Neural basis for egalitarian sharing in five-to six-year-old children

Gender stereotypes regarding power and niceness in Japanese children

Belief in gendered social power imbalance (i.e. males are more powerful than females) leads to undesirable gender disparities, but little is known about the developmental origins of this belief, especially in Eastern cultures. We investigated the development onset of this belief by focusing on 4-7-year-old Japanese children while considering another belief (females are nicer than males) for comparison. In the dyadic context tasks, children saw pairs of animated characters depicting powerful-powerless or kind-unkind postures and judged the characters' gender (boy or girl). Results suggested both 'nice = female' and 'powerful = female' gender stereotypes in children. In the collective context tasks, children were presented with stories in occupational contexts, including multiple unspecified people and verbal cues, describing more explicitly the powerful and nice traits of the protagonists. The results replicated the 'nice = female' gender stereotype. Moreover, early 'powerful = male' gender stereotypes were seen in 6-year-old boys but not among girls in general. These findings demonstrate that Japanese children's beliefs regarding gender differences in power vary depending on the context in which male-female interactions are presented. Additionally, the study reveals that signs of the 'powerful = male' social power gender stereotype emerge around the age of 6.

Evaluating the Distinction between Cool and Hot Executive Function during Childhood

This article assesses the cool-hot executive function (EF) framework during childhood. First, conceptual analyses suggest that cool EF (cEF) is generally distinguished from hot EF (hEF). Second, both EFs can be loaded into different factors using confirmatory factor analyses. Third, the cognitive complexity of EF is similar across cEF tasks, and the cognitive complexity of cEF is similar to hEF tasks. Finally, neuroimaging analysis suggests that children activate the lateral prefrontal regions during all EF tasks. Taken together, we propose that the cool-hot framework is a useful, though not definitive way of characterizing differences in EF.

Is Distributional Justice Equivalent to Prosocial Sharing in Children’s Cognition?

Distribution and sharing are social preference behaviors supported and shaped by selection pressures, which express individuals’ concern for the welfare of others. Distributive behavior results in distributive justice, which is at the core of moral justice. Sharing is a feature of the prosocial realm. The connotations of distribution and sharing are different, so the principles, research paradigms, and social functions of the two are also different. Three potential causes of confusion between the two in the current research on distribution and sharing are discussed. First, they share common factors in terms of individual cognition, situation, and social factors. Second, although they are conceptually different, prosocial sharing and distribution fairness sensitivity are mutually predictive in individual infants. Similarly, neural differences in preschoolers’ perception of distribution fairness predict their subsequent sharing generosity. Finally, similar activation regions are relevant to distribution and sharing situations that need behavioral control on a neural basis.

Relationship between cool and hot executive function in young children: A near-infrared spectroscopy study

A theoretical distinction exists between the cool and hot aspects of executive function (EF). At the neural level, cool EF may be associated with activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas the orbitofrontal cortex may play a key role in hot EF. However, some recent studies have shown that young children show activity in the lateral prefrontal regions during hot EF tasks, suggesting that the distinction between hot and cool EF may not be as marked. Nevertheless, few neuroimaging studies have directly examined the relationship between cool and hot EF. In this study, preschool children (N = 46, mean age = 66.1 months) were given both cool (Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) and Stroop-like tasks) and hot (delay of gratification) EF tasks, and neural activation during these tasks was measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Correlational analyses and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to assess the relationship between cool and hot EF. At the behavioral level, a moderate correlation was found between DCCS and Stroop-like tasks, but no correlation emerged between cool and hot EF tasks. At the neural level, prefrontal activations during the cool EF tasks did not correlate with those during the hot EF task. Further, children showed stronger prefrontal activations during the DCCS tasks compared to the delay of gratification tasks. The results suggest that the neural basis of hot and cool EF may differ during early childhood.