Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Educational Psychology submitted time 2024-04-23
Abstract： As a crucial component of cognitive function, mathematical ability plays an essential role in an individual’s future development. Previous studies have highlighted significant differences in this ability between children from high and low family socioeconomic backgrounds. Executive functioning are the most reliable factor in explaining this disparity. However, fundamental questions remain about the mediating role of executive functioning in this relationship: (1) The role of specific subcomponents of executive functioning in their relationship. (2) The differences in the impact of socioeconomic status on various mathematical abilities through these executive functioning subcomponents. (3) The variations in the role of executive functioning in the relationship between socioeconomic status and both current and future mathematical abilities. Accordingly, our study explored the impact of socioeconomic status on the second and third graders’ mathematical operations, logical reasoning, and spatial imagination abilities, as well as the mediation role of interference inhibition, response inhibition, and working memory. A total of 185 second-grade students were followed for 20 months in two assessments. At the beginning of second grade, children were assessed on their working memory through forward and backward digit span tasks; their interference inhibition was assessed with the Stroop task; and their response inhibition was assessed via the Go/No-go task. Children’s socioeconomic status was assessed using their parents’ educational levels, occupational status, and Family Affluence Scale. The Chinese Rating Scale of Pupil’s Mathematics Abilities, which included subtests for addition, subtraction, number sequence, length estimation, and cube counting, was utilized to assess the children’s mathematical calculation, logical thinking, and spatial imagination abilities. We explored the main effects of socioeconomic status on children’s current and future mathematical abilities using structural equation modeling and simultaneously developed multiple mediation models to investigate how executive functioning components mediate these relationships. The results indicated that the three types of mathematical abilities in second graders showed significant improvement over the 20-month period; socioeconomic status in the second grade directly predicted mathematical abilities at the same grade level; and socioeconomic status could indirectly predict mathematical calculation abilities in the second grade and logical thinking abilities in the third grade through the mediating role of working memory. It is concluded that the present study extends previous research that has explored the mediation role of executive functioning between socioeconomic status and mathematical ability, demonstrating that working memory is a crucial cognitive factor that contributes to the explanation of this mechanism. It provides a scientific basis for educational and research professionals to develop interventions aimed at enhancing the mathematical abilities of children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Both body language and facial expression recognition provide sensitive clues about individual emotion recognition. Facial expression and bodily expression can be detected to a similar extent in the early stages of visual processing, where reflects the subcortical processing pathway and the dorsal route structures associated with unconscious threat information cues for automated processing. Both body language and facial expression recognition have similar N170 component, which reflect early visual coding in the temporal occipital visual cortex. Nonetheless, the N170 component of body language and facial expression involve different neural processes. Moreover, the N170 component and vertex positive potential (VPP) of facial expression processing are superior to the responses to body language processing. The early posterior negativity (EPN) component reflects visual coding in late attentional processing. The P3 and the late positive component (LPC) represent higher cognitive processing in the fronto-parietal cortices, and facial expression require more cognitive resources than physical actions. Furthermore, there is a special N190 response to body language based in the extrastriate body area (EBA). It is sensitive to emotions expressed by body language and information from physical actions. This special visual coding may represent a social adaptation mechanism effectively for the perception of the emotions and intentions of others. Future research should focus on the influence of emotional body language on the processing of facial expressions, the integration of facial and bodily cues during emotional change perception and others. Key words:
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： How the childhood poverty influences cognitive aging remains controversial. Some studies have shown that childhood poverty can accelerate individual cognitive aging, but other studies have found that childhood poverty can delay individual cognitive aging, which is related to the moderation of social mobility. For poor individuals in childhood, low stability or the downward mobility of socioeconomic status will make the negative effects of adversity accumulate continuously, thus accelerating the cognitive aging of individuals. However, poor childhood individuals with high psychological resilience may promote upward socioeconomic mobility, which will increase the individual's cognitive reserve and enhance specific cognitive abilities, thus delaying cognitive aging. Future research in this field should explore the relationship between childhood subjective poverty and cognitive aging and the influence of childhood poverty on the aging of different cognitive abilities. It should also focus on the survivor bias effect in studies on the relationship between childhood poverty and cognitive aging in later life.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： The effect of social media on executive functions remain controversial. Some studies have shown that the use of social media promotes an individual’s executive functions, and some studies have found that social media use has a negative impact on executive functions. Recent studies have shown that, there may be an inverted U-shaped relationship between social media use and individual's executive function, and that social media use does not necessarily impair or promote executive function, but there is an optimal tipping point between the two. Moderate-intensity use of social media is the best level to promote executive functions. This is related to the moderating role played by the intensity of use. The paper first introduces the behavioral evidence that the effect of social media on executive functions, including three parts: positive effects, negative effects, and inverted U-shaped relationships. Secondly, it analyzes the moderating effect of intensity of use in the inverted U-shaped relationship between social media use and executive functions, and attempt to reveal the debate over the pros and cons of social media use on executive functions. Moderate-intensity use of social media will produce a social media flow experience, allowing individuals to filter out various distracting information when faced with various complex information stimuli in social media, focusing on useful information, and target information is constantly being affected. With storage and update, the individual's executive functions (especially the shifting function) get long-term and repeated exercise under such requirements, and finally improve. In addition, the flow experience generated by the use of social media can be used as an intrinsic motivation to increase the interaction of social networks to make positive changes in interpersonal relationships. This provides individuals with continuous social rewards and emotional support. To a certain extent, it buffers the negative impact of excessive use of social media on cognitive function, and slows down the decline of age-related executive functions. However, high-intensity use of social media causes individuals to worry about their performance in the task, which tends to maintain a wider range of attention and is more susceptible to interference from irrelevant information, while low-intensity use of social media causes individuals to be in a state of lack of proactiveness, the psychological effort process of information processing is reduced or even disappeared, which has a negative impact on executive functions. Future research in this area should examine the dose-effect of social media use affecting executive functions. The positive impact of social media use on the executive function may require a relatively long and continuous process of using social media. Whether an optimal social media can be determined the level of media usage maximizes individual's executive functions? In addition, previous research mainly focuses on the impact of social media usage frequency on individual's executive functions in daily life, but lacks a single sub-component of the type of social media usage on the executive function investigation of development and changes. In the future, the relationship between different types of social media usage and sub-components of executive function should be further clarified. Finally, the lifting effect of social media may be more significant in groups whose brain structure is in a period of change. Most previous studies only show that the use of social media can change individual's neural pathways or brain response patterns (and little is known about whether changes in the physiological structure of executive function have an impact on the cognitive level of social media users. Future research should combine behavioral and cognitive neurological methods to examine the brain regions of social media users with different cognitive levels in performing specific tasks. The difference in activation makes the neural mechanism of social media use affecting executive function more precise and comprehensive.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Mathematical ability is an important component of children's academic achievement and critical to individual development. Executive function, as an essential cognitive ability, is a core cognitive element that supports children's mathematical processing. However, there have only been a few studies focusing on the effects of each component of executive function on different mathematical abilities (mathematical operation, spatial imagination, and logical thinking). Primary school is the key period during which children acquire basic mathematical ability. However, limited studies have examined the developmental relationships between the various components of executive function and the different mathematical abilities of children at different grade levels. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to examine the role of each component of executive function in the different mathematical abilities of children at different grade levels.A total of 812 children in grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 completed tests covering mathematical operations, spatial imagination, and logical thinking to measure their basic mathematical ability. The Stroop task and the GO/NOGO task were used to measure interference inhibition and response inhibition. Children's working memory span was assessed using forward and backward digit span tasks. Children's working memory updating was investigated using simple and difficult digital updating tasks. Children's cognitive flexibility was examined using digit shifting tasks. Finally, a correlation analysis and a structural equation model (SEM) were used to investigate the impact of each component of executive function on children's mathematical abilities at different grade levels.The results revealed that working memory was the most important factor affecting children's mathematical skills, over inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. Specifically, working memory span was the most statistically significant predictor of ability with respect to mathematical operations, while working memory updating was a stronger predictor of spatial imagination and logical thinking ability from grade 3 to grade 6. In a further analysis of the data, we divided the four grades into two stages, with grades 3 and 4 set as the younger group and grades 5 and 6 set as the older group. The results showed working memory span to be the most important predictor of mathematical operation ability, spatial imagination ability, and logical thinking ability in the junior grades. In the older students, the predictive effect of working memory span on basic math ability dropped, and the effects of working memory updating and cognitive flexibility on basic math ability increased.These results indicate that different components of executive function play various roles in different mathematical abilities in school-age children, and that this pattern of influence appears to change as children progress through the grades. Specifically, the lower-order components of executive function components, specifically working memory span, were found to play an important role in the development of three mathematical abilities in younger students, while the higher-order executive function components, specifically working memory updating and cognitive flexibility, were found to play a more important role in processing mathematical tasks in older students.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2020-10-14
Abstract： " How the childhood poverty influences cognitive aging remains controversial. Some studies have shown that childhood poverty can accelerate individual cognitive aging, but other studies have found that childhood poverty can delay individual cognitive aging, which is related to the moderation of social mobility. For poor individuals in childhood, low stability or the downward mobility of socioeconomic status will make the negative effects of adversity accumulate continuously, thus accelerating the cognitive aging of individuals. However, poor childhood individuals with high psychological resilience may promote upward socioeconomic mobility, which will increase the individual's cognitive reserve and enhance specific cognitive abilities, thus delaying cognitive aging. Future research in this field should explore the relationship between childhood subjective poverty and cognitive aging and the influence of childhood poverty on the aging of different cognitive abilities. It should also focus on the survivor bias effect in studies on the relationship between childhood poverty and cognitive aging in later life.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2020-01-03
Abstract： Reading comprehension is one of the most complex behaviors that we engage in on a regular basis. Decoding and language comprehension are two important components of reading comprehension. While up to now, little research has been devoted to directly explore the effects of phonological memory and central executive function on diverse reading comprehension components (decoding and language comprehension). In addition, the primary school stage is a critical period of development of children's reading ability and cognitive ability. However, few research has focused on the developmental changes in the relationship of phonological memory, central executive function and reading comprehension among children in different grades. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of phonological memory and central executive function on decoding and language comprehension of children in different grade levels. Two hundred and fifty-six children completed Chinese Characters Reading, Chinese Word Reading, and Pseudo-Word Reading to investigate decoding ability, as well as a Listening Comprehension Test to exam language comprehension. Additionally, we used Digit Span and Non-word Span to measure children's phonological memory, and GO/NOGO task, Stroop task, Digit updating task and Digit shifting task to investigate children's central executive function. Correlation analysis and structural equation models (SEM) were used to investigate the effects of phonological memory and central executive function on decoding, language comprehension of children in different grades. Results indicated that, the effect of phonological memory and updating on decoding were significant. Also, the effect of updating and shifting on language comprehension were significant. On further analysis, we divided the four grades into two levels based on the reading stage theory, that third grade and fourth grade as one level, fifth grade and sixth grade as another level. In the third grade and fourth grade level, phonological memory and updating accuracy contributed to decoding. Moreover, updating accuracy and shifting cost predicted language comprehension. In the fifth grade and sixth grade level, only the effect of updating on decoding was significant.The results indicated that, the prediction of phonological memory on decoding disappeared as children progress through school. More importantly, we found that updating had a relatively stable contribution to decoding across grade levels. It revealed that different functions of working memory played different roles in reading, which seem that not all cognitive abilities are equally important in the reading process. Furthermore, phonological memory and central executive function produced different predictive effects in decoding and language comprehension as the grades grew. "
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2019-05-22
Abstract： " "
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