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A Latent Variable Approach to Determining the Structure of Executive Function in Preschool Children
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Miller, Michael R.; Giesbrecht, Gerald F.; Muller, Ulrich; McInerney, Robert J.; Kerns, Kimberly A. – Journal of Cognition and Development, 2012
The composition of executive function (EF) in preschool children was examined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A sample of 129 children between 3 and 5 years of age completed a battery of EF tasks. Using performance indicators of working memory and inhibition similar to previous CFA studies with preschoolers, we replicated a unitary EF…
Descriptors: Executive Function, Preschool Children, Factor Analysis, Inhibition
Now, Pay Attention! The Effects of Instruction on Children's Attention
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Kannass, Kathleen N.; Colombo, John; Wyss, Nancy – Journal of Cognition and Development, 2010
We investigated the effects of instructions to "stay on task" on preschoolers' attention and cognitive performance in the face of either incomprehensible or comprehensible distraction. Three- and 4-year-olds completed problem-solving tasks while a distracting event played continuously in the background under conditions of (a) no…
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Attention Span, Instruction, Time on Task
Children's Representation of Child and Adult Knowledge
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Fitneva, Stanka A. – Journal of Cognition and Development, 2010
Do children think that adult knowledge subsumes or only partially overlaps child knowledge? Sixty-four 4- and 6-year-old children were asked either whether a child and an adult know the answers to questions tapping adult- and child-specific knowledge (Experiment 1) or to whom each question should be addressed (Experiment 2). Children were also…
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Beliefs, Adults, Age Differences
Preschoolers Use Questions as a Tool to Acquire Knowledge from Different Sources
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Mills, Candice M.; Legare, Cristine H.; Bills, Megan; Mejias, Caroline – Journal of Cognition and Development, 2010
How do children use questions as tools to acquire new knowledge? The current experiment examined preschool children's ability to direct questions to appropriate sources to acquire knowledge. Fifty preschoolers engaged in a task that entailed asking questions to discover which special key would open a box that contained a prize. Children solved…
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Questioning Techniques, Epistemology, Puppetry
Learning Count Nouns and Adjectives: Understanding the Contributions of Lexical Form Class and Social-Pragmatic Cues
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Hall, D. Geoffrey; Williams, Sean G.; Belanger, Julie – Journal of Cognition and Development, 2010
In two experiments, one hundred ninety-two 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds, and adults heard a novel word for a target object and then were asked to extend the label to one of two test objects, one matching in shape-based object category (the shape match) and the other matching in a property other than shape (the property match). We independently…
Descriptors: Cues, Nouns, Preschool Children, Pragmatics
Learning from Fantasy and Real Characters in Preschool and Kindergarten
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Richert, Rebekah A.; Shawber, Alison B.; Hoffman, Ruth E.; Taylor, Marjorie – Journal of Cognition and Development, 2009
In three experiments, 3 1/2- to 6-year-old children were presented with analogical problems in which the protagonists were either real people or fantasy characters. Children were more likely to transfer solutions from the stories about real people rather than the stories about fantasy characters. These results suggest that the use of a fantasy…
Descriptors: Fantasy, Teaching Methods, Problem Solving, Transfer of Training