Preschool Children Rarely Seek Empirical Data That Could Help Them Complete a Task When Observation and Testimony Conflict.

Children (N = 278, 34-71 months, 54% girls) were told which of two figurines turned on a music box and also observed empirical evidence either confirming or conflicting with that testimony. Children were then asked to sort novel figurines according to whether they could make the music box work or not. To see whether children would explore which figurine turned on the music box, especially when the observed and testimonial evidence conflicted, children were given access to the music box during their sorting. However, children rarely explored. Indeed, they struggled to disregard the misleading testimony both when sorting the figurines and when asked about a future attempt. In contrast, children who explored the effectiveness of the figurines dismissed the misleading testimony.

Young children update their trust in an informant's claim when experience tells them otherwise.

Across two experiments, an adult informant presented 220 preschoolers (34-71 months of age) with either a correct claim or an incorrect claim about how to activate a music box by using one of two toy figures. Children were then prompted to explore the figures and to discover whether the informant's claim was correct or incorrect. Children who discovered the claim to be incorrect no longer endorsed it. Moreover, their predictions regarding a new figure's ability to activate the music box were clearly affected by the reliability of the informant's prior claim. Thus, children reassess an informant's incorrect claim about an object in light of later empirical evidence and transfer their conclusions regarding the validity of that claim to subsequent objects.

Beyond Conceptual Knowledge: The Impact of Children's Theory-of-Mind on Dyadic Spatial Tasks.

Recent studies show that Theory of Mind (ToM) has implications for children's social competences and psychological well-being. Nevertheless, although it is well documented that children overall take advantage when they have to resolve cognitive problems together with a partner, whether individual difference in ToM is one of the mechanisms that could explain cognitive performances produced in social interaction has received little attention. This study examines to what extent ToM explains children's spatial performances in a dyadic situation. The sample includes 66 boys and girls between the ages of 5-9 years, who were tested for their ToM and for their competence to resolve a Spatial task involving mental rotation and spatial perspective taking, first individually and then in a dyadic condition. Results showed, in accordance with previous research, that children performed better on the Spatial task when they resolved it with a partner. Specifically, children's ToM was a better predictor of their spatial performances in the dyadic condition than their age, gender, and spatial performances in the individual setting. The findings are discussed in terms of the relation between having a conceptual understanding of the mind and the practical implications of this knowledge for cognitive performances in social interaction regarding mental rotation and spatial perspective taking.

Preterm delivery and risk for early language delays: a sibling-control cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Studies suggest that preterm delivery is a risk factor for early language delays, but knowledge is scarce about the persistence of the delays and whether the association is of a linear kind. To resolve this, effects of confounding risk factors that are both shared within a family and pregnancy specific need to be distinguished from effects of preterm delivery. Our study examines the association between early gestational age and language outcomes, using a sibling-control design. METHODS: The sample comprises 22,499 siblings from the Norwegian Mother and Child Birth Cohort Study, recruited between 1999 and 2008. Mothers rated child language comprehension and production at 18 and 36 months. Analyses compared siblings discordant on gestational age group (early preterm, delivery at week 22-33; late preterm, 34-36; early term, 37-38; full term, >38) and type of onset of delivery (spontaneous; provider-initiated), and compared these findings with conventional cohort analyses. RESULTS: The findings revealed inverse linear relations between the gestational age groups, and persistent but diminishing language delays. Effects of preterm delivery were substantial on both language production and comprehension at 18 months. By 36 months, the effects of preterm delivery were weaker, but still extensive, in particular for language production in provider-initiated births. When comparing sibling-control with cohort analyses, preterm group was less important among spontaneous births, but remained important in provider-initiated births. Familial and pregnancy risk factors partly explained this. CONCLUSIONS: Distinctive factors seem to underlie effects of preterm delivery across spontaneous and provider-initiated births.

Action imitation at 1½ years is better than pointing gesture in predicting late development of language production at 3 years of age.

This study examined whether poor pointing gestures and imitative actions at 18 months of age uniquely predicted late language production at 36 months, beyond the role of poor language at 18 months of age. Data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were utilized. Maternal reports of the children's nonverbal skills and language were gathered for 42,517 children aged 18 months and for 28,107 of the same children at 36 months. Panel analysis of latent variables revealed that imitative actions, language comprehension, and language production uniquely contributed to predicting late development of language production, while pointing gestures did not. It is suggested that the results can be explained by underlying symbolic representational skills at 18 months.