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Nimmapirat P, Fiedler N, Suttiwan P, Sullivan MW, Ohman-Strickland P, Panuwet P, Barr DB, Prapamontol T, Naksen W. Predictors of executive function among 2 year olds from a Thai birth cohort. Infant Behav Dev 2024; 74:101916. [PMID: 38096613 PMCID: PMC10947867 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2023.101916] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Revised: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/31/2024]
Abstract
Executive function (EF) is a critical skill for academic achievement. Research on the psychosocial and environmental predictors of EF, particularly among Southeast Asian, agricultural, and low income/rural populations, is limited. Our longitudinal study explored the influence of agricultural environmental, psychosocial, and temperamental factors on children's emerging EF. Three-hundred and nine farm worker women were recruited during the first trimester of pregnancy. We evaluated the effects of prenatal insecticide exposure and psychosocial factors on "cool" (i.e., cognitive: A-not-B task, looking version) and "hot" EF (i.e., affective, response inhibition) measures of emerging EF. Maternal urine samples were collected monthly during pregnancy, composited, and analyzed for dialkylphosphate (DAP) metabolites of organophosphate insecticides. Psychosocial factors included socioeconomic status, maternal psychological factors, and quality of mother-child behavioral interactions. Backward stepwise regressions evaluated predictors of children's EF at 12 (N = 288), 18 (N = 277) and 24 (N = 280) months of age. We observed different predictive models for cool EF, as measured by A-not-B task, vs. hot EF, as measured by response inhibition tasks. Report of housing quality as a surrogate for income was a significant predictor of emerging EF. However, these variables had opposite effects for cool vs. hot EF. More financial resources predicted better cool EF performance but poorer hot EF performance. Qualitative findings indicate that homes with fewer resources were in tribal areas where children must remain close to an adult for safety reasons. This finding suggests that challenging physical environments (e.g., an elevated bamboo home with no electricity or running water), may contribute to development of higher levels of response inhibition through parental socialization methods that emphasize compliance. Children who tended to show more arousal and excitability, and joy reactivity as young infants in the laboratory setting had better cognitive performance. In contrast, maternal emotional availability was a significant predictor of hot EF. As expected, increased maternal exposure to pesticides during pregnancy was associated with worse cognitive performance but was not associated with inhibitory control. Identifying risk factors contributing to the differential developmental pathways of cool and hot EF will inform prevention strategies to promote healthy development in this and other unstudied rural, low income Southeast Asian farming communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pimjuta Nimmapirat
- Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Psychology, LIFE Di Center, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Nancy Fiedler
- Rutgers School of Public Health, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Panrapee Suttiwan
- Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Psychology, LIFE Di Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
| | | | - Pamela Ohman-Strickland
- Rutgers School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Parinya Panuwet
- Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Dana Boyd Barr
- Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Tippawan Prapamontol
- Chiang Mai University, Research Institute for Health Sciences, Chiang Mai, Thailand
| | - Warangkana Naksen
- Chiang Mai University, Faculty of Public Health, Chiang Mai, Thailand
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Frankenhuis WE, Amir D. What is the expected human childhood? Insights from evolutionary anthropology. Dev Psychopathol 2022; 34:473-497. [PMID: 34924077 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579421001401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
In psychological research, there are often assumptions about the conditions that children expect to encounter during their development. These assumptions shape prevailing ideas about the experiences that children are capable of adjusting to, and whether their responses are viewed as impairments or adaptations. Specifically, the expected childhood is often depicted as nurturing and safe, and characterized by high levels of caregiver investment. Here, we synthesize evidence from history, anthropology, and primatology to challenge this view. We integrate the findings of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and cross-cultural investigations on three forms of threat (infanticide, violent conflict, and predation) and three forms of deprivation (social, cognitive, and nutritional) that children have faced throughout human evolution. Our results show that mean levels of threat and deprivation were higher than is typical in industrialized societies, and that our species has experienced much variation in the levels of these adversities across space and time. These conditions likely favored a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, or the ability to tailor development to different conditions. This body of evidence has implications for recognizing developmental adaptations to adversity, for cultural variation in responses to adverse experiences, and for definitions of adversity and deprivation as deviation from the expected human childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Willem E Frankenhuis
- Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Germany
| | - Dorsa Amir
- Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, USA
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3
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Wang Q. What does cultural research tell us about memory? JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2021.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Frankenhuis WE, Young ES, Ellis BJ. The Hidden Talents Approach: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges. Trends Cogn Sci 2020; 24:569-581. [PMID: 32360117 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2019] [Revised: 03/22/2020] [Accepted: 03/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
It is well established that people living in adverse conditions tend to score lower on a variety of social and cognitive tests. However, recent research shows that people may also develop 'hidden talents', that is, mental abilities that are enhanced through adversity. The hidden talents program sets out to document these abilities, their development, and their manifestations in different contexts. Although this approach has led to new insights and findings, it also comes with theoretical and methodological challenges. Here, we discuss six of these challenges. We conclude that the hidden talents approach is promising, but there is much scope for refining ideas and testing assumptions. We discuss our goal to advance this research program with integrity despite the current incentives in science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Willem E Frankenhuis
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Montessorilaan 3, PO Box 9104, 6500, HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Ethan S Young
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Montessorilaan 3, PO Box 9104, 6500, HE, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Bruce J Ellis
- Departments of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Utah, 380 South 1530 East BEHS 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
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Frankenhuis WE, de Vries SA, Bianchi J, Ellis BJ. Hidden talents in harsh conditions? A preregistered study of memory and reasoning about social dominance. Dev Sci 2020; 23:e12835. [PMID: 30985945 PMCID: PMC7379268 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2018] [Revised: 01/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/09/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Although growing up in stressful conditions can undermine mental abilities, people in harsh environments may develop intact, or even enhanced, social and cognitive abilities for solving problems in high-adversity contexts (i.e. 'hidden talents'). We examine whether childhood and current exposure to violence are associated with memory (number of learning rounds needed to memorize relations between items) and reasoning performance (accuracy in deducing a novel relation) on transitive inference tasks involving both violence-relevant and violence-neutral social information (social dominance vs. chronological age). We hypothesized that individuals who had more exposure to violence would perform better than individuals with less exposure on the social dominance task. We tested this hypothesis in a preregistered study in 100 Dutch college students and 99 Dutch community participants. We found that more exposure to violence was associated with lower overall memory performance, but not with reasoning performance. However, the main effects of current (but not childhood) exposure to violence on memory were qualified by significant interaction effects. More current exposure to neighborhood violence was associated with worse memory for age relations, but not with memory for dominance relations. By contrast, more current personal involvement in violence was associated with better memory for dominance relations, but not with memory for age relations. These results suggest incomplete transfer of learning and memory abilities across contents. This pattern of results, which supports a combination of deficits and 'hidden talents,' is striking in relation to the broader developmental literature, which has nearly exclusively reported deficits in people from harsh conditions. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/e4ePmSzZsuc.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah A. de Vries
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands
- Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary AnthropologyUniversity of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | | | - Bruce J. Ellis
- Departments of Psychology and AnthropologyUniversity of UtahSalt Lake CityUtah
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Bar-Hen-Schweiger M, Henik A. The transition of object to mental manipulation: beyond a species-specific view of intelligence. Anim Cogn 2020; 23:691-701. [PMID: 32236754 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-020-01375-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2019] [Revised: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 03/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Many attempts have been made to classify and evaluate the nature of intelligence in humans and other species (referred to as the 'g' factor in the former and the G factor in the latter). The search for this essential structure of mental life has generated various models and definitions, yet open questions remain. Specifically, referring to intelligence by overemphasizing the anthropocentric terminology and its ethnocentric overlay is insufficient to account for individual differences and limits its generalizability in biological and cultural contexts. The present work is an attempt to adopt a different perspective on the 'g/G' factor and its measurement. We suggest that intelligence, or g/G, is reflected in a biological capacity that evolved from object manipulation in animals, into mental manipulation in humans, in response to various environmental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moran Bar-Hen-Schweiger
- Department of Psychology, and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer Sheva, Israel.
| | - Avishai Henik
- Department of Psychology, and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer Sheva, Israel
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8
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Abstract
On average, psychological variables are often statistically different in people living in poverty compared with people living in affluence. The default academic response to this pattern is often the deficit model: Poverty damages or impairs brain function, which leads to poor performance that only exacerbates the poverty. Deficits and damage are real phenomena. However, there are also other processes: People living in poverty may have made reasonable psychological responses to their circumstances or may have developed strengths that enhance their ability to cope with challenges in their lives. We illustrate these points by discussing the linked examples of time preference, early reproduction, and hidden talents. We argue for a balanced approach to the psychology of poverty that integrates deficit and strengths-based models. Future research could focus on the ways in which impairment and adaptation interact.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel Nettle
- Centre for Behaviour and Evolution and Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University
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Towards a Cultural Developmental Science: Introduction to the Special Issue. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2018.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Vélez-Agosto NM, Soto-Crespo JG, Vizcarrondo-Oppenheimer M, Vega-Molina S, García Coll C. Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Theory Revision: Moving Culture From the Macro Into the Micro. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2018; 12:900-910. [PMID: 28972838 DOI: 10.1177/1745691617704397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory of human development is one of the most widely known theoretical frameworks in human development. In spite of its popularity, the notion of culture within the macrosystem, as a separate entity of everyday practices and therefore microsystems, is problematic. Using the theoretical and empirical work of Rogoff and Weisner, and influenced as they are by Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective, we reconceptualize Bronfenbrenner's model by placing culture as an intricate part of proximal development processes. In our model, culture has the role of defining and organizing microsystems and therefore becomes part of the central processes of human development. Culture is an ever changing system composed of the daily practices of social communities (families, schools, neighborhoods, etc.) and the interpretation of those practices through language and communication. It also comprises tools and signs that are part of the historical legacy of those communities, and thus diversity is an integral part of the child's microsystems, leading to culturally defined acceptable developmental processes and outcomes.
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McKenzie J. Shifting Practices, Shifting Selves: Negotiations of Local and Global Cultures Among Adolescents in Northern Thailand. Child Dev 2018; 90:2035-2052. [DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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13
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Sternberg RJ. Speculations on the Role of Successful Intelligence in Solving Contemporary World Problems †. J Intell 2018; 6:jintelligence6010004. [PMID: 31162431 PMCID: PMC6480739 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence6010004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2017] [Revised: 01/19/2018] [Accepted: 01/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
In this article, I argue that conventional views of intelligence and its measurement have contributed toward at least some of the societal problems of today. I suggest that to escape from a degenerative process, society needs to consider the importance not only of intelligence, as conventionally defined but also of successful intelligence, involving in addition to conventional analytical intelligence, common sense, creativity, and wisdom.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert J Sternberg
- Department of Human Development, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, B44 MVR, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
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Wang Q. Why Should We All Be Cultural Psychologists? Lessons From the Study of Social Cognition. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2017; 11:583-596. [PMID: 27694456 DOI: 10.1177/1745691616645552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
I call the attention of psychologists to the pivotal role of cultural psychology in extending and enriching research programs. I argue that it is not enough to simply acknowledge the importance of culture and urge psychologists to practice cultural psychology in their research. I deconstruct five assumptions about cultural psychology that seriously undermine its contribution to the building of a true psychological science, including that cultural psychology (a) is only about finding group differences, (b) does not appertain to group similarities, (c) concerns only group-level analysis, (d) is irrelevant to basic psychological processes, and (e) is used only to confirm the generalizability of theories. I discuss how cultural psychology can provide unique insights into psychological processes and further equip researchers with additional tools to understand human behavior. Drawing lessons from the 20 years of cultural research that my colleagues and I have done on the development of social cognition, including autobiographical memory, future thinking, self, and emotion knowledge, I demonstrate that incorporating cultural psychology into research programs is not only necessary but also feasible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qi Wang
- Department of Human Development, Cornell University
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15
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Ellis BJ, Bianchi J, Griskevicius V, Frankenhuis WE. Beyond Risk and Protective Factors: An Adaptation-Based Approach to Resilience. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2017; 12:561-587. [DOI: 10.1177/1745691617693054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 198] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
How does repeated or chronic childhood adversity shape social and cognitive abilities? According to the prevailing deficit model, children from high-stress backgrounds are at risk for impairments in learning and behavior, and the intervention goal is to prevent, reduce, or repair the damage. Missing from this deficit approach is an attempt to leverage the unique strengths and abilities that develop in response to high-stress environments. Evolutionary-developmental models emphasize the coherent, functional changes that occur in response to stress over the life course. Research in birds, rodents, and humans suggests that developmental exposures to stress can improve forms of attention, perception, learning, memory, and problem solving that are ecologically relevant in harsh-unpredictable environments (as per the specialization hypothesis). Many of these skills and abilities, moreover, are primarily manifest in currently stressful contexts where they would provide the greatest fitness-relevant advantages (as per the sensitization hypothesis). This perspective supports an alternative adaptation-based approach to resilience that converges on a central question: “What are the attention, learning, memory, problem-solving, and decision-making strategies that are enhanced through exposures to childhood adversity?” At an applied level, this approach focuses on how we can work with, rather than against, these strengths to promote success in education, employment, and civic life.
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Sternberg RJ. Groundhog Day: Is the Field of Human Intelligence Caught in a Time Warp? A Comment on Kovacs and Conway. PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2016.1156504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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