Adolescent risky behaviors are often interpreted as products of self-control failures stemming from a developmental mismatch between reward processing and cognitive control systems. However, adolescents -- much like adults -- may also engage in risky behaviors because of conscious and deliberate (even if objectively poor) decisions. It is not easy…

Maternal depression is a global public health concern with far-reaching impacts on child development, yet our understanding of mechanisms remains incomplete. This study examined whether parenting mediates the association between maternal depression and child outcomes. Participants included 841 rural Pakistani mother-child dyads (50% female).…

Background: Fetal life and infancy might be critical periods for brain development leading to increased risks of neurocognitive disorders and psychopathology later in life. We examined the associations of fetal and infant weight growth patterns and birth characteristics with behavior and cognitive outcomes at the age of 13 years. Methods:…

Cultivate a thriving classroom and reignite a love of teaching. Gain effective strategies to understand student behavioral patterns in relation to brain development. With thoughtful suggestions on how to implement and adapt proposed strategies as needed, K-12 teachers will create and manage a classroom environment that maximizes learning and…

Learning is always a core activity in forming cognitive abilities and personality traits in people's growth process, and motivation is the key psychological mechanism that drives learning behaviour. Therefore, motivation in learning is an important area of research in educational psychology. It not only determines the initiation and continuation…

Developmental psychology focuses on how psychological constructs change with age. In cognitive development research, however, the specifics of this emergence is often underspecified. Researchers often provisionally assume linear growth by including chronological age as a predictor in regression models. In this work, we aim to evaluate this…

Background/purpose: This study examines the behavioral factors influencing the adoption of AI-powered generative technologies in higher education and their impact on students' cognitive engagement--a crucial element of sustainable, inclusive, and high-quality learning, as envisioned by UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). The study…

Although exploratory play is considered a hallmark of cognitive development and learning, relatively few studies have been able to quantitatively characterize the shifts that may occur in children's approach to exploration. One reason for this gap is due to challenges coding and analyzing children's exploratory play behavior. In our paper, we…

Mental rotation, a crucial aspect of spatial cognition, can be improved through repeated practice. However, the long-term effects of combining training with non-invasive brain stimulation and its neurophysiological correlates are not well understood. This study examined the lasting effects of a 10-day mental rotation training with high-definition…

Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states and feelings to others, and to understand that those mental states and feelings affect their behaviour. It is one of three core developmental tasks for children in preschool years, along with emotion self-regulation and relationships with parents and family members. Given there are…

Preterm birth poses a major public health challenge, with significant and heterogeneous developmental impacts. Latent profile analysis was applied to the National Institutes of Health Toolbox performance of 1891 healthy prematurely born children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study (970 boys, 921 girls; 10.00 ± 0.61 years;…

Children typically learn by attending to other people. Autism traits may impact access to social stimuli fundamental to early learning, increasing children's likelihood of a learning disability. Recent reports have highlighted that Autistic children from minority backgrounds have a higher likelihood of co-occurring intellectual disability. This…

As a remedial measure to human-induced climate change, it is imperative to develop intrinsic altruistic values and adequate knowledge of environmental phenomena and behavior to act in favor of the environment. The study aims to assess the effect of an Environmental Education Program (EEP) based on empathy, reflective thinking, and information on…

The field investigating the relationship between physical activity and cognition has considerably evolved in recent years. This has led to an increasingly differentiated view on this phenomenon, challenging the notion of overall cognitive and academic benefits of regular physical activity for school-aged children, with renewed questioning of…

Research has documented elevated experiences of racial discrimination among African American families, and its adverse impacts on their psychological well-being. However, most studies have investigated the experiences of and consequences for older children and adults. The goal of the current study was to examine the relations among mothers'…