October 2024
Observations for Psychology Assignments
Students from Dr. Carver’s Child Development class are conducting classroom observations throughout the fall. For each assignment, they observe specific differences between age groups in motor skills, social interactions, language, etc. They relate their observations to the developmental milestones and mechanisms they have learned this semester and from the Children’s School website. They also hypothesize about what features of our educational approach might differ across cultures and generations as part of their course’s emphasis on Contextual Thinking.
Research Methods Class Studies
Students in Professor Erik Thiessen’s Developmental Research Methods conducting a study of children’s working memory capacity (The Animal Names Game). Working memory refers to our ability to hold in mind information intended for immediate use, such as dialing a phone number someone just told you or remembering directions to a new place (for example: make a right onto Main Street, drive 5 miles and make a left onto High Street, drive 400 feet and the store will be on your right). Such information is likely to be forgotten relatively quickly unless we make a special effort to retain it (for instance by repeating it several times) and the amount of transient information one can hold in mind increases with development. For instance, a 2-year-old may not be able to remember a sequence of three random instructions (for example: touch your nose, clap 3 times, and shake your head), but a kindergartner should be generally able to do so.
Students in the Developmental Research Methods class are investigating the age-related increase in working memory capacity using the Word Span task. In this task, children are asked to repeat animal names after the tester. In the beginning, children are given a relatively easy task of repeating back a sequence of animal names consisting of just two words, such as FROG-SWAN. The number of words in the sequences is gradually increased, such that the longest possible sequence contains six words, such as SNAKE-FOX-CLAM-WOLF-BUG-HAWK. A coder records the maximum number of words a child repeats back correctly. You can try this game with your child at home!
Each child plays the game twice in one session. Once, children are asked to repeat back sequences of animal names that are only one syllable long, like the examples above. Another time, children are asked to repeat sequences of animal names that consist of multisyllabic words (such as BUTTERFLY, ANTELOPE, or ELEPHANT). Based on the existing evidence that memory span for digits depends more on the amount of time required to say the number names than the number of digits in the list, the researchers expect children of all ages to correctly repeat back more animal names when the names consist of a single syllable than when the names consist of multiple syllables. Findings consistent with this prediction would provide further evidence suggesting that our working memory capacity has temporal limits rather than item-based limits.
Later in the semester, the students will work in small groups to conduct a study of their own design, which will be approved both by their instructor and by Dr. Carver. Watch for their research questions in an upcoming edition!
November 2024
Two groups of undergraduates from Dr. Erik Thiessen’s Research Methods in Developmental Psychology course are conducting their final projects during the month of November.
The Toy Choice Game
Group 1 is focusing on understanding how gender stereotypes influence toy preferences among preschool-aged children. Gender stereotypes, as established through societal norms and media, often use color and shape to categorize toys as suitable for boys or girls. The research aims to explore these visual cues, specifically color and shape, to see how they contribute to reinforcing these stereotypes from a young age. Gender schemas, which are cognitive frameworks that guide information processing based on perceived gender norms, begin to form in early childhood. These schemas influence children's perceptions by categorizing objects, behaviors, and activities into gender-specific groups. For example, toys and colors like dolls and pink are often marketed as suitable for girls, while trucks and blue are targeted toward boys.
In The Toy Choice Game, the undergraduate researchers are examining how these predefined categories affect children's choices and whether certain combinations of these cues have a stronger influence than others. To investigate these dynamics, they are testing two main hypotheses: the additive hypothesis and the threshold hypothesis. The additive hypothesis proposes that the preference will be shown to objects with a combination of both color and shape that aligns with gender stereotypes, such as a pink doll or a blue truck. The threshold hypothesis suggests that the presence of just one cue that aligns with gender stereotypes is sufficient to influence a child’s choice. According to this hypothesis, once a toy displays either a gender-typical color or shape, adding additional gendered features does not significantly alter its appeal.
During the research session, children are shown digital images of various toys that vary systematically in both color and shape and asked to choose which one they would like to have for their imaginary new playroom. To avoid promoting gendered toy stereotypes, children are reminded at the end of the session that all our friends can play with any type of toys, no matter the color or shape. The results of this study may contribute valuable insights into the developmental impacts of gender stereotypes, which could then help in crafting educational strategies that promote a more inclusive approach to play and learning.
The Jumping Game
Group 2 is examining whether children perform better on a physical task when they are facing a peer doing the same task or have their back to the peer so they cannot see each other’s faces. Specifically, the undergraduate researchers are interested in determining whether being face to face with a peer will prompt an emotional response that increases physical performance, and whether there may be gender differences in that response.
During the task, each child will do as many jumping jacks as possible in two minutes with a peer face to face and with a peer back-to-back (with the order of the two conditions randomized). The researchers will compare the number of jumping jacks that each child can do in each condition to see which condition increases physical performance. Previous research has shown that children are sensitive to emotional stimuli, and that girls are more sensitive than boys. There is also literature suggesting that children in a heightened positive emotional state perform better on physical assessments. Therefore, the researchers predict that girls will perform better than boys when they are face to face with a peer, and that they will do better face to face than back-to-back.
January 2025
The Shapes Game
Young children’s environments are filled with information about associations between things that go together. For example, a common children’s song says, “The wheels on the bus go round and round.” This nursery rhyme teaches children the association between a bus and wheels, and another association between wheels and their motion of going round and round. However, the nursery rhyme itself doesn’t teach children whether the wheels cause the bus to move. In cases like these, children must generalize over common associations to produce inferences about how the world works.
Graduate Student Ricky WonJoon Choi, and undergraduates Sungjung Bok and LiLi DiMuzio are exploring children’s ability to make sense of their world by investigating how children engage in associative learning to make causal inferences with novel digital objects. In the two sessions of the Shapes Game, children complete two tasks per session involving geometric shapes that are animated on a computer screen. All tasks require children to generalize between two associations that are indirectly related but never directly seen together. By examining the choices children make in these games and whether their choice pattern stays consistent or changes across task type (Figures 1~3 vs. Figures 4~6) and task condition (whether the first object contacts or does not contact the second object), the researchers can better understand whether young children’s inferences and predictions are genuinely causal (because of the direct contact) or simply associative (close in space or time).
Children are first told that red squares and purple diamonds go together, while green cylinders and yellow circles go together, as shown in Figure 1. They are then shown animations (Figure 2) in which an object descends from the top of the screen and contacts (or does not contact) the object at the bottom and either causes a sound and change in color or not. They are then shown two new objects (the blue triangle objects) and asked to predict which object will cause the same reaction (Figure 3). If children predict that the blue triangle with the purple diamond will cause the same reaction as the red square, then they are using the initial association to make a causal inference.
In the second type of task, the object interactions are more like pushing, but the association between the inner and outer objects is similar, with each large shape always going together with the same smaller shape, as shown in Figure 4. Children are then shown animated stimuli (Figure 5) in which an object from the left of the screen moves into contact with (or does not contact) an object on the right and either causes the second object to move or not. As in the first type of task, children are then shown two new objects and asked to predict which object will cause the same reaction, shown in Figure 6. Here again, children could use the initial association to make causal inferences. The researchers are playing this game with children ranging in age from 3 to 6 years so they can discover age-related changes in children’s use of associations to make causal inferences, and the data from the Children’s School will be compared to college students’ performance on a similar set of tasks to better understand later developmental changes.
February 2025
The "Who Did You See?" Game
Researchers in the Cognitive and Social Development Lab are investigating how young children recognize faces from different racial groups and whether the way faces are represented can influence this ability.
A team led by Dr. Catarina Vales is focusing this study on the phenomenon known as the “other-race effect”, where both children and adults often find it more challenging to recognize faces from racial/ethnic groups different from their own. While past research suggests that the other-race effect is influenced by factors like the diversity of children’s and adults’ social networks, we know little about how specific experiences with different kinds of faces affect face recognition in childhood. The goal of this study is to compare the
other-race effect in real and cartoon faces. If we find comparable effects across the two formats, then future studies could examine the role of media in shaping the development of face recognition.
In this first iteration of the memory game, children from Black and White racial groups are asked to remember and recognize both real and cartoon faces. First, children practice with familiar objects; for example, they see a picture of a dog and are then asked which of two options (a dog or a car) they had seen before. After this practice, children are asked to remember different real and cartoon faces, depicting both Black and White individuals. Each child completes a total of 24 trials. The results of this study, together with subsequent studies with additional racial groups included, will help the researchers better determine whether the other-race effect is comparable in real and cartoon faces, which opens the way for future studies examining how exposure to various types of media, like videos vs. cartoons, influences children’s ability to recognize faces across racial groups.
March 2025
The Number-Line Game
Undergraduates in the Research Methods in Developmental Psychology course have been investigating what kind of information 4- to 6-year-old children use when making numerosity judgements in a number-line task. The idea of the number-line task is that researchers can get insights about emerging number knowledge by asking children to place numbers (or other stimuli that represent numerosity or quantity) on a bounded number line. For example, children might be given a number (or a cloud of dots) and asked where in a number-line between 0 and 1,000 that specific number (or cloud of dots) would go. Researchers can then compare how close each response is to the true number. This task has been extensively used in prior research, showing for example that young children make more accurate judgements with smaller relative to larger numbers. Prior research also suggests that performance in the number-line task is related to other aspects of number knowledge.
In the current project, undergraduates are replicating a previous study that examined whether performance on the number-line task might be better explained by proportional reasoning – that is, by the ability to map any magnitude dimension (and not just number) proportionally to space. Because the number-line task does require number-to-space mapping, it is possible that proportional reasoning supports performance in the number-line task. The students replicated two conditions used in a prior study (Yuan et al., 2020), asking children to place either symbolic numbers or clustered dot arrays (as shown below) on a number line between 0 and 1,000. Each child was asked to complete 22 such trials.
Based on prior research, the students expect that children in this age range will perform better in the clustered dots condition than in the symbolic number condition, and that performance between these two conditions will be unrelated. This pattern of results would suggest that proportional reasoning, per se, is insufficient to support performance in the number-line task. The results will be informative for understanding whether the number-line task is an appropriate assessment of numerical understanding, as well as to develop educational strategies – for example, using clustered dot arrays might be more effective for younger children to grasp numerical concepts before introducing symbolic numbers.
April 2025
Undergraduate Research Methods Projects
The students in Dr. Caterina Vales’ Research Methods class have proposed, piloted, and almost finished conducting their small group final projects for the semester.
The Music Listening Game
In this project, students are investigating whether 3-5 year old children can recognize the energy level and emotional connotation conveyed by music via the mode (major / minor scale) and tempo (fast / slow), respectively. Children listen to short clips of instrumental piano music and choose the facial expression they think best represented the music. Prior research has shown that children ages 3-5 are able to identify the emotional connotation of music by recognizing the tempo of the song, associating sadness with slow music and happiness with fast music. This undergraduate project seeks to build on existing research by investigating whether young children can also identify the arousal of music based on the major / minor mode, whether young children can simultaneously identify emotion and arousal, and how these abilities change with age.
The Help Elmer Remember Game
Another team is exploring the effect of word familiarity and hand gestures on 3- year-olds’ ability to remember words. In the task, children watch a video narrative of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant written by David Mckee. Embedded in the story are lists of words for the children to remember. The words are either familiar or unfamiliar and are accompanied by either a non- representational hand movement emphasizing one word (“beat gesture”) or no gesture. The key question is whether the presence of beat gestures improves children’s memory for familiar and/or unfamiliar words. The results may contribute to better understanding how varying levels of gestures improve effective communication and memory processing in young children.
The New Toy Game
The final team (see photo above) is testing which type of memorization methods are most effective for 3- and 4-year-olds when learning the names of new objects. In this project, undergraduates compared the spaced practice method of memorization to the mass practice method for learning new words for specific objects and for categories of objects, all of which the undergraduates created to be novel for the children. During the learning phase, each new object or category label is presented to the child multiple times, either in quick succession (mass practice) or with 30 second intervals (spaced practice). After the learning phase, children complete a distractor coloring task prior to the recall phase. The coloring is done either on paper or on a computer. During this phase, they are also shown an unrelated object. Finally, during the recall phase, children are asked to identify the original object or category from a set of objects including distractors. The undergraduates are interested in determining what factors influence the children’s recall accuracy: learning objects vs. categories, via spaced vs. mass practice, and after delay while coloring on paper vs. online. These results may be informative for determining the best ways to introduce new labels to children.
Memory for Story Order
Together with faculty member Erik Thiessen, research associates Alexandra Cheung and Maddie Keglewitsch are examining how children understand story sequencing and aiming to determine if children's expectation of stories affects their ability to recognize how story events are connected. In the study, the research assistant reads a version of Evergreen, by Matthew Cordell, on an iPad. The child hears the story either in its correct order or in a manipulated order. To assess the effects of story order, the research assistant asks the child to arrange pictures from the story in the order they saw them appear. The results of this study will provide a more detailed understanding of story features that facilitate story comprehension. Additionally, the results will provide researchers with insight on how children understand chronological orders and sequences in their everyday lives. Children’s routines form a foundational knowledge about the structure of the world that allows them to navigate it more effectively, in much the same way that knowing how restaurants work allows us to process a menu more efficiently. In this study, the researchers are investigating whether children’s developing knowledge about sequence order, and the way things typically work in stories, will influence them to remember the story differently, especially in situations where they hear stories in which the order of events is rearranged. The researchers aim to determine the extent to which children are passively absorbing information, and the extent to which they are applying their own creative sensibilities to the material.
fNIRS STUDY of Story Learning
Children who have permission to participate in studies utilizing functional Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (fNIRS) may engage in another study being conducted by Dr. Thiessen’s graduate student Mady Davis- Troller, lab manager Molly Niehaus, and undergraduate research associate Isha Nambisan to test the association of children’s story learning with activity in the prefrontal cortex.
In the study, children wear an appropriately sized fNIRS cap to measure their brain activity while they watch an animated storybook from the website Vooks on a laptop. To assess children’s learning, the research assistant asks comprehension questions about the story they watched. Each question can be answered with just a few words. The children’s comprehension accuracy is then correlated with the fNIRS results to discover associations between learning and brain activity. Reading and storytelling are a huge aspect of human life, especially in childhood, where books and stories provide children with an opportunity to learn and improve important skills. Results from these story games will contribute to a broader effort to understand the most effective modes of storytelling and improve children’s reading experiences.