Francisco Pons

Individual differences in children's emotion understanding: Effects of age and language

Over the last two decades, it has been established that childrens emotion understanding changes as they develop. Recent studies have also begun to address individual differences in childrens emotion understanding. The first goal of this study was to examine the development of these individual differences across a wide age range with a test assessing nine different components of emotion understanding. The second goal was to examine the relation between language ability and individual differences in emotion understanding. Eighty children ranging in age from 4 to 11 years were tested. Children displayed a clear improvement with age in both their emotion understanding and language ability. In each age group, there were clear individual differences in emotion understanding and language ability. Age and language ability together explained 72% of emotion understanding variance; 20% of this variance was explained by age alone and 27% by language ability alone. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.

The nature of cognition

Most cognitive psychology texts are organized around empirical findings on standard substantive topics such as perception, memory, vision, and language. This book is the first to introduce the study of cognition in terms of the major conceptual themes that underlie virtually all the substantive topics. Taking a dialectical approach, the chapters contrast alternative approaches to the underlying themes (e.g., domain-generality vs. domain-specificity), then show how a synthesis of the two approaches provides the best understanding. The book is organized into six sections: general issues in cognition, representation and process in cognition, methodology in cognition, kinds of cognition, group and individual differences in cognition, and a conclusion. Contributors: Rhianon Allen, Axel Buchner, Patricia A. Carpenter, Stephen J. Ceci, Michael Cole, Eduardus DeBruyn, Randall W. Engle, Peter A. Frensch, Elena L. Grigorenko, Earl Hunt, P.N. Johnson-Laird, Marcel Adam Just, Michael Kahana, John F. Kihlstrom, Geoffrey Loftus, Valerie S. Makin, Timothy P. McNamara, Thomas O. Nelson, Raymond S. Nickerson, Natalie Oransky, Elizabeth A. Phelps, Dennis R. Proffitt, Arthur S. Reber, Paul J. Reber, Daniel N. Robinson, Tina B. Rosenblum, Brian H. Ross, Steven Sloman, Robert J. Sternberg.

Language and Children's Understanding of Mental States

Children progress through various landmarks in their understanding of mind and emotion. They eventually understand that peoples actions, utterances, and emotions are determined by their beliefs. Although these insights emerge in all normal children, individual children vary in their rates of progress. Four lines of research indicate that language and conversation play a role in individual development: (a) Children with advanced language skills are better at mental-state understanding than those without advanced language skills, (b) deaf children born into nonsigning families lag in mental-state understanding, and (c) exposure to maternal conversation rich in references to mental states promotes mental-state understanding, as do (d) experimental language-based interventions. Debate centers on the mechanism by which language and conversation help childrens understanding of mental states. Three competing interpretations are evaluated here: lexical enrichment (the child gains from acquiring a rich mental-state vocabulary), syntactic enrichment (the child gains from acquiring syntactic tools for embedding one thought in another), and pragmatic enrichment (the child gains from conversations in which varying perspectives on a given topic are articulated). Pragmatic enrichment emerges as the most promising candidate.

Longitudinal change and longitudinal stability of individual differences in children's emotion understanding

Individual differences in childrens emotion understanding have been intensively investigated during the past decade. Theses studies suggest that individual differences emerge quite early, are present among both preschool and school-aged children, are not restricted to the understanding of some specific components of emotions, correlate with other characteristics of the individual and his or her social network, and may persist even after an intervention programme. However, because few of these studies had a longitudinal design we know little about change and stability in these individual differences especially among school-aged children when several components of emotion understanding, both simple and complex, are assessed. Therefore, the two aims of the present study were to examine both change and stability in individual differences among school-aged children in their understanding of several components of emotion. For this purpose, 42 children aged 7, 9, and 11 years at Time I were retested 13 months later at Time II on several components of emotion understanding, both simple and complex, with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). The results show that: (1) The two younger age groups clearly improved their overall level of emotion understanding; (2) this improvement was not equally distributed across the different components of emotion understanding; (3) individual differences in the overall level of emotion understanding were very stable, with overall level at Time I being a good predictor of overall level at Time 2; and (4) this stability was observable for both simple and complex components of emotion understanding.

Teaching emotion understanding

The main goal of this research was to assess whether it is possible to help children develop their general understanding of emotions. Thirty-six nine-year-old children divided in two groups were examined using a pre-test/train/post-test design. The emotion understanding of the two groups was measured in the pre- and post-test phases using the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). The experimental group received a teaching program about emotions during the training phase: School Matters In Lifeskills Education (SMILE). The control group received no special teaching about emotion during this phase. Results showed that the level of emotion understanding in the experimental group improved significantly between the pre- and post-test whereas no such change occurred in the control group. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.RésuméLe but premier de cette recherche était de voir s’il était possible d’aider les enfants à développer leur compréhension générale des émotions. Trente six enfants de 9 ans divisés en deux groupes ont été examinés au moyen d’un paradigme pré-test, entraînement, post-test. Le niveau général de compréhension des émotions des deux groupes a été mesuré au pré-test et au post-test au moyen du Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). Le groupe expérimental a reçu durant la phase d’entraînement un programme d’enseignement portant sur les émotions: School Matters In Lifeskills Education (SMILE); tandis que le groupe contrôle n’a reçu aucun enseignement en rapport avec les émotions durant cette phase. Les résultats de cette recherche montrent que le niveau général de compréhension des émotions du groupe expérimental a augmenté significativement entre les phases pré-test et post-test tandis qu’il est resté le même pour le groupe contrôle entre ces deux phases. Les implications théoriques et pratiques de ces résultats sont discutées.

Trajectories of language delay from age 3 to 5: persistence, recovery and late onset

BACKGROUND Knowledge is scarce on what contributes to whether children with early language delay (LD) show persistent, recovering or sometimes late-onset LD without a prior history of early LD in subsequent preschool years. AIMS To explore whether an integrative model of vital risk factors, including poor early communication skills, family history of language-related difficulties and male gender, predicts the development of persistent, recovering or late-onset LD trajectories from 3 to 5 years quantitatively and qualitatively differently. METHODS & PROCEDURES LD was assessed by maternal reports on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire at 3 and 5 years for 10 587 children in The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Children were classified across time as having no, late onset, transient or persistent LD. Multinomial logistic regression analyses included the integrative model of vital risk factors and covariates. OUTCOME & RESULTS Across time, 3%, 5% and 6.5% of the children displayed persistent, transient and late-onset LD, respectively. The odds for persistent LD were doubled for boys and children with low language comprehension at 1.5 years; and tripled by late-talking familial risk. These same odds decreased for transient LD, and even further for late-onset LD. Familial risk for writing and reading difficulties especially increased the odds for late-onset and persistent LD, while familial risk of unintelligible speech increased the odds for transient LD. Although girls had on average far better language comprehension than boys, low language comprehension was a stronger risk factor for persistent LD in girls. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS Preschool LD trajectories were uniquely predicted from the integrative risk model of poor early communicative skills, family history and male gender. This might benefit identification of different LD trajectories by supporting broader severe vulnerability for persistent LD, milder vulnerability for transient LD, and possibly a specific risk for reading and learning difficulties for children with late-onset LD.

Emotional understanding in Quechua children from an agro-pastoralist village

Research on children’s understanding of emotion has rarely focused on children from nonindustrialised countries, who may develop an understanding at different ages as compared to children reared in industrialised countries. Quechua children from an agro-pastoralist village were given an adapted version of the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) to assess their understanding of nine aspects of emotions. Older children performed better on the entire TEC than younger children. Eight- to 11-year-olds were more accurate in identifying emotions connected to individual desires and to a moral misdemeanour than were 4- to 7-year-olds. In addition, there was a trend for 8- to 11-year-olds to understand external causes of emotions better than 4- to 7-year-olds. Compared to British children, the Quechua children were less accurate overall. However, similar to the British children, certain aspects of emotion (e.g., recognition) were understood at younger ages than others (e.g., regulation), suggesting similar patterns in the sequence of emotional understanding despite the radical difference in cultural context. In contrast to children from industrialised settings, children from this Quechua village have little access to formal education. Moreover, Quechua children have fewer opportunities to engage in discussions about emotions with adults, which may also contribute to how well they performed on the TEC. Suggestions for improving the TEC and including a more naturalistic testing situation are made.

Impact of gender, maternal education, and birth order on the development of language comprehension: a longitudinal study from 18 to 36 months of age.

Objective: To investigate the impact of child gender, maternal education, and birth order on language comprehension (LC) status at 18 and 36 months of age and on the change in LC between these time points. Gender interactions and interactions between maternal education and birth order are also examined. Methods: This study is based on data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Maternal report data on education, birth order, and child language in a sample of 44,921 children were used in linear regression analyses. Results: At 18 and 36 months of age, first-born girls of mothers with high educational attainment had the highest level of LC. Between 18 and 36 months of age, first-born boys of mothers with high educational attainment had the highest increase in LC. Having a highly educated mother contributed more to the increase in LC in boys than in girls. The boys whose mothers had the highest education level had lower scores than the girls whose mothers had the lowest educational level, at both ages. Although significant, the considerable effect of high maternal education was not substantially dependent on birth-order status. Conclusions: Boys develop LC at a faster rate than girls between 18 and 36 months, but girls still remain superior in their level of LC at 36 months of age. Being firstborn or having a highly educated mother does not compensate for this lag.

Emotion comprehension: the impact of nonverbal intelligence.

ABSTRACT A substantial body of research has established that emotion understanding develops throughout early childhood and has identified three hierarchical developmental phases: external, mental, and reflexive. The authors analyzed nonverbal intelligence and its effect on childrens improvement of emotion understanding and hypothesized that cognitive level is a consistent predictor of emotion comprehension. In all, 366 children (182 girls, 184 boys) between the ages of 3 and 10 years were tested using the Test of Emotion Comprehension and the Coloured Progressive Matrices. The data obtained by using the path analysis model revealed that nonverbal intelligence was statistically associated with the ability to recognize emotions in the 3 developmental phases. The use of this model showed the significant effect that cognitive aspect plays on the reflexive phase. The authors aim to contribute to the debate about the influence of cognitive factors on emotion understanding.

Do young children misunderstand their own emotions

This study investigated childrens ability to understand false beliefs and the emotions caused by false beliefs with a special focus on childrens understanding of their own belief-based emotions. Forty-five children (25 boys and 20 girls) between the ages of 5 and 7 years were tested for their understanding of: (1) false belief of self and other; and (2) belief-based emotion of self and other. Testing procedures included a variation of the classic “Smarties” task (Hogrefe, Wimmer, & Perner, 1986). Children displayed a lag in their understanding of belief-based emotions as compared to false beliefs, even when they were asked to identify their own emotions. The findings are discussed in light of theories about how we gain knowledge of our own emotions.