Children's Representations Research Articles

Can a robot lie? Young children's understanding of intentionality beneath false statements

AbstractIncluding robots in children's lives calls for reflection on the psychological and moral aspects of such relationships, especially with respect to children's ability to differentiate intentional from unintentional false statements, that is, lies from mistakes. This ability calls for an understanding of an interlocutor's intentions. This study examined the ability of 5‐6‐year‐olds to recognize, and morally evaluate, lies and mistakes produced by a human as compared to a NAO robot, and to attribute relevant emotions to the deceived party. Irrespective of the agent, children had more difficulty in understanding mistakes than lies. In addition, they were disinclined to attribute a lie to the robot. Children's age and their understanding of intentionality were the strongest predictors of their performance on the lie‐mistake task. Children's Theory of Mind, but not their executive function skills, also correlated with their performance. Our findings suggest that, regardless of age, a robot is perceived as an intentional agent. Robot behaviour was more acceptable for children because his actions could be attributed to someone who programmed it to act in a specific way.Highlights The ability to recognize an intention to lie or not in different agents represents a significant developmental step. Children saw a human/robot making intentionally or unintentionally false statements, and understanding the mistake was more difficult than the lie. Robots may be associated with the human concept by younger children with important implications for use of cHRI in education.

Reason and Representation of Children's Disabilities in Works of Literature: A Critical Overview

Reason and Representation of Children's Disabilities in Works of Literature: A Critical Overview

A Corpus-Based Study on the Representation of Children in Domestic Violence Statutory Law

A Corpus-Based Study on the Representation of Children in Domestic Violence Statutory Law

Impact of Dance Therapy on Comfort Based on Kolcaba's Nursing Theory in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Impact of Dance Therapy on Comfort Based on Kolcaba's Nursing Theory in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Students’ perceptions of meaningful intercultural encounters and long-term learning from a school story exchange

Rarely classroom-based intercultural exchange projects examine the meaningfulness of students’ encountering experiences in the long term. This article describes a follow-up interview study, which happened 3 or 4 years after these international school students (aged 13–15) had participated in an intercultural Storycrafting exchange in fifth grade. The theoretical background draws from Dewey's experiential learning, studies of children's perspectives and theories of interculturality. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually or in small groups, according to the students’ preferences. The interview method was designed to value the students’ perspectives and to stimulate remembering. The students described their meaningful intercultural encounters as communal, connected to cultural repertoires, affective and reciprocal. The students perceived that the story exchange had in the long term enabled personal growth, communal growth and learning to encounter others. The study offers insights for developing theory around children's intercultural learning, as current models are typically based on adult learners.

DRAW.IN.G.: A tool to explore children's representation of the preschool environment.

The use of drawing as a research tool has often been the subject of debate in the field of developmental psychology, especially for the exploration of children's meanings on a specific topic. Methodological limitations do emerge when using drawing in research, especially in preschool age. One of the main critical aspects concerns the lack of systematic and standardized coding methods that include clear and operationalizable categories to analyze the content of the drawings, and that associate a brief interview with the children aimed at avoiding misinterpretations. To bridge this gap, the present contribution introduces a new methodological tool named DRAW.IN.G. (DRAWing and Interview Grid), consisting of a specific procedure and a coding system that allow for a systematic investigation of implicit and explicit levels of children's representation emerging via drawings and interviews. The specific topic investigated by DRAW.IN.G. is children's representation of the preschool environment; the scarcity of studies on this issue, despite the importance of including children's point of view in the design processes of educational spaces makes the tool particularly current and relevant to fill some gaps in research in the educational field. The DRAW.IN.G. coding system, developed on the basis of existing literature on the analysis of drawings, includes five main dimensions of children's representation of the educational environment: physical, behavioral, relational, emotional and motivational dimensions, articulated in 18 macro-categories and 90 categories that make up the scoring grid. To assess the validity of the method, a first application was conducted with a sample of 262 children (141 males, 121 females; mean age = 55.78 months; SD = 11.10; range 37-77 months) from five Italian preschools. Categorical inter-rater reliability of two independent raters showed good to excellent agreement for the categories of the grid, indicating their appropriateness and clarity. The validation study indicated the potential of the method, also revealing some critical aspects to be considered. Both methodological and practical implications are discussed.

Children's representations of themselves

This month's case study explores two different experiences provided to children of varied ages within the same setting. These experiences aimed to encourage all children to reflect on how they see themselves when they look in a mirror and represent this through mark making.

Formal explanations shape children's representations of animal kinds and social groups.

In certain domains, people represent some of an individual's properties (e.g., a tiger's ferocity), but not others (e.g., a tiger's being in the zoo), as stemming from the assumed "essence" of the individual's category. How do children identify which properties of an individual are essentialized and which are not? Here, we examine whether formal explanations-that is, explanations that appeal to category membership (e.g., "That's ferocious because it's a tiger")-help children to identify which properties are essentialized. We investigated this question in two domains: animal kinds (Study 1) and social categories (specifically, gender; Studies 2 and 3). Across studies, we introduced children to novel behaviors and preferences of individuals using either a formal explanation or closely matched wording that did not express a formal explanation. To measure the extent to which children essentialized the novel properties, we assessed their inferences about the stability, innateness, and generalizability of these properties. In Study 1 (N = 104; 61 girls, 43 boys; predominantly White and multiracial children from high-income backgrounds), we found that formal explanations led 5- and 6-year-old children to view novel properties of individual animals as more stable across time. In Studies 2 and 3 (total N = 163; 84 girls, 79 boys; predominantly White, Asian, and multiracial children from high-income backgrounds), we found that formal explanations led 6-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, to view novel properties of individual girls and boys as more stable across contexts. These studies highlight an important mechanism by which formal explanations guide conceptual development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Representation of Children and the Subject of Poverty in Mark Twains Writing

Abstract. The events of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and its logical successor "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain are scientifically examined in this article using the literary studies idea of the unity of space and time. The piece examines the author's distinctive narrating style and distinct method of character movement. The heroes' significant role in the unification of space and time and their essential purpose are detailed in the work's plot.

Exposure to behavioral regularities in everyday life predicts infants' acquisition of mental state vocabulary.

There are two broad views of children's theory of mind. The mentalist view is that it emerges in infancy and is possibly innate. The minimalist view is that it emerges more gradually in childhood and is heavily dependent on learning. According to minimalism, children initially understand behaviors rather than mental states, and they are assisted in doing so by recognizing repeating patterns in behavior. The regularities in behavior allow them to predict future behaviors, succeed on theory-of-mind tasks, acquire mental state words, and eventually, understand the mental states underlying behavior. The present study provided the first clear evidence for the plausibility of this view by fitting head cameras to 54 infants aged 6 to 25 months, and recording their view of the world in their daily lives. At 6 and 12 months, infants viewed an average of 146.5 repeated behaviors per hour, a rate consistent with approximately 560,000 repetitions in their first year, and with repetitions correlating with children's acquisition of mental state words, even after controlling for their general vocabulary and a range of variables indexing social interaction. We also recorded infants' view of people searching or searching for and retrieving objects. These were 92 times less common and did not correlate with mental state vocabulary. Overall, the findings indicate that repeated behaviors provide a rich source of information for children that would readily allow them to recognize patterns in behavior and help them acquire mental state words, providing the first clear evidence for this claim of minimalism. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Six- to 25-month-olds wore head cameras to record home life from infants' point-of-view and help adjudicate between nativist and minimalist views of theory-of-mind (ToM). Nativists say ToM is too early developing to enable learning, whereas minimalists say infants learn to predict behaviors from behavior patterns in environment. Consistent with minimalism, infants had an incredibly rich exposure (146.5/h, >560,000 in first year) to repeated behaviors (e.g., drinking from a cup repeatedly). Consistent with minimalism, more repeated behaviors correlated with infants' mental state vocabulary, even after controlling for gender, age, searches witnessed and non-mental state vocabulary.

Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture

Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture

The contribution of mother‐father‐child interactions to children's emotion narratives

AbstractParents' sensitivity during interactions with their children has been associated with children's emotion narratives elicited using story completion tasks, but almost all of this research focused on mothers and was based on a dyadic, parent‐child focus. The goal of the present study was to expand this research by studying triadic, mother‐father‐child interactions and their associations with children's narratives. Seventy‐one families with their 4.5‐year‐old children were observed in the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) procedure to assess Family Cooperation, and children were administered the MacArthur Story‐Stem Battery (MSSB) to assess Coherence, Parental Representations, and Engagement with the task. Regression analyses indicated that controlling for children's Narrative Competence and Effortful Control, children who were part of more cooperative family interactions produced narratives that were more coherent, and they were more engaged during the task. No associations were found with children's representations of parents. Directions for future studies as well as clinical implications are discussed.

A review of using digital game-based learning for preschoolers

In recent years, the use of digital game-based learning (DGBL) in the early childhood learning process has been growing. Recent research shows that DGBL has the potential to create new forms of childhood learning, it is not yet clear how applications can affect young students' learning. There are also not sufficient studies to analyze the significant features of DGBL in this area in early childhood. Therefore, to better understand the impact on childhood DGBL education, this article reviews the systematic literature. This review analyzes 37 articles in this area. In this paper, PRISMA's principles analysis of studies on the characteristics of DGBL technology has been used. The classification focuses on four areas: the objectives of current studies, the impact of technology use on children's learning, learning theories, and assessment methods in DGBL applications. The results of this study show that the use of DGBL can have an active effect on strengthening thinking skills and learning in childhood. This article examines the evolution of this evolving technology, the challenges, and issues posed by DGBL, and discusses how it can be useful for younger students to learn and do more research. This study provides insight for researchers, game designers, and developers in the field of DGBL.

Children in power: are children entitled to the right to stand for public office?

This article seeks to address the gap in the literature concerning the right to stand for office by establishing that all children are entitled to run for elections. Following a thorough review of the literature on children's participatory rights, this article identifies children's representation as a leading factor in legitimising democracy. Furthermore, it addresses concerns regarding children’s competence and practicality issues to guarantee that the realisation of this right does not result in an immoral outcome. Finally, deliberative democracy is considered as an alternative to representative systems, where children can influence policy-making without requiring their assimilation into the adult world.

Children's representations of the COVID-19 lockdown and pandemic through drawings.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to face it have placed children and their caregivers in front of many challenges that could represent sources of stress. This work aims to explore the point of view of children through drawing, as a spontaneous means of expression, relating it to parents’ perceptions of children’s difficulties, strengths, and mentalization skills. The sample consists of 18 children (mean age = 8.22, SD = 1.79). Parents were asked to complete: a socio-demographic questionnaire with information on the impact of COVID-19 on the family, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Everyday Mindreading Scale. Children were asked to draw three moments: “Before” the pandemic, “During” the lockdown, and “After,” when the COVID-19 will be passed. The drawings were coded by constructing a content and expressive analysis grid, adapting coding systems found in the literature. Data were collected at the beginning of the summer of 2020, just after the first lockdown period (from March to May 2020 in Italy). The results of the present work are in line with previous studies that reported experiences of wellbeing and tranquility of children in time spent at home with family during the pandemic. From the drawings emerges that children feel sufficiently able to master the situation, as reflected by including themselves in drawings and providing many details of the house in “During” drawings. The literature also reports a feeling of sadness/loneliness caused by the lack of friends, an element that we also find in the tendency to represent friends significantly more in the drawings concerning the future. Some contents of drawings (inclusion of friends, relatives, and parents) appeared associated with emotional, interpersonal, and mentalizing abilities of children, as perceived by parents. Exploring children’s representations of a stressful event like the pandemic through drawings allows to focus both on their difficulties and on their resources, with useful implications for the educational support.

Language and children's understanding of knowledge: Epistemic talk in early childhood

Research on children's theory of mind often restricts conceptually meaningful talk about knowledge to instances where know references a corresponding mental state. This article offers a reappraisal of that view. From a social‐pragmatic perspective, even nonreferential talk is meaningful when appropriately embedded in social routines. A synthesis of corpus data suggests children's early talk about knowledge routinely occurs in question–answer contexts. It is argued that the influence of interrogative contexts is evident in children's over‐attributions of knowledge when someone is only guessing. This influence is taken as evidence for the role of linguistic practices in shaping the concept of knowledge.

Contextual influences on children's mathematical understandings

In order to maximise children's mathematical learning opportunities in school, we need to take account of what they have already learned about mathematics in their out-of-school contexts. Children's representations provide one such mechanism for gaining insight into their everyday mathematical experiences and understandings. This study utilises an ecological theoretical framework to examine the ways in which children's everyday experiences in a range of contexts influence their early mathematical understandings. Data is presented from a study of 100 four to six-year-old Australian children as they entered and experienced their first year of primary school. Throughout the study, the children completed a series of drawing tasks related to different mathematical concepts, and were invited to provide either verbal or written narratives to accompany their drawings. These data were analysed using an ecological theoretical framework in order to explore the individual components of each context, as well as the relationships between these contexts. Findings demonstrate that children come to school with rich understandings of mathematics which have been shaped by their experiences in a range of contexts. The activities and relationships within children's home settings appear to be the most profound in terms of developing mathematical understandings, with very few children representing mathematics learning within a school context.

Mother-Child Social Cognition Among Multicultural Families in South Korea.

ObjectiveDespite the rapidly growing number of multicultural families in South Korea, factors influencing parenting and mother-child interactions have not been well-understood. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to have examined how maternal social-cognitive capacity is associated with children's social cognition (e.g., theory of mind and emotion recognition) among multicultural families dwelling in South Korea.MethodsForty-seven multicultural mother-child dyads were recruited. The comprehensive measures on social cognition were administered to both the mothers and children, and social functioning and emotion regulation were administered to the children.ResultsA series of hierarchical regressions indicated that mothers' social cognition significantly explained children's ability to recognize static and dynamic emotional expressions, accounting for 27 and 34% of the variance, respectively. Furthermore, mothers' social cognition was significantly correlated to children's social functioning and emotion regulation. However, mothers' social cognition and children's theory of mind were non-significantly related.DiscussionThe current study examined the effects of social cognition of immigrant mothers on their children's socio-emotional development. As the findings indicated an important role of maternal factors (i.e., social cognition) for children's social cognition and their functions, psycho-social approaches (e.g., social cognition parenting education and training) should be incorporated in services for multicultural families.

Turkish preschool children's representations of friendship: Story completion method adaptation study

In the preschool period, children's friendships considered a crucial developmental task. Hence, it is critical to evaluate children's mental representations of friendships during this period. This study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of the story completion protocol designed to evaluate preschool children's mental representations of their friendships in school settings for Turkish children. The Preschool Friendship Story Completion Task consists of six stories, one of which is warming. The stories were translated into Turkish by researchers and Turkish-English language experts, and expert opinion was taken for Turkish-English compatibility. Two pilot studies were conducted to evaluate children's participation in the task and following the instructions. Seventy children attending pre-school education institutions participated in the study. Children are asked to complete the unfinished stories presented through a scene and figures. The coders evaluated the video-recorded children's narratives using a detailed rating system. In addition, teachers evaluated the social skills and problem behaviors of children. The results affirmed that the friendship dimensions were conceptually related to each other and the inter-coder reliability was high. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the story completion method on the basis of the narratives of children is a comprehensive and developmentally appropriate way to assess children's friendships.

‘It is Really Important That We Sometimes Remember the Children and Their Views Rather than Just Our Own’: The Presentation and Representation of Children’s Views in the Child Protection Conference

In the UK, children are entitled to have their views, wishes and feelings conveyed to a child protection conference in person or through professional representation. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study undertaken in a local authority in England which explored perspectives of attending a conference in person and investigated how children’s views were represented when they were absent. Findings emerged through interviews with four children, focus groups conducted with four social workers and four conference Chairs, and case record analysis of reports submitted to and generated in child protection conferences for twenty-eight children. Three interrelating discourses of childism, participation and autonomous professional practice emerged within an overarching conceptualisation of power and generational ordering. The findings support contemporary understandings of the privileging of protection rights over participatory rights within child protection practices and add to the limited international evidence base concerning the extent to which young children can express their views, wishes and feelings. They also suggest a need to evaluate the impact of strengths-based practice frameworks, and approaches for assessment and recording practices that promote authentic participation for children across all age ranges.