Is or ought? Reactions to violations help children to distinguish norms and regularities
Publication date: June 2020Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Volume 194Author(s): Anne E. Riggs (Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology)
Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology - March 1, 2020 Category: Child Development Source Type: research

Modification of hostile attribution bias reduces self-reported reactive aggressive behavior in adolescents
Publication date: Available online 21 February 2020Source: Journal of Experimental Child PsychologyAuthor(s): Bram Van Bockstaele, Mariët J. van der Molen, Maroesjka van Nieuwenhuijzen, Elske SaleminkAbstractAggressive individuals more readily interpret others’ motives and intentions in ambiguous situations as hostile. This hostile attribution bias has been argued to be causally involved in the development and maintenance of aggression, making it a target for interventions. In our current study, adolescents selected for high levels of aggression (N = 39) were assigned to either a test–retest control group or a five-...
Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology - February 22, 2020 Category: Child Development Source Type: research

Conceptual continuity in the development of intent-based moral judgment
Publication date: June 2020Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Volume 194Author(s): Francesco Margoni, Luca SurianAbstractWhen asked to say whether an agent is morally good or bad, younger preschoolers tend to rely more on the outcomes of agents’ actions than on agents’ intentions, whereas older children show the opposite bias. Children aged 3 to 5 years were examined with a novel task that facilitated the selection and expression of response by means of response generation training. In two experiments, we found that 3-year-olds succeeded in generating intent-based judgments when the task was simplified,...
Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology - February 22, 2020 Category: Child Development Source Type: research

Theory of mind mediates the relations of language and domain-general cognitions to discourse comprehension
Publication date: June 2020Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Volume 194Author(s): Young-Suk Grace KimAbstractTheory of mind has received intensive attention in research as an important skill to develop. Furthermore, recent evidence indicates its role in discourse comprehension. In the current study, we examined the mediating role of theory of mind in the relations of foundational language and cognitive skills (working memory, attentional control, vocabulary, and grammatical knowledge) to discourse comprehension using the direct and indirect effects model of text comprehension and production (Kim, 2016) as a...
Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology - February 22, 2020 Category: Child Development Source Type: research

Play for success: A novel intervention to boost visual attention in low-socioeconomic-status infants
Publication date: May 2020Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Volume 193Author(s): Melissa W. ClearfieldAbstractDevelopmental differences in visual attention between infants of low and high socioeconomic status (SES) have been observed as early as 6 months of age. These deficits in low-SES infants may compound into the well-known achievement gap when children enter grade school. The current study implemented a novel intervention designed to boost early visual attention. The intervention, called Play for Success, was administered through the Early Head Start home visiting program and required all infants to p...
Source: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology - February 22, 2020 Category: Child Development Source Type: research