Now I’m 3: Young Children’s Concepts of Age, Aging, and Birthdays

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 268-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline D. Woolley ◽  
Amanda M. Rhoads
Keyword(s):  
Aging Process ◽  
Biological Process ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Biological Mechanism ◽  
Birthday Party ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Preschool Age Children ◽  
Biological Aspects

In two studies, we examined 99 3- to 5-year-old American children’s concepts of age, aging, and birthdays. Previous research has shown that preschool-age children understand that all living beings grow, and that growth is a biological process. Humans, however, are distinct from other living things in that we attach great significance to the aging process. Specifically, in Western cultures, we have an annual ritual to celebrate the day we were born—the birthday party. Thus, although the biological mechanism of aging is continuous and invisible, it is marked by discrete yearly celebrations. We examine the proposal that, in part due to its salience as a cultural ritual, children interpret the birthday party as playing a causal role in the aging process. Results indicate that young children understand certain important biological aspects of the aging process but exhibit confusion regarding others, including the causal role of the annual birthday party.

Disciplining Young Children: The Role of Verbal Instructions and Reasoning

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-341
Author(s):  
Nathan J. Blum ◽  
George E. Williams ◽  
Patrick C. Friman ◽  
Edward R. Christophersen
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Verbal Reasoning ◽  
Behavioral Psychology ◽  
Children's Behavior ◽  
Verbal Instructions ◽  
Oppositional Behaviors ◽  
Preschool Age Children

Pediatricians are often asked to advise parents who are having difficulty managing the oppositional behaviors of their toddlers and preschool-age children. A large number of articles provide advice to pediatricians and parents on effective disciplinary strategies. However, despite the fact that verbal explanations, reasoning, and instructions are commonly used by parents, few articles directly address the use of these strategies to affect children's behavior. In this paper, we review studies that explicitly investigate the ability of adults' verbal explanations or instructions to alter the behavior of young children. These studies suggest that under most circumstances, verbal explanations and instructions are not effective in changing young children's problem behaviors. We then discuss how theories in developmental and behavioral psychology help explain the limitations of using verbal reasoning and instructions to change young children's problem behaviors. Finally, we provide some recommendations for parents on the use of verbal explanations and instructions in disciplining young children.

Biracial Testing: The Question of Clinicians' Influence on Children’s Test Performance

1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Ratusnik ◽  
Roy A. Koenigsknecht
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Setting ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Drawing Test ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Preschool Age Children

Six speech and language clinicians, three black and three white, administered the Goodenough Drawing Test (1926) to 144 preschoolers. The four groups, lower socioeconomic black and white and middle socioeconomic black and white, were divided equally by sex. The biracial clinical setting was shown to influence test scores in black preschool-age children.

Do Writing Directions Influence How People Map Space onto Time?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Wenxing Yang ◽  
Ying Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Temporal Cognition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Vertical Up

Abstract. The causal role of a unidirectional orthography in shaping speakers’ mental representations of time seems to be well established by many psychological experiments. However, the question of whether bidirectional writing systems in some languages can also produce such an impact on temporal cognition remains unresolved. To address this issue, the present study focused on Japanese and Taiwanese, both of which have a similar mix of texts written horizontally from left to right (HLR) and vertically from top to bottom (VTB). Two experiments were performed which recruited Japanese and Taiwanese speakers as participants. Experiment 1 used an explicit temporal arrangement design, and Experiment 2 measured implicit space-time associations in participants along the horizontal (left/right) and the vertical (up/down) axis. Converging evidence gathered from the two experiments demonstrate that neither Japanese speakers nor Taiwanese speakers aligned their vertical representations of time with the VTB writing orientation. Along the horizontal axis, only Japanese speakers encoded elapsing time into a left-to-right linear layout, which was commensurate with the HLR writing direction. Therefore, two distinct writing orientations of a language could not bring about two coexisting mental time lines. Possible theoretical implications underlying the findings are discussed.

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