Changes In Cognitive Development Research Articles

Assessment of the acquisition of executive function during the transition from adolescence to adulthood in male and female mice

Executive functions (EF) reached full maturity during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Human studies provide important information about adolescent developmental trajectories; however, little remains known about the neural circuits underlying the acquisition of mature EF. Ethical and technical considerations with human subjects limit opportunities to design experimental studies that allows for an in-depth understanding of developmental changes in neural circuits that regulate cognitive maturation. Preclinical models can offer solutions to this problem. Unfortunately, current rodent models of adolescent development have inherent flaws that limit their translational value. For instance, females are often omitted from studies, preventing the assessment of potential sex-specific developmental trajectories. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether cognitive developmental changes in rodents are similar to those observed in humans. Here, we tested adolescent and adult male and female mice in a neurocognitive battery of assays. Based on this approach, we assessed mice performances within distinct subdomains of EF, and observed similarities with human developmental trajectories. Furthermore, the sex-specific cognitive changes we observed were paralleled by molecular and neural activity changes demonstrating that our approach can be used in future research to assess the contribution of precise neural circuits to adolescent cognitive maturation.

Cannabis use and psychotic-like experiences trajectories during early adolescence: the coevolution and potential mediators.

The authors sought to model the different trajectories of psychotic-like experiences (PLE) during adolescence and to examine whether the longitudinal relationship between cannabis use and PLE is mediated by changes in cognitive development and/or change in anxiety or depression symptoms. A total of 2,566 youths were assessed every year for 4-years (from 13- to 16-years of age) on clinical, substance use and cognitive development outcomes. Latent class growth models identified three trajectories of PLE: low decreasing (83.9%), high decreasing (7.9%), and moderate increasing class (8.2%). We conducted logistic regressions to investigate whether baseline levels and growth in cannabis use were associated with PLE trajectory membership. Then, we examined the effects of potential mediators (growth in cognition and anxiety/depression) on the relationship between growth in cannabis use and PLE trajectory. A steeper growth in cannabis use from 13- to 16-years was associated with a higher likelihood of being assigned to the moderate increasing trajectory of PLE [odds ratio, 2.59; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.11-6.03], when controlling for cumulative cigarette use. Growth in depression symptoms, not anxiety or change in cognitive functioning, mediated the relationship between growth in cannabis use and the PLE moderate increasing group (indirect effect: 0.07; 95% CI, 0.03-0.11). Depression symptoms partially mediated the longitudinal link between cannabis use and PLE in adolescents, suggesting that there may be a preventative effect to be gained from targeting depression symptoms, in addition to attempting to prevent cannabis use in youth presenting increasing psychotic experiences.

Multiple behavioural, morphological and cognitive developmental changes arise from a single alteration to early life spatial environment, resulting in fitness consequences for released pheasants.

Subtle variations in early rearing environment influence morphological, cognitive and behavioural processes that together impact on adult fitness. We manipulated habitat complexity experienced by young pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in their first seven weeks, adding a third accessible dimension by placing elevated perches in their rearing pens mimicking natural variation in habitat complexity. This simple manipulation provoked an interrelated suite of morphological, cognitive and behavioural changes, culminating in decreased wild mortality of birds from complex habitats compared with controls. Three mechanisms contribute to this: Pheasants reared with perches had a morphology which could enable them to fly to the higher branches and cope with prolonged roosting. They had a higher propensity to roost off the ground at night in the wild. More generally, these birds had more accurate spatial memory. Consequently, birds were at a reduced risk of terrestrial predation. The fitness consequences of variation in early rearing on behavioural development are rarely studied in the wild but we show that this is necessary because the effects can be broad ranging and not simple, depending on a complex interplay of behavioural, cognitive and morphological elements, even when effects that the treatments provoke are relatively short term and plastic.

Understanding deliberate practice in preschool-aged children.

Deliberate practice is essential for skill acquisition and expertise and may be a direct consequence of episodic foresight. However, little is known about how deliberate practice develops in children. We present two experiments testing children's ability to selectively practise a behaviour that was going to be useful in future and to reason about the role of practice in skill formation. Five-year-olds demonstrated an explicit understanding of deliberate practice both in selectively choosing to practise a future-relevant skill and in predicting skill change in others based on their practice. Four-year-olds showed some capacities, but failed to demonstrate consistent understanding of the relationship between practice and skill improvement. Children's understanding of this relationship was significantly related to their understanding of how information leads to knowledge, suggesting that both may draw on similar cognitive developmental changes.

The role of expressive therapies in therapeutic interactions; art therapy - explanation of the concept

Art therapy is a form of psycho-corrective interaction, using different artistic means to facilitate a patient to express emotions. It helps to meet the emotional needs, build self-acceptance, increase self-esteem, reduce anxiety, meet the cognitive needs and develop social skills. Art therapy develops imagination and creativity, empathy, forms pro-social attitude, and what is important, shows that artistic abilities do not play any role in the process of creation. More examples show that participation in different kinds of art therapy investigate emotional states, provoke positive changes in cognitive development, bypass the communication barrier. The scope of the benefits of art therapy seems to attract to this form of therapeutic and educational activities. Art therapy techniques are a great way to promote development of a child, and this is the reason of the wide application of the art therapy in education. Art therapy can be used both to healthy people and patients, children and adults. It should be emphasized that the art therapy is perfect way of nonpharmacological interventions in the patient's life.

False Belief Understanding and Justification Reasoning according to Information of Reality amongst Children Aged 3, 4 and 5

The purpose of this study was to investigate false belief understanding and justification reasoning according to information of reality amongst children aged 3, 4 and 5. Children aged 3 to 5 years (N = 176) participated in this study. Each child was interviewed individually and responded to questions designed to measure his/her false belief understanding. Every child responded to the false belief task under two different information conditions of reality(reality known vs reality unknown). For more specific analysis, children’s reasoning responses were also recorded. The major findings of this study are as follows. Children could understand false belief more easily under reality unknown conditions. Specifically, the influences of information conditions were crucial to 3-year-olds but not to 4- and 5-year-olds. Although 3 year olds were able to avoid the systematical errors inherent in the false belief task, they still did not understand the false belief itself. This study provides specific aspects of false belief understanding and its relevance to general changes in cognitive development. 색인어: ë§ˆìŒì´ë¡ , 틀린 믿음 이해, ì •ë³´ ì¡°ê±´, ì •ë‹¹í™” ì¶”ë¡ Keywords: theory of mind, false belief understanding, information conditions of reality, justification reasoning

Diseños de observación longitudinales: cambio intra-individual y diferencias inter-individuales observados durante la infancia

<p>The study of change in repeated measures studies or longitudinal studies (cross-sectional and/or cross-sequential) is of considerable interest in the field of developmental psychology. Qualitative and quantitative measures of interindividual and intraindividual variability can be used to capture changes in cognitive development.</p><p>In the present study, through an empirical analysis of infant cognitive development, we investigate whether or not longitudinal (cross-sectional/cross-sequential) research designs can be used interchangeably with univariate or multivariate data analysis techniques. Methodologically, longitudinal data can be processed by univariate or multivariate analysis. However, the results and their interpretation may be different, even when the necessary statistical requirements are performed. Current statistical programs incorporate techniques to test for the presence of significant differences in data, regardless of whether these are evaluated by univariate or multivariate analysis.</p>The results of this study, conducted in infants studied at three time points (18, 21 and 24 months), show that both intraindividual and interindividual variability can be detected by repeated measures analyses.

Development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the Cognitive Neural Mechanism of PTSD among Orphans after Major Disaster

Persistent separation from parents immediately after a natural disaster(such as earthquake or hurricane),along with the loss of the child's home,pets,toys,and friends predicts post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) in children. Orphans reported significantly more PTSD symptoms than the disaster and non-trauma control groups. Research on orphans shows convincingly that psychological trauma has an enormously damaging effect on their development,their mental and physical health,as well as cognition and behavior. Intervention,in the form of administrative systems and psychological support,would be enormously valuable,both to the orphans and to society. However,the effectiveness and efficiency of intervention can be greatly improved with a better understanding of both PTSD's development,and its cognitive neural mechanisms. To this end,our project consists of 3 major goals:(1) use methods taken from epidemiology to characterize the trajectory of PTSD in post-disaster orphans;(2) investigate changes in cognitive development and immunological function in post disaster orphans in a cross sectional study,revealing the mental and behavior mechanism of PTSD;(3) examine the cognitive neural mechanism of the PTSD by using eye tracking and event-related potentials technologies. Using the results of this project,we can provide expert insight into psychological support for orphans,suggesting effective administrative systems and models of psychological support for orphans in emergency settings.

How to Think with Animals in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Original Stories and The Wrongs of Woman; or, Maria

Comparing children’s books and novels presented for more mature audiences, this essay proposes the key term scalable legibility. Scalable legibility describes works for juvenile audiences designed to accommodate changes in cognitive development over time, for instance, in a primer that builds from alphabet to syllabary to short story. Both in her fiction for children and in her work for adults, Wollstonecraft writes on different but scaling levels, not only raising thematically the issue of human improvability, but also structuring it formally into her fictional texts through animal tropes.

Developmental Timing of Housing Mobility: Longitudinal Effects on Externalizing Behaviors among At-Risk Youth

This longitudinal study tested whether developmental timing of exposure to housing mobility exacerbates behavior problems in an at-risk sample of youth. Participants were 2,442 youth 4 to 16 years old at risk for child maltreatment followed at 3 time points over a 36-month follow-up. Caregivers reported on youth externalizing behaviors at each assessment. Latent growth models examined the effect of housing mobility on behavior problems after accounting for change in cognitive development, family instability, child gender, ethnicity, family income, and caregiver mental health at baseline. Findings suggested increased housing mobility predicted greater behavior problems when children were exposed at key developmental periods. Preschoolers exhibited significantly higher rates of behavior problems that remained stable across the 3-year follow-up. Likewise, adolescents exposed to more mobility became relatively more disruptive over time. No effects were found for school-age children. Children who moved frequently during infancy and more recently demonstrated significantly worse behavior over time. The developmental timing of housing mobility affects child behavioral outcomes. Youth in developmental transition at the time of mobility are at greatest risk for disturbances to residential contexts. Assessing housing history represents an important component of interventions with at-risk families.

Evolução do pensamento, raciocínio e desempenho em alunos do ensino superior

O estudo aqui apresentado insere-se no contexto do crescente interesse sobre o impacto do ensino superior no desenvolvimento cognitivo do estudante, despoletado não só pela psicologia do desenvolvimento, mas também pela mudança de paradigma de formação no ensino superior,assente nos desafios da globalização e consolidada na Declaração de Bolonha. Nesse sentido, acompanhámos uma amostra de alunos do ensino superior politécnico, ao longo de três anos lectivos consecutivos, com avaliações do pensamento (Perry, 1970), raciocínio (conteúdos numérico e verbal) e desempenho académico (média de classificações e unidades de crédito realizadas). Os resultados remetem para uma evolução favorável do raciocínio, o mesmo não acontecendo ao pensamento, em que se constatam descidas nos níveis de relativismo e compromisso atingidos, não obstante a diminuição do pensamento dualista significar melhorias cognitivas neste domínio. Daqui decorrem implicações que exigem discussão/reflexão sobre modelos e processos de ensino/aprendizagem, no âmbito da avaliação interna de cada estabelecimento.Palavras-chaveEnsino superior; Desenvolvimento cognitivo; Desempenho

Developmental change in numerical estimation.

Mental representations of numerical magnitude are commonly thought to undergo discontinuous change over development in the form of a "representational shift." This idea stems from an apparent categorical shift from logarithmic to linear patterns of numerical estimation on tasks that involve translating between numerical magnitudes and spatial positions (such as number-line estimation). However, the observed patterns of performance are broadly consistent with a fundamentally different view, based on psychophysical modeling of proportion estimation, that explains the data without appealing to discontinuous change in mental representations of numerical magnitude. The present study assessed these 2 theories' abilities to account for the development of numerical estimation in 5- through 10-year-olds. The proportional account explained estimation patterns better than the logarithmic-to-linear-shift account for all age groups, at both group and individual levels. These findings contribute to our understanding of the nature and development of the mental representation of number and have more general implications for theories of cognitive developmental change.

Desenvolvimento cognitivo de prematuros à idade escolar: proposta de modelo hierarquizado para investigação dos fatores de risco

Cognitive impairment is a neurodevelopmental sequela that is more prevalent in very low birth weight (VLBW) premature children. There are few Brazilian studies on this group's cognitive development at school age. The current study proposes a theoretical discussion on the determinants of cognitive development at school age in VLBW preterm children, using a hierarchical analytical model. According to this model, biological and environmental factors interrelate on several levels (distal, intermediate, and proximal), resulting in changes in cognitive development. The aim is to investigate the possible mediation of variables and their interrelationships and the resulting events that could lead to cognitive impairment as the outcome. Selection of risk factors was based on a literature review of factors associated with adverse cognitive outcomes. Better understanding of the interrelationships between these factors could lead to more appropriate prevention and intervention in this group, thereby increasing their chances of educational and social inclusion.

Clinical management of behavioral insomnia of childhood.

Behavioral insomnia is highly prevalent, affecting approximately 25% of children. It involves difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep and frequently results in inadequate sleep, leading to an array of negative effects for both the child and the child’s family. In this paper, we describe a variety of empirically supported behavioral interventions for insomnia from infancy through adolescence. We explore how biological, cognitive, and psychosocial developmental changes contribute to behavioral insomnia and how these changes may affect sleep and behavioral interventions. We also discuss barriers that prevent families from accessing interventions, including why many empirically-supported behavioral interventions are overlooked by health care providers.

Knowledge as process: contextually-cued attention and early word learning.

Learning depends on attention. The processes that cue attention in the moment dynamically integrate learned regularities and immediate contextual cues. This paper reviews the extensive literature on cued attention and attentional learning in the adult literature and proposes that these fundamental processes are likely significant mechanisms of change in cognitive development. The value of this idea is illustrated using phenomena in children novel word learning.

Effects of Perinatal HIV Infection and Associated Risk Factors on Cognitive Development Among Young Children

We examined the effect of HIV, in combination with other important health and social factors, on the development of cognitive abilities of children perinatally exposed to HIV. Serial cognitive assessments were performed for 117 children who were infected vertically and 422 children who were exposed to but not infected with HIV, in a multicenter, natural history, longitudinal study. Repeated-measures analyses were used to evaluate the neurocognitive development of children between the ages of 3 and 7 years, as measured by the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA). Children with HIV infection and class C status scored significantly lower in all domains of cognitive development, across all time points, than did those who were HIV infected without an AIDS-defining illness and those who were HIV exposed but not infected. There were no significant differences between the 2 latter groups in General Cognitive Index or specific domain scores. Rates of change in cognitive development were comparable (parallel) among all 3 groups over a period of 4 years. Factors that were associated consistently and significantly with lower mean scores were HIV status, number of times an examination had been completed previously, primary language, maternal education, and gender. No factors were related to rate of change of any mean domain score. An early AIDS-defining illness increased the risk of chronic static encephalopathy during the preschool and early school age years. Children with HIV infection but no class C event performed as well as noninfected children in measures of general cognitive ability. No significantly different profiles of strengths and weaknesses for verbal, perceptual-performance, quantitative, or memory functioning were observed among children with or without HIV infection. A number of factors were found to have significant effects on the mean scores of children in all 3 groups; however, they were not related to the rate at which learning occurred.

Beyond the first year after pediatric heart or heart‐lung transplantation: Changes in cognitive function and behaviour

With the increasing use and improved survival rates of heart and lung transplantation as treatments for children with end-stage heart or lung disease, attention is focusing on the longer term psychological implications of these procedures. This paper focuses on the changes in cognitive development and behaviour in a group of 47 children who were seen 12 months and 2 yr after transplantation. There were 24 boys and 23 girls, mean age at transplantation was 8.3 yr (s.d. 5.3 yr), with a range of 0.3-15.1 yr. Assessments were made of developmental level, cognitive ability and problem behaviours, using previously validated measures, and comparisons were made with physically healthy children. For children under three and a half years of age there was a decrease over time in scores on all developmental parameters, with the change reaching significance on the scale assessing eye-hand coordination and on the overall IQ. Whilst all scores were within the normal range, they were at a significantly lower level than those of the healthy children. In contrast, there were no changes over time on any measures of cognitive or academic ability for older children, with correlations between 12 month and 2 yr scores being highly significant. The rate of behaviour problems at home at 12 months was 22%, compared with 34% at 2 yr post-transplant, which was higher than that found in the healthy children. Conversely, there was a drop in the prevalence of behaviour problems at school from 23% at 12 months to 9% at 2 yr. It is concluded that a significant minority of children and adolescents experience psychological difficulties 2 yr after transplant, with particular areas of concern focusing on development in the younger children and the occurrence of behaviour problems at home across the age-range.

A critical review of the "enculturation hypothesis": the effects of human rearing on great ape social cognition.

Numerous investigators have argued that early ontogenetic immersion in sociocultural environments facilitates cognitive developmental change in human-reared great apes more characteristic of Homo sapiens than of their own species. Such revamping of core, species-typical psychological systems might be manifest, according to this argument, in the emergence of mental representational competencies, a set of social cognitive skills theoretically consigned to humans alone. Human-reared great apes' capacity to engage in "true imitation," in which both the means and ends of demonstrated actions are reproduced with fairly high rates of fidelity, and laboratory great apes' failure to do so, has frequently been interpreted as reflecting an emergent understanding of intentionality in the former. Although this epigenetic model of the effects of enculturation on social cognitive systems may be well-founded and theoretically justified in the biological literature, alternative models stressing behavioral as opposed to representational change have been largely overlooked. Here I review some of the controversy surrounding enculturation in great apes, and present an alternative nonmentalistic version of the enculturation hypothesis that can also account for enhanced imitative performance on object-oriented problem-solving tasks in human-reared animals.

Children's Cognitive Perceptions of 6/49 Lottery Tickets

Recent studies have shown the high prevalence of youth gambling behavior. In particular, lottery ticket purchases among children and adolescents appear to be a highly preferred activity. Despite this fact, most research has focused on the underlying erroneous cognitions used by adults when selecting lottery tickets. This study examines the cognitive perceptions of children while engaged in selecting 6/49 lottery tickets. One hundred sixty-seven children (61 females; 106 males) from grades 3, 5, and 7 were asked to rank pre-selected 6/49 lottery tickets which were classified into a) long series, b) specific patterns, c) non equilibrated numbers, or d) perceived random selections. Children verbalized their rationale for selecting each ticket and were permitted to change the numbers on the lottery tickets they liked least in order to make them to more likely to be the winning ticket. Findings, in general, revealed small developmental differences in the types of underlying cognitive heuristics used by the children. The use of cognitive heuristics underlying the concept of randomness and the use of significant and meaningful numbers was observed to increase as children got older. Children between 9 and 11 were found to have employed the cluster heuristic more frequently than older children, ages 12–13. The results are interpreted in terms of the cognitive developmental changes in children's perceptions and the potential implication for gambling prevention programs are provided.

A description of 5- to 12-year old children's conception of health within the context of their daily life

This study describes children's conception of health within the context of their daily life. Participants were boys and girls (n = 1,674) from three age groups (5–6, 8–9, and 11–12 years old) from different socio-economic living environments in urban and rural areas. In general, the results indicate that children's conception of health is multidimensional and is rooted in their daily-life experiences. Essentially, it is organized around three main dimensions, functionality, adherence to good lifestyle health habits, and mental health. Variations by age and living environment differences suggest that children's conception of health may reflect differences in their organization of information into schemata on the basis of their experience as well as structural changes in cognitive development.