foresight; Children Future Thinking Questionnaire; CFTQ), children's mental health problems (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; SDQ), and wellbeing (Parent-rated Life Orientation Test of children; PLOT and Positive-Mental-Health Scale; PMH). More externalizing problems (especially hyperactivity) related to lower future-oriented cognition. For mental wellbeing, higher levels of optimism were associated with higher episodic foresight. Future-oriented cognition increased with age cross-sectionally. This increase was flatter at higher levels of wellbeing (indicated by lower pessimism). Results are discussed considering findings on the role of future-oriented cognition for mental health in adults and adolescents. Suggestions for future work are presented regarding the direction of the observed links and underlying mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Marks
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
| | - Silvia Schneider
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Bochum/Marburg, Germany
| | - Babett Voigt
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Bochum/Marburg, Germany
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Poletti M, Preti A, Raballo A. From economic crisis and climate change through COVID-19 pandemic to Ukraine war: a cumulative hit-wave on adolescent future thinking and mental well-being. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2023; 32:1815-1816. [PMID: 35396664 PMCID: PMC8993666 DOI: 10.1007/s00787-022-01984-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 04/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michele Poletti
- Department of Mental Health and Pathological Addiction, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Azienda USL-IRCCS Di Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
| | - Antonio Preti
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Andrea Raballo
- Section of Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
- Center for Translational, Phenomenological and Developmental Psychopathology (CTPDP), Perugia University Hospital, Perugia, Italy
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Ding N, Miller R, Clayton NS. Inhibition and cognitive flexibility are related to prediction of one's own future preferences in young British and Chinese children. Cognition 2023; 236:105433. [PMID: 37001438 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2021] [Revised: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2023] [Indexed: 03/31/2023]
Abstract
The ability to shift from current to future perspective is pivotal to future-oriented cognition. With two distinct cultural groups, UK (N = 92) and China (N = 90), we investigated 3 to 5-year-olds' understanding of preference changes occurring within themselves and their peers (another child). We administered a battery of representative tasks of executive function and theory of mind to examine their underlying relationships with children's ability to predict future preferences. British 3-year-olds outperformed Chinese children in predicting future preferences, while no country differences were observed between the 4- and 5-year-olds. Across the UK and China, children were more accurate when predicting for their peers than for themselves. They were also more accurate when their current preferences were identified first, i.e. before answering questions about the future. Chinese children outperformed their British counterparts on inhibition and cognitive flexibility tasks whereas there were no Eastern and Western differences in their theory of mind abilities. After controlling for age and children's knowledge of generic adult preferences, children's performance in the inhibition and cognitive flexibility tasks were significantly correlated with the prediction of their own future preferences, but they were not significantly correlated when predicting for a peer. These results are discussed in relation to the conflicts between multiple perspectives and the cognitive correlates of future-oriented cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ning Ding
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Rachael Miller
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; School of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
| | - Nicola S Clayton
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Vale GL, Coughlin C, Brosnan SF. The importance of thinking about the future in culture and cumulative cultural evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210349. [PMID: 36314144 PMCID: PMC9620744 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Thinking about possibilities plays a critical role in the choices humans make throughout their lives. Despite this, the influence of individuals' ability to consider what is possible on culture has been largely overlooked. We propose that the ability to reason about future possibilities or prospective cognition, has consequences for cultural change, possibly facilitating the process of cumulative cultural evolution. In particular, by considering potential future costs and benefits of specific behaviours, prospective cognition may lead to a more flexible use of cultural behaviours. In species with limited planning abilities, this may lead to the development of cultures that promote behaviours with future benefits, circumventing this limitation. Here, we examine these ideas from a comparative perspective, considering the relationship between human and nonhuman assessments of future possibilities and their cultural capacity to invent new solutions and improve them over time. Given the methodological difficulties of assessing prospective cognition across species, we focus on planning, for which we have the most data in other species. Elucidating the role of prospective cognition in culture will help us understand the variability in when and how we see culture expressed, informing ongoing debates, such as that surrounding which social learning mechanisms underlie culture. This article is part of the theme issue 'Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny'.
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Affiliation(s)
- G. L. Vale
- Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL 60614, USA
- Department of Psychology, Language Research Center, Neuroscience Institute and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, USA
| | - C. Coughlin
- Center for Learning and Memory, University of Texas at Austin, 100 East 24th Street, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - S. F. Brosnan
- Department of Psychology, Language Research Center, Neuroscience Institute and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, USA
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A Behavioral Approach to the Human Understanding of Time: Relational Frame Theory and Temporal Relational Framing. PSYCHOLOGICAL RECORD 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s40732-022-00529-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Parenting Styles Predict Future-Oriented Cognition in Children: A Cross-Sectional Study. CHILDREN (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 9:children9101589. [PMID: 36291525 PMCID: PMC9600440 DOI: 10.3390/children9101589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2022] [Revised: 10/16/2022] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Parenting is a crucial environmental factor in children’s social and cognitive development. This study investigated the association between parenting styles and future-oriented cognition skills in elementary school-aged children. Cross-sectional data were collected from parents of 200 Iranian elementary school aged children (6–13 years), 139 boys and 61 girls. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles Questionnaire and Children’s Future Thinking Questionnaire (CFTQ) were administered to parents. There was a significant positive association between authoritative parenting and children’s abilities in prospective memory, episodic foresight, planning, delay of gratification, and future-oriented cognition total score. In contrast, authoritarian parenting was negatively correlated with children’s abilities in planning, delay of gratification, and future-oriented cognition. Increases in authoritative parenting scores predicted better future-oriented cognition abilities in children.
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Burns P, Atance C, O'Connor AP, McCormack T. The effects of cueing episodic future thinking on delay discounting in children, adolescents, and adults. Cognition 2021; 218:104934. [PMID: 34749044 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2020] [Revised: 10/04/2021] [Accepted: 10/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Discounting the value of delayed rewards such that even a relatively small, immediately available reward is preferred to a larger delayed reward is a commonly observed human trait. Children are particularly steep discounters of delayed rewards as evidenced by delay of gratification studies. In recent years, however, a growing literature indicates that cueing individuals to imagine personal future events attenuates their discounting of delayed rewards. The present studies extend this literature by examining whether cueing future thinking promotes patient choices in children and adolescents. In Experiment 1 we found that cueing future thinking had no effect on 8-11-year-olds' (n = 177) delay discounting of either real or hypothetical rewards. In Experiment 2 we found that cueing adolescents (12-14-year-olds, n = 126) and adults (n = 122) to think about personal future events decreased their discounting of delayed rewards relative to three other conditions: a no cue control, an episodic memory condition and a novel 'future other' condition in which individuals imagine future events that might happen to a significant other person in their life. Cueing adults and adolescents to think about personal future events did not however affect how connected they felt to their future selves or their subjective sense of how close future time points felt to them - two constructs that have previously been shown to be related to delay discounting.
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