Spatial exploration strategies in childhood; exploration behaviours are predictive of successful navigation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kate Farran ◽  
Mark Blades ◽  
Kerry D Hudson ◽  
Pascal Sockeel ◽  
Yannick Courbois
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Standard Condition ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Star Order ◽  
Spatial Exploration ◽  
Path Lengths ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Group Comparisons

Five- to 11-year-olds (N=91) explored virtual environments with the goal of learning where everything was within the environment (1 trial; Experiment 1) or to find and collect six stars across two conditions, a standard condition and a condition in which participants could view their location on an overhead map (5 trials/condition; Experiment 2). Four exploration behaviours were derived, and for Experiment 2, two navigation behaviours were derived. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that with increasing age, participants visited more of the environment, had longer path lengths and paused less frequently. The effect of gender broadly mirrored this pattern, with males having longer path lengths, visiting more of the environment, making more revisits, and pausing less than females. Results of Experiment 2 demonstrated: within-participant learning of the environment; developmental changes; and gender differences across exploration and navigation variables. Older children and males had higher navigation success and stronger consistency in star order collection. Navigation success was stronger in the overhead map condition, and younger children showed evidence of different exploration behaviour in the overhead map condition compared to the standard condition. Group comparisons and effects of learning across trials demonstrated that optimal exploration was characterised by fewer pauses, making fewer revisits to a previously visited location, and shorter path lengths. Associations between exploration behaviours and navigation success demonstrated strong relationships between pauses, revisits, areas visited, and star order consistency, with navigation success. This study is a first step to understanding exploration behaviour in children and how this relates to navigational success.

scholarly journals Developmental changes and gender differences in adolescents' perceptions of friendships

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1105-1123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene H.A. De Goede ◽  
Susan J.T. Branje ◽  
Wim H.J. Meeus
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
And Gender

scholarly journals You Pretend, I Laugh: Associations Between Dyadic Pretend Play and Children's Display of Positive Emotions

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Rao ◽  
Jenny L. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Pretend Play ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Age And Gender Differences ◽  
And Gender

Background: Understanding how pretend play is related to positive emotions is important for supporting children's development and promoting their wellbeing. However, previous studies have mainly examined this association at individual levels and overlooked the potential links at interpersonal levels. This is an important knowledge gap because pretend play is commonly performed in social contexts. The current study investigates how peer pretend play is associated with children's display of positive emotions at both individual and dyadic levels.Methods: One hundred and eight Chinese children (Mage = 8.95 years, SD = 0.99, 51.9% girls) were observed playing in peer dyads with toys. An interaction of 10 min was coded for each child's pretend play behavior, social and emotional pretend play themes, and display of positive emotions. Multilevel modeling was used to examine age and gender differences in peer pretend play. Actor–Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) were estimated to test the hypothesized associations between dyadic pretend play and children' display of positive emotions.Results: Compared to children whose playmates engaged in less pretend play, children whose playmates engaged in more pretend play were more likely to display positive emotions (p = 0.021). Additionally, children's display of positive emotions was predicted by both their own (p = 0.027) and their playmate's (p = 0.01) pretend play with emotional themes. Compared to younger children, older children were less likely to engage in pretend play (p = 0.002), but more likely to engage in pretend play with social themes (p = 0.03) when the total frequency of pretend play was controlled for. Boys were 4.9 times and 2.16 times as likely as girls to create aggressive pretend themes (p < 0.001) and non-aggressive negative pretend themes (p = 0.007), respectively. No significant gender differences were found in positive pretend themes.Conclusions: Pretending with peers may increase not only children's own, but also their play partner's display of positive emotions. Pretend play may not simply decline in middle childhood as previously assumed.

An investigation of age and gender differences in children’s preferences underlying choice

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie A. Yeh ◽  
Robert D. Jewell ◽  
Cesar Zamudio
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Conjoint Analysis ◽  
Preference Structure ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Age And Gender Differences ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Choice Tasks

PurposeThis study aims to investigate age and gender differences in young consumers’ attribute preferences that underlie their choice decisions. This research proposes and finds that attribute preferences are moderated by age but not gender. Understanding how children at different ages evaluate a product’s attributes is essential to new children’s product development.Design/methodology/approachHierarchical Bayesian choice-based conjoint analysis was used to assess attribute importance via a series of choice tasks among children and adults. Adults completed the study by survey, whereas children were interviewed and led through the choice tasks.FindingsThis research finds that the preference structure for a product’s attributes differs systematically based on the age of children. Younger children chose based on perceptually salient attributes of a product, whereas older children chose based on cognitively salient attributes. When children’s attribute preferences are compared to adults, older children value attributes more similarly to adults than younger children. While gender differences were proposed and found, further analysis indicated that these differences were driven by adults in the sample and that no gender differences existed in the children’s age categories.Originality/valueThis study is the first to study children’s preference structure in complex choices with different ages preferring different attributes. By using conjoint analysis, this research is able to understand children’s underlying decision process, as utility scores are obtained providing a level of precision for understanding the underlying process of children’s choices that other studies have not used.

Grade and Gender Differences In and the Stability and Correlates Of the Structural Complexity of Children's Playground Games

1987 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Matey Borman ◽  
Lawrence A. Kurdek
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Sex Role ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Interpersonal Understanding ◽  
And Gender ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Children's Activities ◽  
Complex Activities

Second and fifth graders' playground activities during school recess were studied with a one-year follow-up. At the second time of assessment, measures were also taken of logical reasoning, interpersonal understanding, and understanding game rules. Both grade and gender differences were found in the complexity of children's activities. Generally, older children participated in more complex activities than younger children, and boys participated in more complex activities than girls. The complexity of children's activities increased over the one-year period, especially for boys. The correlates of game complexity differed for boys and girls. For boys, game complexity was negatively related to interpersonal understanding and positively related to understanding game rules. For girls, game complexity was positively related to interpersonal understanding. Results are discussed in terms of social and sex role development.

Children’s perceptions of the effectiveness of strategies for regulating anger and sadness

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara F. Waters ◽  
Ross A. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Early Evidence ◽  
Regulatory Strategies ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
And Gender

Children may be capable of understanding the value of emotion regulation strategies before they can enlist these strategies in emotion-evoking situations. This study was designed to extend understanding of children’s judgment of the efficacy of alternative emotion regulation strategies. Children aged six and nine ( N = 97) were presented with illustrated storyboards of anger- and sadness-evoking situations and rated the effectiveness of eight emotion regulation strategies. Children endorsed some strategies on an emotion-specific basis: they rated problem-solving as more effective for anger, and seeking adult support and venting emotion as more effective for sadness. Younger children rated cognitively sophisticated emotion regulatory strategies comparably to older children, but they endorsed relatively ineffective strategies as more effective. Early evidence of gender differences was also apparent as girls reported emotion-focused strategies as more effective than boys did. These findings contribute to understanding children’s nuanced estimates of the value of alternative strategies of emotion regulation based on emotion context, age, and gender.

Polish Children’s Perception and Understanding of Physical Education and School Sports

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislaw H. Czyz ◽  
Abel L. Toriola
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Value Orientation ◽  
Physical Domain ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
School Sports ◽  
Age And Gender Differences ◽  
Positive Feelings ◽  
And Gender

A worldwide survey by Hardman and Marshall (2001) indicated a decline in the state and status of Physical Education (PE) in many countries. Using a modified Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) questionnaire (Bailey and Dismore, 2005), we examined age and gender differences in the perception and value orientation of PESS among 285 children in South-West Poland. Data analysis yielded marked age and gender differences with respect to feelings about PESS, its importance relative to other school subjects and development of social skills. Children’s responses were categorized as physical, cognitive, social, affective, lifestyle and environmental based on the outcomes and benefits of PESS (Bailey, 2006). The children attributed their positive feelings toward PESS and favorite part of PESS to the physical domain. This finding was consistent across age and gender categories, except that a tendency toward decline in the importance of the physical domain was found among older children. The need for learners’ value orientation to be considered by teachers and curriculum developers to design and implement quality PESS programs is discussed.

Brief Report. The PCL-R and Gender

2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 147-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Grann
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Sexual Behavior ◽  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Juvenile Delinquency ◽  
Violent Offenders ◽  
Matched Pairs ◽  
Psychopathy Checklist ◽  
Psychopathy Checklist Revised ◽  
And Gender

Summary: Hare's Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991 ) was originally constructed for use among males in correctional and forensic settings. In this study, the PCL-R protocols of 36 matched pairs of female and male violent offenders were examined with respect to gender differences. The results indicated a few significant differences. By means of discriminant analysis, male Ss were distinguished from their female counterparts through their relatively higher scores on “callous/lack of empathy” (item 8) and “juvenile delinquency” (item 18), whereas the female Ss scored relatively higher on “promiscuous sexual behavior” (item 11). Some sources of bias and possible implications are discussed.

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