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Wang SH, Basch S. A cultural perspective of action-based learning by infants and young children. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2024; 67:164-199. [PMID: 39260903 DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2024.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/13/2024]
Abstract
Decades of research have informed about ways in which infants and young children learn through action in connection with their sensory system. However, this research has not strongly addressed the issues of cultural diversity or taken into account everyday cultural experiences of young learners across different communities. Diversifying the scholarship of early learning calls for paradigm shifts, extending beyond the analysis at the individual level to make close connections with real-world experience while placing culture front and center. On the other hand, cultural research that specifies diversity in caregiver guidance and scaffolding, while providing insights into young learners' cultural experiences, has been conducted separately from the research of action-based cross-modal learning. Taking everyday activities as contexts for learning, in this chapter, we summarize seminal work on cross-modal learning by infants and young children that connects action and perception, review empirical evidence of cultural variations in caregiver guidance for early action-based learning, and make recommendations of research approaches for advancing the scientific understanding about cultural ways of learning across diverse communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Su-Hua Wang
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, United States.
| | - Samantha Basch
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, United States
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2
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Lee T, Lim J, Kim S, Kim J, Park KJ, Joung YS, Kim HW. The association between symptoms of developmental coordination disorder and neuropsychological characteristics in children with and without ADHD. Front Psychiatry 2024; 15:1441102. [PMID: 39119077 PMCID: PMC11306174 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1441102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2024] [Accepted: 07/10/2024] [Indexed: 08/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Objective Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently co-occurs with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). This study aimed to evaluate the association between DCD symptoms and neuropsychological characteristics in children with and without ADHD. Methods We recruited 298 children aged 5-12 years. Motor performance was assessed using the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ), while ADHD symptoms were assessed using the ADHD Rating Scale (ARS) and the Advanced Test of Attention (ATA). Cognitive characteristics were measured using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, and behavioral characteristics were assessed using the Korean Personality Rating Scale for Children. Results The children had a mean age of 7.6 ± 1.7 years, with 214 (71.8%) being boys. Among children diagnosed with ADHD (n = 176), 39.2% exceeded the DCDQ cutoff score, compared to 4.1% in the neurotypical group (n = 122). In the correlation analysis, the DCDQ total score was significantly correlated with ARS, omission and commission errors in visual and auditory ATA, and full-scale intellectual quotient. In addition, symptoms of depression, social dysfunction, and psychosis were correlated with the DCDQ total score. In the between-group analysis, children with both ADHD and DCD exhibited more omission errors on the auditory ATA and behavioral problems related to depression, social dysfunction, and psychosis compared to children with ADHD only. Conclusion Our study indicates that children with ADHD exhibit more difficulties in motor performance. Children with both ADHD and DCD may present with a greater burden of psychiatric conditions than children with ADHD only, suggesting the need for careful monitoring in clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Taeyeop Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jongseok Lim
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Seonok Kim
- Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jichul Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Kee Jeong Park
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Yoo-Sook Joung
- Department of Psychiatry, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyo-Won Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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3
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Möhring W, Moll L, Szubielska M. Unpacking associations among children's spatial skills, mathematics, and arithmetic strategies: decomposition matters. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2024; 88:1550-1564. [PMID: 38613569 PMCID: PMC11282154 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-024-01952-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 03/04/2024] [Indexed: 04/15/2024]
Abstract
Several studies revealed links between mental rotation and mathematical tasks, but the intervening processes in this connection remain rather unexplored. Here, we aimed to investigate whether children's mental rotation skills relate to their accuracy in solving arithmetic problems via their usage of decomposition strategies, thus probing one potential intervening process. To this end, we examined a sample of 6- to 8-year-olds (N = 183) with a chronometric mental rotation task, and asked children to solve several arithmetic problems while assessing their solution strategies. After each arithmetic problem, children were asked about their strategy to solve the respective arithmetic problem and these were classified as either counting, decomposition, or retrieval strategies. Analyses were controlled for age, sex, fluid and verbal reasoning. Results indicated that children's response times and accuracy in the mental rotation task were best explained by linear functions of rotation angle, suggesting the usage of dynamic mental transformation strategies. A multiple mediation model revealed that children with higher mental rotation skills were more inclined to use higher-level mental strategies such as decomposition which in turn increased their accuracy of solving arithmetic problems. None of the other arithmetic strategies revealed significant indirect effects. These findings suggest that children with higher mental rotation skills may profit from visualizing and flexibly transforming numerical magnitudes, increasing the frequency of decomposition strategies. Overall, decomposition may play a unique role in the connection between children's mental rotation and arithmetic skills, which is an essential information for planning future training and experimental studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenke Möhring
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 62, 4055, Basel, Switzerland.
- Department of Educational and Health Psychology, University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany.
| | - Léonie Moll
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 62, 4055, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Magdalena Szubielska
- Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
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Gori M, Sciutti A, Torazza D, Campus C, Bollini A. The effect of visuo-haptic exploration on the development of the geometric cross-sectioning ability. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 238:105774. [PMID: 37703720 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105774] [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: 02/09/2023] [Revised: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023]
Abstract
Cross-sectioning is a shape understanding task where the participants must infer and interpret the spatial features of three-dimensional (3D) solids by depicting their internal two-dimensional (2D) arrangement. An increasing body of research provides evidence of the crucial role of sensorimotor experience in acquiring these complex geometrical concepts. Here, we focused on how cross-sectioning ability emerges in young children and the influence of multisensory visuo-haptic experience in geometrical learning through two experiments. In Experiment 1, we compared the 3D printed version of the Santa Barbara Solids Test (SBST) with its classical paper version; in Experiment 2, we contrasted the children's performance in the SBST before and after the visual or visuo-haptic experience. In Experiment 1, we did not identify an advantage in visualizing 3D shapes over the classical 2D paper test. In contrast, in Experiment 2, we found that children who had the experience of a combination of visual and tactile information during the exploration phase improved their performance in the SBST compared with children who were limited to visual exploration. Our study demonstrates how practicing novel multisensory strategies improves children's understanding of complex geometrical concepts. This outcome highlights the importance of introducing multisensory experience in educational training and the need to make way for developing new technologies that could improve learning abilities in children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monica Gori
- Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16152 Genoa, Italy
| | | | - Diego Torazza
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Unit, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16152 Genoa, Italy; Mechanical Workshop, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16152 Genoa, Italy
| | - Claudio Campus
- Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16152 Genoa, Italy
| | - Alice Bollini
- Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16152 Genoa, Italy.
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5
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Serdarevic F, Luo M, Karabegović I, Binter AC, Alemany S, Mutzel R, Guxens M, Bustamante M, Hajdarpasic A, White T, Felix JF, Cecil CAM, Tiemeier H. DNA methylation at birth and fine motor ability in childhood: an epigenome-wide association study with replication. Epigenetics 2023; 18:2207253. [PMID: 37139702 PMCID: PMC10161945 DOI: 10.1080/15592294.2023.2207253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Lower fine motor performance in childhood has been associated with poorer cognitive development and neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, yet, biological underpinnings remain unclear. DNA methylation (DNAm), an essential process for healthy neurodevelopment, is a key molecular system of interest. In this study, we conducted the first epigenome-wide association study of neonatal DNAm with childhood fine motor ability and further examined the replicability of epigenetic markers in an independent cohort. The discovery study was embedded in Generation R, a large population-based prospective cohort, including a subsample of 924 ~ 1026 European-ancestry singletons with available data on DNAm in cord blood and fine motor ability at a mean (SD) age of 9.8 (0.4) years. Fine motor ability was measured using a finger-tapping test (3 subtests including left-, right-hand and bimanual), one of the most frequently used neuropsychological instruments of fine motor function. The replication study comprised 326 children with a mean (SD) age of 6.8 (0.4) years from an independent cohort, the INfancia Medio Ambiente (INMA) study. Four CpG sites at birth were prospectively associated with childhood fine motor ability after genome-wide correction. Of these, one CpG (cg07783800 in GNG4) was replicated in INMA, showing that lower levels of methylation at this site were associated with lower fine motor performance in both cohorts. GNG4 is highly expressed in the brain and has been implicated in cognitive decline. Our findings support a prospective, reproducible association between DNAm at birth and fine motor ability in childhood, pointing to GNG4 methylation at birth as a potential biomarker of fine motor ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fadila Serdarevic
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Sarajevo Medical School, Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
| | - Mannan Luo
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- The Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Irma Karabegović
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Anne-Claire Binter
- ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Silvia Alemany
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Psychiatric Genetics Unit, Group of Psychiatry Mental Health and Addiction, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Biomedical Network Research Centre on Mental Health (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ryan Mutzel
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Monica Guxens
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Mariona Bustamante
- ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Aida Hajdarpasic
- Department of Medical Biology, and Genetics, Sarajevo Medical School, Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
| | - Tonya White
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Janine F Felix
- The Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Charlotte A M Cecil
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Molecular Epidemiology, Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Henning Tiemeier
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
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Enge A, Kapoor S, Kieslinger AS, Skeide MA. A meta-analysis of mental rotation in the first years of life. Dev Sci 2023; 26:e13381. [PMID: 36843394 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2022] [Revised: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 02/12/2023] [Indexed: 02/28/2023]
Abstract
Mental rotation, the cognitive process of moving an object in mind to predict how it looks in a new orientation, is coupled to intelligence, learning, and educational achievement. On average, adolescent and adult males solve mental rotation tasks slightly better (i.e., faster and/or more accurate) than females. When such behavioral differences emerge during development, however, remains poorly understood. Here we analyzed effect sizes derived from 62 experiments conducted in 1705 infants aged 3-16 months. We found that male infants recognized rotated objects slightly more reliably than female infants. This difference survives correction for small degrees of publication bias. These findings indicate that gender differences in mental rotation are small and not robustly detectable in the first months of postnatal life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We analyzed effect sizes of 62 mental rotation experiments including 1705 infants. Looking time reveals that 3-16-months-old infants are able to perform mental rotation. Mental rotation is slightly more reliable in male infants compared to female infants. Gender difference in mental rotation is robust to small degrees of publication bias.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Enge
- Research Group Learning in Early Childhood, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Shreya Kapoor
- Research Group Learning in Early Childhood, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anne-Sophie Kieslinger
- Research Group Learning in Early Childhood, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Michael A Skeide
- Research Group Learning in Early Childhood, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
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7
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Gilligan-Lee KA, Hawes ZCK, Williams AY, Farran EK, Mix KS. Hands-On: Investigating the role of physical manipulatives in spatial training. Child Dev 2023; 94:1205-1221. [PMID: 37547951 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13963] [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: 02/10/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 06/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023]
Abstract
Studies show that spatial interventions lead to improvements in mathematics. However, outcomes vary based on whether physical manipulatives (embodied action) are used during training. This study compares the effects of embodied and non-embodied spatial interventions on spatial and mathematics outcomes. The study has a randomized, controlled, pre-post, follow-up, training design (N = 182; mean age 8 years; 49% female; 83.5% White). We show that both embodied and non-embodied spatial training approaches improve spatial skills compared to control. However, we conclude that embodied spatial training using physical manipulatives leads to larger, more consistent gains in mathematics and greater depth of spatial processing than non-embodied training. These findings highlight the potential of spatial activities, particularly those that use physical materials, for improving children's mathematics skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie A Gilligan-Lee
- School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
- Centre for Educational Neuroscience, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
| | - Zachary C K Hawes
- Department of Applied Psychology & Human Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Emily K Farran
- School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
- Centre for Educational Neuroscience, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
| | - Kelly S Mix
- Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
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8
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Beckner AG, Katz M, Tompkins DN, Voss AT, Winebrake D, LoBue V, Oakes LM, Casasola M. A Novel Approach to Assessing Infant and Child Mental Rotation. J Intell 2023; 11:168. [PMID: 37623551 PMCID: PMC10455586 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11080168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2023] [Revised: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Mental rotation is a critically important, early developing spatial skill that is related to other spatial cognitive abilities. Understanding the early development of this skill, however, requires a developmentally appropriate assessment that can be used with infants, toddlers, and young children. We present here a new eye-tracking task that uses a staircase procedure to assess mental rotation in 12-, 24-, and 36-month-old children (N = 41). To ensure that all children understood the task, the session began with training and practice, in which the children learned to fixate which of two houses a giraffe, facing either left or right, would approach. The adaptive two-up, one-down staircase procedure assessed the children's ability to fixate the correct house when the giraffe was rotated in 30° (up) or 15° (down) increments. The procedure was successful, with most children showing evidence of mental rotation. In addition, the children were less likely to succeed as the angle of rotation increased, and the older children succeeded at higher angles of rotation than the younger children, replicating previous findings with other procedures. The present study contributes a new paradigm that can assess the development of mental rotation in young children and holds promise for yielding insights into individual differences in mental rotation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron G. Beckner
- College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Mary Katz
- College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | | | - Annika T. Voss
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, CA 95618, USA
| | - Deaven Winebrake
- College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
| | - Vanessa LoBue
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Lisa M. Oakes
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, CA 95618, USA
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9
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Beckner AG, Voss AT, Phillips L, King K, Casasola M, Oakes LM. An investigation of mental rotation in infancy using change detection. Infant Behav Dev 2023; 71:101834. [PMID: 37080014 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2023.101834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2023] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/22/2023]
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to examine mental rotation in 6- to 12-month-old infants (N = 166) using a change detection task. These experiments were replications of Lauer and Lourenco (Lauer et al., 2015; Lauer & Lourenco, 2016), using identical stimuli and variations of their procedure, including an exact replication conducted in a laboratory setting (Experiment 1), and an online assessment using Lookit (Scott et al.,2017; Scott & Schulz, 2017) (Experiment 2). Both experiments failed to replicate the results of the original study; in neither experiment did infants' behavior provide evidence that they mentally rotated the object. Results are discussed in terms of the robustness of mental rotation in infancy and about limits in our experimental procedures for uncovering perceptual and cognitive abilities in infants.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Annika T Voss
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA
| | | | - Kathryn King
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, USA
| | | | - Lisa M Oakes
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, USA; Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, USA
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Holden E, Buryn-Weitzel JC, Atim S, Biroch H, Donnellan E, Graham KE, Hoffman M, Jurua M, Knapper CV, Lahiff NJ, Marshall S, Paricia J, Tusiime F, Wilke C, Majid A, Slocombe KE. Maternal attitudes and behaviours differentially shape infant early life experience: A cross cultural study. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0278378. [PMID: 36542635 PMCID: PMC9770339 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Early life environments afford infants a variety of learning opportunities, and caregivers play a fundamental role in shaping infant early life experience. Variation in maternal attitudes and parenting practices is likely to be greater between than within cultures. However, there is limited cross-cultural work characterising how early life environment differs across populations. We examined the early life environment of infants from two cultural contexts where attitudes towards parenting and infant development were expected to differ: in a group of 53 mother-infant dyads in the UK and 44 mother-infant dyads in Uganda. Participants were studied longitudinally from when infants were 3- to 15-months-old. Questionnaire data revealed the Ugandan mothers had more relational attitudes towards parenting than the mothers from the UK, who had more autonomous parenting attitudes. Using questionnaires and observational methods, we examined whether infant development and experience aligned with maternal attitudes. We found the Ugandan infants experienced a more relational upbringing than the UK infants, with Ugandan infants receiving more distributed caregiving, more body contact with their mothers, and more proximity to mothers at night. Ugandan infants also showed earlier physical development compared to UK infants. Contrary to our expectations, however, Ugandan infants were not in closer proximity to their mothers during the day, did not have more people in proximity or more partners for social interaction compared to UK infants. In addition, when we examined attitudes towards specific behaviours, mothers' attitudes rarely predicted infant experience in related contexts. Taken together our findings highlight the importance of measuring behaviour, rather than extrapolating expected behaviour based on attitudes alone. We found infants' early life environment varies cross-culturally in many important ways and future research should investigate the consequences of these differences for later development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eve Holden
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | | | - Santa Atim
- Budongo Conservation Field Station, Nyabyeya, Uganda
| | - Hellen Biroch
- Budongo Conservation Field Station, Nyabyeya, Uganda
| | - Ed Donnellan
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Kirsty E. Graham
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Maggie Hoffman
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Michael Jurua
- Budongo Conservation Field Station, Nyabyeya, Uganda
| | | | - Nicole J. Lahiff
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Sophie Marshall
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Claudia Wilke
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Asifa Majid
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
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11
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Daum MM, Bleiker M, Wermelinger S, Kurthen I, Maffongelli L, Antognini K, Beisert M, Gampe A. The kleineWeltentdecker App - A smartphone-based developmental diary. Behav Res Methods 2022; 54:2522-2544. [PMID: 35146699 PMCID: PMC8831019 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-021-01755-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Today, a vast number of tools exist to measure development in early childhood in a variety of domains such as cognition, language, or motor, cognition. These tools vary in different aspects. Either children are examined by a trained experimenter, or caregivers fill out questionnaires. The tools are applied in the controlled setting of a laboratory or in the children's natural environment. While these tools provide a detailed picture of the current state of children's development, they are at the same time subject to several constraints. Furthermore, the measurement of an individual child's change of different skills over time requires not only one measurement but high-density longitudinal assessments. These assessments are time-consuming, and the breadth of developmental domains assessed remains limited. In this paper, we present a novel tool to assess the development of skills in different domains, a smartphone-based developmental diary app (the kleineWeltentdecker App, henceforth referred to as the APP (The German expression "kleine Weltentdecker" can be translated as "young world explorers".)). By using the APP, caregivers can track changes in their children's skills during development. Here, we report the construction and validation of the questionnaires embedded in the APP as well as the technical details. Empirical validations with children of different age groups confirmed the robustness of the different measures implemented in the APP. In addition, we report preliminary findings, for example, on children's communicative development by using existing APP data. This substantiates the validity of the assessment. With the APP, we put a portable tool for the longitudinal documentation of individual children's development in every caregiver's pocket, worldwide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moritz M Daum
- Department of Psychology and Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, Developmental Psychology: Infancy and Childhood, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Box 21, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Marco Bleiker
- Department of Psychology and Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, Developmental Psychology: Infancy and Childhood, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Box 21, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Stephanie Wermelinger
- Department of Psychology and Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, Developmental Psychology: Infancy and Childhood, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Box 21, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Ira Kurthen
- Department of Psychology and Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, Developmental Psychology: Infancy and Childhood, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Box 21, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | - Katharina Antognini
- University of Applied Sciences in Special Needs Education, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Miriam Beisert
- Department of Psychology and Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, Developmental Psychology: Infancy and Childhood, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Box 21, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Anja Gampe
- Department of Psychology and Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, Developmental Psychology: Infancy and Childhood, University of Zurich, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Box 21, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland
- University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany
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12
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Schwarzer G, Gehb G, Kelch A, Gerhard-Samunda T, Jovanovic B. Locomotion training contributes to 6-month-old infants' mental rotation ability. Hum Mov Sci 2022; 85:102979. [PMID: 35952408 DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2022.102979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2022] [Revised: 05/24/2022] [Accepted: 07/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
This study investigated whether a locomotion training contributes to mental rotation performance in infants. Thirty 6-month-old pre-locomotor infants were randomly assigned to either a locomotion training or a control group which received no training. The general status of motor and cognitive development measured with the Bayley Scales did not differ between the 2 groups. Mental rotation was compared before and after the trainings using a mental rotation task in which infants were habituated to a rotating object and then tested with the same habituation object presented in a previously unseen angle and the corresponding mirror object. Results revealed that only infants in the locomotion training group showed a significant change in their looking durations at the test objects (habituation vs. mirror) in the mental rotation task. This suggests that self-produced locomotion experience can affect infants' mental rotation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gudrun Schwarzer
- Department of Psychology, University of Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
| | - Gloria Gehb
- Department of Psychology, University of Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10, 35394 Giessen, Germany
| | - Amanda Kelch
- Department of Psychology, University of Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10, 35394 Giessen, Germany
| | - Theresa Gerhard-Samunda
- Department of Psychology, University of Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10, 35394 Giessen, Germany
| | - Bianca Jovanovic
- Department of Psychology, University of Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10, 35394 Giessen, Germany
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13
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Pedrett S, Chavaillaz A, Frick A. Age-related changes in how 3.5- to 5.5-year-olds observe and imagine rotational object motion. SPATIAL COGNITION AND COMPUTATION 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/13875868.2022.2095276] [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: 10/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Salome Pedrett
- Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Alain Chavaillaz
- Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
| | - Andrea Frick
- Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
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14
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Seepanomwan K, Caligiore D, O'Regan KJ, Baldassarre G. Intrinsic Motivations and Planning to Explain Tool-Use Development: A Study With a Simulated Robot Model. IEEE Trans Cogn Dev Syst 2022. [DOI: 10.1109/tcds.2020.2986411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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15
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Bambha VP, Beckner AG, Shetty N, Voss AT, Xie J, Yiu E, LoBue V, Oakes LM, Casasola M. Developmental Changes in Children’s Object Insertions during Play. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2022.2025807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Aaron G. Beckner
- University of California, CA, USA
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, CA, USA
| | | | - Annika T. Voss
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, CA, USA
| | - Jinlin Xie
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Lisa M. Oakes
- University of California, CA, USA
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, CA, USA
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16
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van den Berg L, Libertus K, Nyström P, Gottwald JM, Licht V, Gredebäck G. A Pre-registered sticky mittens study: active training does not increase reaching and grasping in a swedish context. Child Dev 2022; 93:e656-e671. [PMID: 36047569 PMCID: PMC9826026 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2021] [Revised: 06/09/2022] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
Several studies have previously investigated the effects of sticky mittens training on reaching and grasping development. However, recent critique casted doubts on the robustness of the motor effect of this training. The current study presents a pre-registered report that aimed to generalize these effects to Swedish infants. Three-month-old infants N = 96, 51 females, mostly White middle class in Uppsala, received daily, parent-led sticky mittens or observational training for 2 weeks or no training in 2019. Reaching and grasping abilities were assessed before and after training, using motion tracking and a 4-step reaching task. Sticky mittens training did not facilitate successful reaching. These results indicate that beneficial motor effects of sticky mittens training did not generalize to this sample.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Klaus Libertus
- Learning Research and Development CenterUniversity of PittsburghPittsburghPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Pär Nyström
- Department of PsychologyUppsala UniversityUppsalaSweden
| | | | - Victoria Licht
- University of Milano‐BicoccaDepartment of PsychologyMilanItaly
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17
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Hawkins L, Nyman TM, Wilcox T. Infant's recognition of three‐dimensional form: Mirror image and structurally distinct objects. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Laura Hawkins
- Psychological & Brain Sciences Texas A&M University College Station Texas USA
| | - Tristin M. Nyman
- Psychological & Brain Sciences Texas A&M University College Station Texas USA
| | - Teresa Wilcox
- Department of Psychology Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton Florida USA
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18
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Kelch A, Schwarzer G, Gehb G, Jovanovic B. How 9-month-old crawling infants profit from visual-manual rotations in a mental rotation task. Infant Behav Dev 2021; 65:101642. [PMID: 34509099 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2021] [Revised: 08/16/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Studies show that visual-manual object exploration influences spatial cognition, and specifically mental rotation performance in infancy. The current work with 9-month-old infants investigated which specific exploration procedures (related to crawling experience) support mental rotation performance. In two studies, we examined the effects of two different exploration procedures, manual rotation (Study 1) and haptic scanning (Study 2), on subsequent mental rotation performance. To this end, we constrained infants' exploration possibilities to only one of the respective procedures, and then tested mental rotation performance using a live experimental set-up based on the task used by Moore and Johnson (2008). Results show that, after manual rotation experience with a target object, crawling infants were able to distinguish between exploration objects and their mirror objects, while non-crawling infants were not (Study 1). Infants who were given prior experience with objects through haptic scans (Study 2) did not discriminate between objects, regardless of their crawling experience. Results indicated that a combination of manual rotations and crawling experience are valuable for building up the internal spatial representation of an object.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda Kelch
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany.
| | - Gudrun Schwarzer
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany.
| | - Gloria Gehb
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany.
| | - Bianca Jovanovic
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany.
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19
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Role of manually-generated visual cues in crawling and non-crawling 9-month-old infants’ mental rotation. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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20
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Sensoy Ö, Culham JC, Schwarzer G. The advantage of real objects over matched pictures in infants' processing of the familiar size of objects. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Özlem Sensoy
- Department of Developmental Psychology Justus‐Liebig‐University Giessen Giessen Germany
| | - Jody C. Culham
- Department of Psychology and Brain and Mind Institute Western University London Canada
| | - Gudrun Schwarzer
- Department of Developmental Psychology Justus‐Liebig‐University Giessen Giessen Germany
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21
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Oudgenoeg-Paz O, Mulder H. A perception-action approach to the early development of spatial cognition: The importance of active exploration. ENFANCE 2021. [DOI: 10.3917/enf2.211.0037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
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22
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Klupp S, Möhring W, Lemola S, Grob A. Relations between fine motor skills and intelligence in typically developing children and children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2021; 110:103855. [PMID: 33493957 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2021.103855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2020] [Revised: 11/02/2020] [Accepted: 01/05/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The embodied cognition hypothesis implies a close connection between motor and cognitive development. Evidence for these associations is accumulating, with some studies indicating stronger relations in clinical than typically developing samples. AIMS The present study extends previous research and investigates relations between fine motor skills and intelligence in typically developing children (n = 139, 7-13 years) and same-aged children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 46). In line with previous findings, we hypothesized stronger relations in children with ADHD than in typically developing children. METHODS AND PROCEDURE Fine motor skills were assessed using the standardized Movement Assessment Battery for Children. Intelligence was measured with the standardized Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS Regression analyses indicated significant relations between fine motor skills and full-scale IQ, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. Moderation analyses identified stronger relations between fine motor skills and full-scale IQ, perceptual reasoning, and verbal comprehension in children with ADHD compared to typically developing children. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Results suggest a close relation between fine motor skills and intelligence in children with and without ADHD, with children diagnosed with ADHD showing stronger relations. Findings support combined motor-cognitive interventions in treating children with ADHD.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Wenke Möhring
- University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Switzerland
| | | | - Alexander Grob
- University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Switzerland
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23
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van den Berg L, Gredebäck G. The sticky mittens paradigm: A critical appraisal of current results and explanations. Dev Sci 2020; 24:e13036. [PMID: 32931065 PMCID: PMC8518992 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Revised: 08/06/2020] [Accepted: 08/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Almost two decades ago, the sticky mittens paradigm was demonstrated as a way to train reaching and grasping behaviors in pre‐reaching infants, and consequently improve visual attentional abilities. In that first study, Needham and colleagues fitted 3‐month‐old infants with Velcro loop‐covered mittens and allowed them to interact with Velcro hook‐covered toys over the course of 2 weeks. In this review, we scrutinize the 17 studies that have followed those first sticky mittens results in regards to the motor, social perception, and visual attentional domains. Furthermore, we discuss the proposed mechanisms of the sticky mittens training. Current evidence strongly suggests that sticky mittens training facilitates social perception, which is consistent with prior correlational work showing links between action production and action perception. However, studies targeting motor and visual attentional abilities have too diverse results to warrant firm conclusions. We conclude that future research should focus on uncovering if there is a connection between sticky mittens training and motor behavior.
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24
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Yang W, Liu H, Chen N, Xu P, Lin X. Is Early Spatial Skills Training Effective? A Meta-Analysis. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1938. [PMID: 32982829 PMCID: PMC7485443 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01938] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2020] [Accepted: 07/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Spatial skills significantly predict educational and occupational achievements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As early interventions for young children are usually more effective than interventions that come later in life, the present meta-analysis systematically included 20 spatial intervention studies (2009–2020) with children aged 0–8 years to provide an up-to-date account of the malleability of spatial skills in infancy and early childhood. Our results revealed that the average effect size (Hedges's g) for training relative to control was 0.96 (SE = 0.10) using random effects analysis. We analyzed the effects of several moderators, including the type of study design, sex, age, outcome category (i.e., type of spatial skills), research setting (e.g., lab vs. classroom), and type of training. Study design, sex, and outcome category were found to moderate the training effects. The results suggest that diverse training strategies or programs including hands-on exploration, visual prompts, and gestural spatial training significantly foster young children's spatial skills. Implications for research, policy, and practice are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weipeng Yang
- S R Nathan School of Human Development, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Haidan Liu
- Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.,School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - Nanxi Chen
- Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Peng Xu
- Faculty of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Xunyi Lin
- College of Education, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China
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25
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Gehb G, Kubicek C, Jovanovic B, Schwarzer G. The positive influence of manual object exploration on predictive grasping for a moving object in 9-month-old infants. J Vis 2020; 19:13. [PMID: 31830242 DOI: 10.1167/19.14.13] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study examined whether infants' manual prediction ability is related to different types of their manual object exploration behavior. Thirty-two 9-month-old infants were tested in a manual prediction task, in which they were encouraged to reach for a temporarily occluded moving object. All infants also participated in a manual exploration task, in which they could freely explore five toy blocks. Infants with a high number of haptic scans in the manual exploration task showed a higher prediction rate in the manual prediction task compared to infants with a low haptic scan score. Reaction times of all infants decreased during the test blocks. However, the reaction time of infants with a high haptic scan score was faster in general. Our findings suggest that object experiences gathered by specific manual exploratory actions, such as haptic scans, are related to infants' predictive abilities when reaching and grasping for a temporarily occluded moving object.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gloria Gehb
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Claudia Kubicek
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Bianca Jovanovic
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Gudrun Schwarzer
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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26
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Schröder E, Gredebäck G, Gunnarsson J, Lindskog M. Play enhances visual form perception in infancy-an active training study. Dev Sci 2020; 23:e12923. [PMID: 31721368 PMCID: PMC7187289 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12923] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2018] [Revised: 10/31/2019] [Accepted: 11/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Motor experiences and active exploration during early childhood may affect individual differences in a wide range of perceptual and cognitive abilities. In the current study, we suggest that active exploration of objects facilitates the ability to process object forms and magnitudes, which in turn impacts the development of numerosity perception. We tested our hypothesis by conducting a preregistered active exploration intervention with 59 8-month-old infants. The minimal intervention consisted of actively playing with and exploring blocks once a day for 8 weeks. In order to control for possible training effects on attention, we used book reading as a control condition. Pre- and post-test assessments using eye-tracking showed that block play improved visual form perception, where infants became better at detecting a deviant shape. Furthermore, using three control tasks, we showed that the intervention specifically improved infants' ability to process visual forms and the effect could not be explained by a domain general improvement in attention or visual perception. We found that the intervention did not improve numerosity perception and suggest that because of the sequential nature of our hypothesis, a longer time frame might be needed to see improvements in this ability. Our findings indicate that if infants are given more opportunities for play and exploration, it will have positive effects on their visual form perception, which in turn could help their understanding of geometrical concepts.
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27
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Moore DS, Johnson SP. The development of mental rotation ability across the first year after birth. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2020; 58:1-33. [PMID: 32169193 DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2020.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Mental rotation (MR) is the ability to imagine the appearance of an object from a different perspective. This ability is involved in many human cognitive and behavioral activities. We discuss studies that have examined MR in infants and its development across the first year after birth. Despite some conflicting findings across these studies, several conclusions can be reached. First, MR may be available to human infants as young as 3 months of age. Second, MR processes in infancy may be similar or identical to MR processes later in life. Third, there may be sex differences in MR performance, in general favoring males. Fourth, there appear to be multiple influences on infants' MR performance, including infants' motor activity, stimulus complexity, hormones, and parental attitudes. We conclude by calling for additional research to examine more carefully the causes and consequences of MR abilities early in life.
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Affiliation(s)
- David S Moore
- Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, United States.
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28
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Johnson SP, Moore DS. Spatial Thinking in Infancy: Origins and Development of Mental Rotation Between 3 and 10 Months of Age. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2020; 5:10. [PMID: 32124099 PMCID: PMC7052106 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-020-00212-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2019] [Accepted: 02/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Mental rotation (MR) is the ability to transform a mental representation of an object so as to accurately predict how the object would look from a different angle (Sci 171:701-703, 1971), and it is involved in a number of important cognitive and behavioral activities. In this review we discuss recent studies that have examined MR in infants and the development of MR across the first year after birth. These studies have produced many conflicting results, yet several tentative conclusions can be reached. First, MR may be operational in infants as young as 3 months of age. Second, there may be sex differences in MR performance in infancy, in general favoring males, as there are in children and in adults. Third, there appear to be multiple influences on infants' MR performance, including infants' motor activity, stimulus or task complexity, hormones, and parental attitudes. We conclude by calling for additional research to examine more carefully the causes and consequences of MR abilities early in life.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - David S. Moore
- Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University, 1050 N. Mills Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711 USA
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29
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Lehmann J, Jansen P. The relationship between theory of mind and mental rotation ability in preschool-aged children. COGENT PSYCHOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/23311908.2019.1582127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Lehmann
- Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciene, Department of Sport Science, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, 93053, Germany
| | - Petra Jansen
- Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciene, Department of Sport Science, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, 93053, Germany
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30
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Abstract
Motor development and psychological development are fundamentally related, but researchers typically consider them separately. In this review, we present four key features of infant motor development and show that motor skill acquisition both requires and reflects basic psychological functions. ( a) Motor development is embodied: Opportunities for action depend on the current status of the body. ( b) Motor development is embedded: Variations in the environment create and constrain possibilities for action. ( c) Motor development is enculturated: Social and cultural influences shape motor behaviors. ( d) Motor development is enabling: New motor skills create new opportunities for exploration and learning that instigate cascades of development across diverse psychological domains. For each of these key features, we show that changes in infants' bodies, environments, and experiences entail behavioral flexibility and are thus essential to psychology. Moreover, we suggest that motor development is an ideal model system for the study of psychological development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen E Adolph
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA;
| | - Justine E Hoch
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA;
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31
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Erdmann K, Kavšek M, Heil M. Infants’ looking times in a dynamic mental rotation task: Clarifying inconsistent results. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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32
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Slone LK, Moore DS, Johnson SP. Object exploration facilitates 4-month-olds' mental rotation performance. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0200468. [PMID: 30091988 PMCID: PMC6084896 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2018] [Accepted: 06/27/2018] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
How do infants learn to mentally rotate objects, to imagine them rotating through different viewpoints? One possibility is that development of infants' mental rotation (MR) is facilitated by visual and manual experience with complex objects. To evaluate this possibility, eighty 4-month-olds (40 females, 40 males) participated in an object exploration task with Velcro "sticky mittens" that allow infants too young to grasp objects themselves to nonetheless explore those objects manually as well as visually. These eighty infants also participated in a visual habituation task designed to test MR. Half the infants (Mittens First group) explored the object prior to the MR task, and the other half afterwards (Mittens Second group), to examine the role of immediate prior object experience on MR performance. We compared performance of male and female infants, but found little evidence for sex differences. However, we found an important effect of object exploration: The infants in the Mittens First group who exhibited the highest levels of spontaneous object engagement showed the strongest evidence of MR, but there were no consistent correlations between these measures for infants in the Mittens Second group. These findings suggest an important contribution from object experience to development of MR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren K. Slone
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN, United States of America
| | - David S. Moore
- Psychology Field Group, Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University, Claremont CA, United States of America
| | - Scott P. Johnson
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA, United States of America
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33
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Abstract
In order to explore the developmental patterns of sex differences in verbal and visuospatial abilities, the present study investigated sex differences in various cognitive abilities among children and adults. Three hundred and twenty-six children and adults completed a battery of six cognitive tasks testing two sets of abilities: The verbal cognitive battery tested verbal fluency and short-term memory tasks. The visuospatial battery tested mental rotation, localization, and form-completion tasks. Results showed a significant Sex × Age interaction on the mental rotation task, with men outperforming women in the 3D task, but with no sex differences shown in childhood in the 2D task. Sex differences in verbal fluency were found, with girls and women outperforming boys and men in this task. Findings are discussed within an integrative approach of biological as well as environmental factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Efrat Barel
- Department of Behavioral Sciences, The Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Emek Yezreel, Israel
| | - Orna Tzischinsky
- Department of Behavioral Sciences, The Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Emek Yezreel, Israel
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34
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Frick A. Spatial transformation abilities and their relation to later mathematics performance. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2018; 83:1465-1484. [DOI: 10.1007/s00426-018-1008-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2017] [Accepted: 04/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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35
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Levine SC, Goldin-Meadow S, Carlson MT, Hemani-Lopez N. Mental Transformation Skill in Young Children: The Role of Concrete and Abstract Motor Training. Cogn Sci 2018. [PMID: 29528134 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
We examined the effects of three different training conditions, all of which involve the motor system, on kindergarteners' mental transformation skill. We focused on three main questions. First, we asked whether training that involves making a motor movement that is relevant to the mental transformation-either concretely through action (action training) or more abstractly through gestural movements that represent the action (move-gesture training)-resulted in greater gains than training using motor movements irrelevant to the mental transformation (point-gesture training). We tested children prior to training, immediately after training (posttest), and 1 week after training (retest), and we found greater improvement in mental transformation skill in both the action and move-gesture training conditions than in the point-gesture condition, at both posttest and retest. Second, we asked whether the total gain made by retest differed depending on the abstractness of the movement-relevant training (action vs. move-gesture), and we found that it did not. Finally, we asked whether the time course of improvement differed for the two movement-relevant conditions, and we found that it did-gains in the action condition were realized immediately at posttest, with no further gains at retest; gains in the move-gesture condition were realized throughout, with comparable gains from pretest-to-posttest and from posttest-to-retest. Training that involves movement, whether concrete or abstract, can thus benefit children's mental transformation skill. However, the benefits unfold differently over time-the benefits of concrete training unfold immediately after training (online learning); the benefits of more abstract training unfold in equal steps immediately after training (online learning) and during the intervening week with no additional training (offline learning). These findings have implications for the kinds of instruction that can best support spatial learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan C Levine
- Department of Psychology, Department of Comparative Human Development and Committee on Education, University of Chicago
| | - Susan Goldin-Meadow
- Department of Psychology, Department of Comparative Human Development and Committee on Education, University of Chicago
| | - Matthew T Carlson
- Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese and Center for Language Science, The Pennsylvania State University
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36
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Gerhard TM, Schwarzer G. Impact of rotation angle on crawling and non-crawling 9-month-old infants' mental rotation ability. J Exp Child Psychol 2018; 170:45-56. [PMID: 29407187 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2017] [Revised: 12/07/2017] [Accepted: 01/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The current study investigated whether 9-month-old infants' mental rotation performance was influenced by the magnitude of the angle of object rotation and their crawling ability. A total of 76 infants were tested; of these infants, 39 had been crawling for an average of 9.0 weeks. Infants were habituated to a video of a simplified Shepard-Metzler object (Shepard & Metzler, 1971), always rotating forward through a 180° angle around the horizontal axis of the object. After habituation, in two different test conditions, infants were presented with test videos of the same object rotating farther forward through a previously unseen 90° angle and with a test video of its mirror image. The two test conditions differed in the magnitude of the gap between the end of the habituation rotations and the beginning of the test rotations. The gaps were 0° and 54°. The results revealed that the mental rotation performance was influenced by the magnitude of the gaps only for the crawling infants. Their response showed significant transition from a preference for the mirror object rotations toward a preference for the familiar habituation object rotations. Thus, the results provide first evidence that it is easier for 9-month-old crawling infants to mentally rotate an object along a small angle compared with a large one.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theresa M Gerhard
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
| | - Gudrun Schwarzer
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, 35394 Giessen, Germany
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37
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Lockman JJ, Fears NE, Jung WP. The Development of Object Fitting: The Dynamics of Spatial Coordination. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2018; 55:31-72. [PMID: 30031438 DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2018.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Fitting objects into apertures is an adaptive skill that is incorporated into the design of many tools. We match or align shapes with openings when we insert keys into locks, when we put lids atop containers, or when we align a screwdriver with the groove of a screw. Traditionally, the development of object fitting has focused on children's abilities to successfully complete shape sorter tasks (e.g., square peg through square hole). By measuring children's success in these tasks, investigators have determined that there is substantial development during the second year, but little research has addressed the processes children employ to solve object fitting challenges during this time period. Here, we provide a process based account of object fitting, which emphasizes how children coordinate information about spatial structure with action. We suggest that a process-based approach can illuminate the real-time dynamics of perceiving, acting, and thinking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey J Lockman
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States
| | - Nicholas E Fears
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States
| | - Wendy P Jung
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States
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38
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Meneghetti C, Toffalini E, Carretti B, Lanfranchi S. Mental rotation ability and everyday-life spatial activities in individuals with Down syndrome. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2018; 72:33-41. [PMID: 29080484 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.10.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2017] [Revised: 10/11/2017] [Accepted: 10/18/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Although certain visuospatial abilities, such as mental rotation, are crucially important in everyday activities, they have been little explored in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). This study investigates: i) mental rotation ability in individuals with DS; and ii) its relation to cognitive abilities and to everyday spatial activities. Forty-eight individuals with DS and 48 typically-developing (TD) children, matched on measures of vocabulary and fluid intelligence, were compared on their performance in a rotation task that involved detecting which of two figures would fit into a hole if rotated (five angles of rotation were considered: 0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°). Participants were also assessed on their visuospatial and verbal cognitive abilities, and on their parents and/or educators reports regarding their everyday spatial activities. Results showed that: (i) individuals with DS were less accurate in mental rotation than TD children, with larger differences between the groups for smaller angles of rotation; individuals with DS could not mentally rotate through 180°, while TD children could; (ii) mental rotation ability was related to fluid intelligence and to spatial activities (though other cognitive abilities are also involved in the latter) to a similar degree in the DS group and the matched TD children. These results are discussed with regard to the atypical development domain and spatial cognition models.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Silvia Lanfranchi
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Italy
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39
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Smith LB, Slone LK. A Developmental Approach to Machine Learning? Front Psychol 2017; 8:2124. [PMID: 29259573 PMCID: PMC5723343 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2017] [Accepted: 11/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual learning depends on both the algorithms and the training material. This essay considers the natural statistics of infant- and toddler-egocentric vision. These natural training sets for human visual object recognition are very different from the training data fed into machine vision systems. Rather than equal experiences with all kinds of things, toddlers experience extremely skewed distributions with many repeated occurrences of a very few things. And though highly variable when considered as a whole, individual views of things are experienced in a specific order - with slow, smooth visual changes moment-to-moment, and developmentally ordered transitions in scene content. We propose that the skewed, ordered, biased visual experiences of infants and toddlers are the training data that allow human learners to develop a way to recognize everything, both the pervasively present entities and the rarely encountered ones. The joint consideration of real-world statistics for learning by researchers of human and machine learning seems likely to bring advances in both disciplines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda B. Smith
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States
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40
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Constantinescu M, Moore DS, Johnson SP, Hines M. Early contributions to infants’ mental rotation abilities. Dev Sci 2017; 21:e12613. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2016] [Accepted: 07/21/2017] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - David S. Moore
- Psychology Field Group; Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University; Claremont CA USA
| | - Scott P. Johnson
- Department of Psychology; University of California; Los Angeles CA USA
| | - Melissa Hines
- Department of Psychology; University of Cambridge; Cambridge UK
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41
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Weisberg SM, Newcombe NS. Embodied cognition and STEM learning: overview of a topical collection in CR:PI. COGNITIVE RESEARCH-PRINCIPLES AND IMPLICATIONS 2017; 2:38. [PMID: 28959709 PMCID: PMC5596025 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-017-0071-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2017] [Accepted: 07/08/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Embodied learning approaches emphasize the use of action to support pedagogical goals. A specific version of embodied learning posits an action-to-abstraction transition supported by gesture, sketching, and analogical mapping. These tools seem to have special promise for bolstering learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, but existing efforts need further theoretical and empirical development. The topical collection in Cognitive Research: Principles includes articles aiming to formalize and test the effectiveness of embodied learning in STEM. The collection provides guideposts, staking out the terrain that should be surveyed before larger-scale efforts are undertaken. This introduction provides a broader context concerning mechanisms that can support embodied learning and make it especially well suited to the STEM disciplines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven M Weisberg
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA.,Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA
| | - Nora S Newcombe
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA
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42
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Getting some space: Infants’ and caregivers’ containment and support spatial constructions during play. J Exp Child Psychol 2017; 159:110-128. [PMID: 28285041 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.01.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2016] [Revised: 01/26/2017] [Accepted: 01/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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43
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Oudgenoeg-Paz O, Mulder H, Jongmans MJ, van der Ham IJM, Van der Stigchel S. The link between motor and cognitive development in children born preterm and/or with low birth weight: A review of current evidence. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2017. [PMID: 28642071 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.06.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The current review focuses on evidence for a link between early motor development and later cognitive skills in children born preterm or with Low Birth Weight (LBW). Studies with term born children consistently show such a link. Motor and cognitive impairments or delays are often seen in children born preterm or with LBW throughout childhood and studies have established a cross-sectional association between the two. However, it is not yet clear if, and if so, how, motor and cognitive skills are longitudinally interrelated in these children. Longitudinal studies with this population including measures of motor development during the first year of life and cognitive measures at later measurement points were included. The 17 studies included usually show a link between level and/or quality of motor development during the first year of life and later cognitive skills in children born preterm and/or with LBW. However, given the small number of studies, and a possible effect of early interaction between motor and cognitive skills affecting this relation, more work is clearly needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ora Oudgenoeg-Paz
- Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
| | - Hanna Mulder
- Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
| | - Marian J Jongmans
- Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
| | - Ineke J M van der Ham
- Department of Health, Medical, and Neuropsychology, Leiden University, The Netherlands
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44
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Russo-Johnson C, Troseth G, Duncan C, Mesghina A. All Tapped Out: Touchscreen Interactivity and Young Children's Word Learning. Front Psychol 2017; 8:578. [PMID: 28446895 PMCID: PMC5388766 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2016] [Accepted: 03/28/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Touchscreen devices differ from passive screen media in promoting physical interaction with events on the screen. Two studies examined how young children's screen-directed actions related to self-regulation (Study 1) and word learning (Study 2). In Study 1, 30 2-year-old children's tapping behaviors during game play were related to their self-regulation, measured using Carlson's snack task: girls and children with high self-regulation tapped significantly less during instruction portions of an app (including object labeling events) than did boys and children with low self-regulation. Older preschoolers (N = 47, aged 4-6 years) tapped significantly less during instruction than 2-year-olds did. Study 2 explored whether the particular way in which 170 children (2-4 years of age) interacted with a touchscreen app affected their learning of novel object labels. Conditions in which children tapped or dragged a named object to move it across the screen required different amounts of effort and focus, compared to a non-interactive (watching) condition. Age by sex interactions revealed a particular benefit of dragging (a motorically challenging behavior) for preschool girls' learning compared to that of boys, especially for girls older than age 2. Boys benefited more from watching than dragging. Children from low socioeconomic status families learned more object names when dragging objects versus tapping them, possibly because tapping is a prepotent response that does not require thoughtful attention. Parents and industry experts should consider age, sex, self-regulation, and the physical requirements of children's engagement with touchscreens when designing and using educational content.
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45
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Costello MC, Bloesch EK. Are Older Adults Less Embodied? A Review of Age Effects through the Lens of Embodied Cognition. Front Psychol 2017; 8:267. [PMID: 28289397 PMCID: PMC5326803 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2016] [Accepted: 02/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Embodied cognition is a theoretical framework which posits that cognitive function is intimately intertwined with the body and physical actions. Although the field of psychology is increasingly accepting embodied cognition as a viable theory, it has rarely been employed in the gerontological literature. However, embodied cognition would appear to have explanatory power for aging research given that older adults typically manifest concurrent physical and mental changes, and that research has indicated a correlative relationship between such changes. The current paper reviews age-related changes in sensory processing, mental representation, and the action-perception relationship, exploring how each can be understood through the lens of embodied cognition. Compared to younger adults, older adults exhibit across all three domains an increased tendency to favor visual processing over bodily factors, leading to the conclusion that older adults are less embodied than young adults. We explore the significance of this finding in light of existing theoretical models of aging and argue that embodied cognition can benefit gerontological research by identifying further factors that can explain the cause of age-related declines.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Emily K Bloesch
- Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant MI, USA
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46
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Ebersbach M, Nawroth C. The Effects of Visual Discriminability and Rotation Angle on 30-Month-Olds' Search Performance in Spatial Rotation Tasks. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1648. [PMID: 27812346 PMCID: PMC5071628 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2016] [Accepted: 10/07/2016] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Tracking objects that are hidden and then moved is a crucial ability related to object permanence, which develops across several stages in early childhood. In spatial rotation tasks, children observe a target object that is hidden in one of two or more containers before the containers are rotated around a fixed axis. Usually, 30-month-olds fail to find the hidden object after it was rotated by 180°. We examined whether visual discriminability of the containers improves 30-month-olds’ success in this task and whether children perform better after 90° than after 180° rotations. Two potential hiding containers with same or different colors were placed on a board that was rotated by 90° or 180° in a within-subjects design. Children (N = 29) performed above chance level in all four conditions. Their overall success in finding the object did not improve by differently colored containers. However, different colors prevented children from showing an inhibition bias in 90° rotations, that is, choosing the empty container more often when it was located close to them than when it was farther away: This bias emerged in the same colors condition but not in the different colors condition. Results are discussed in view of particular challenges that might facilitate or deteriorate spatial rotation tasks for young children.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Christian Nawroth
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London UK
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47
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Christodoulou J, Johnson SP, Moore DM, Moore DS. Seeing double: 5-month-olds' mental rotation of dynamic, 3D block stimuli presented on dual monitors. Infant Behav Dev 2016; 45:64-70. [PMID: 27744109 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.09.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2016] [Revised: 09/07/2016] [Accepted: 09/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Mental rotation (MR) involves the ability to predict how an object will look once it has been rotated into a new orientation in space. To date, studies of MR in infants have tested this ability using abstract stimuli presented using a single display. Evidence from existing studies suggests that using multiple displays may affect an infant's performance in some kinds of MR tasks. This study used Moore & Johnson's (2008) simplified Shepard-Metzler objects in a dual-monitor MR task presented to five-month-old infants. Evidence for MR in infancy was found. These findings have implications for MR testing in infancy and the influence of display properties on infant MR performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joan Christodoulou
- Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, United States.
| | - Scott P Johnson
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
| | - Dawn M Moore
- Claremont Infant Study Center at Pitzer College, United States
| | - David S Moore
- Department of Psychology, Pitzer College & Claremont Graduate University, United States
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48
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McKinstry JL, Fleischer JG, Chen Y, Gall WE, Edelman GM. Imagery May Arise from Associations Formed through Sensory Experience: A Network of Spiking Neurons Controlling a Robot Learns Visual Sequences in Order to Perform a Mental Rotation Task. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0162155. [PMID: 27653977 PMCID: PMC5031450 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2015] [Accepted: 08/18/2016] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Mental imagery occurs “when a representation of the type created during the initial phases of perception is present but the stimulus is not actually being perceived.” How does the capability to perform mental imagery arise? Extending the idea that imagery arises from learned associations, we propose that mental rotation, a specific form of imagery, could arise through the mechanism of sequence learning–that is, by learning to regenerate the sequence of mental images perceived while passively observing a rotating object. To demonstrate the feasibility of this proposal, we constructed a simulated nervous system and embedded it within a behaving humanoid robot. By observing a rotating object, the system learns the sequence of neural activity patterns generated by the visual system in response to the object. After learning, it can internally regenerate a similar sequence of neural activations upon briefly viewing the static object. This system learns to perform a mental rotation task in which the subject must determine whether two objects are identical despite differences in orientation. As with human subjects, the time taken to respond is proportional to the angular difference between the two stimuli. Moreover, as reported in humans, the system fills in intermediate angles during the task, and this putative mental rotation activates the same pathways that are activated when the system views physical rotation. This work supports the proposal that mental rotation arises through sequence learning and the idea that mental imagery aids perception through learned associations, and suggests testable predictions for biological experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey L. McKinstry
- The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Jason G. Fleischer
- The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Yanqing Chen
- The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - W. Einar Gall
- The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Gerald M. Edelman
- The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America
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49
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Newman SD, Hansen MT, Gutierrez A. An fMRI Study of the Impact of Block Building and Board Games on Spatial Ability. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1278. [PMID: 27621714 PMCID: PMC5002428 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2016] [Accepted: 08/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have found that block play, board games, and puzzles result in better spatial ability. This study focused on examining the differential impact of structured block play and board games on spatial processing. Two groups of 8-year-old children were studied. One group participated in a five session block play training paradigm and the second group had a similar training protocol but played a word/spelling board game. A mental rotation task was assessed before and after training. The mental rotation task was performed during fMRI to observe the neural changes associated with the two play protocols. Only the block play group showed effects of training for both behavioral measures and fMRI measured brain activation. Behaviorally, the block play group showed improvements in both reaction time and accuracy. Additionally, the block play group showed increased involvement of regions that have been linked to spatial working memory and spatial processing after training. The board game group showed non-significant improvements in mental rotation performance, likely related to practice effects, and no training related brain activation differences. While the current study is preliminary, it does suggest that different “spatial” play activities have differential impacts on spatial processing with structured block play but not board games showing a significant impact on mental rotation performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharlene D Newman
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Mitchell T Hansen
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Arianna Gutierrez
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA
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50
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Antrilli NK, Wang SH. Visual Cues Generated During Action Facilitate 14-Month-Old Infants’ Mental Rotation. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2015.1058262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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