Why is happy–sad more difficult? Focal emotional information impairs inhibitory control in children and adults.

Kramer, Hannah J.; Lagattuta, Kristin Hansen; Sayfan, Liat

doi:10.1037/emo0000023

Cited by 18 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 100 publications

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“…Second, the role of inhibitory control in the initial emergence of lie-telling in young children was further supported by the current results. Researchers have found evidence that children perform differently on measures of inhibitory control depending on the nature of the task (e.g., inhibiting emotions vs. types of words; Kramer, Lagattuta, & Sayfan, 2015). It is also among the first to show that mental state understanding may be more predictive of early lie-telling behaviour than inhibitory control.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contributions of mental state understanding and executive functioning to preschool‐aged children's lie‐telling

Leduc

Williams

Gómez-Garibello

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

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In this study, preschool-aged children's lie-telling behaviour was examined in relation to mental state understanding and executive functioning. Sixty-seven children aged between 25 and 43 months (M = 34.80, SD = 4.39) participated in a temptation resistance paradigm (TRP). Children completed emerging ToM tasks measuring the following mental states: (1) diverse beliefs, (2) diverse desires, and (3) knowledge access. Children also completed measures of inhibitory control and working memory. In total, 63 of the 67 children peeked at the toy during the TRP, and a total of 26 of those children denied their transgression to the research assistant. Inhibitory control and understanding of knowledge access predicted lie-telling behaviour. Results are discussed in relation to a developmental model of children's lie-telling behaviour. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? The relationship between lie-telling, executive functioning, and ToM has been established in older children (aged 4 and above). Inhibitory control plays a role in young children's lie-telling (aged 2-4). Children above 3 years of age have some understanding of mental states. What does this study add? Very young children (2-3-year-olds) also possess an understanding of mental states. Mental state understanding is related to 2-3-year-old children's lie-telling behaviours and may be more predictive than inhibitory control. While the results were not significant, this study is the first to look at the unique role of working memory in very young children's lie-telling.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contributions of mental state understanding and executive functioning to preschool‐aged children's lie‐telling

Leduc

Williams

Gómez-Garibello

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

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“…Participants were separated into these groups based on prior research showing developmental gains in control of attention (Anderson, 2002) and EF (Kramer et al, 2015; Lagattuta et al, 2011) between these ages. Child participants were recruited through a pool of past participants, research fliers, and participant referral from areas surrounding a university town.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are substantial gains in working memory (WM; the capacity to keep multiple pieces of information in mind) and inhibitory control (IC; the ability to regulate dominant responses) between the ages of 3 and 10 and between childhood and adulthood (Best & Miller, 2010; Conklin, Luciana, Hooper, & Yarger, 2007; Kramer, Lagattuta, & Sayfan, 2015; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Monsour, 2011; Zelazo, Carlson, & Kesek, 2008). Higher WM and IC may enable participants to direct their attention more toward positive, pleasant images.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Previous publications have included data from the individual difference measures: executive function (Kramer, Lagattuta, & Sayfan, 2015; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Harvey, 2014; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Monsour, 2011) and parent- and child-reported child anxiety (Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Bamford, 2012). This research was funded by a National Science Foundation grant to Kristin Hansen Lagattuta (0723375).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Try to look on the bright side: Children and adults can (sometimes) override their tendency to prioritize negative faces.

Lagattuta¹,

Kramer²

2017

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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We used eye tracking to examine 4- to 10-year-olds’ and adults’ (N = 173) visual attention to negative (anger, fear, sadness, disgust) and neutral faces when paired with happy faces in 2 experimental conditions: free-viewing (“look at the faces”) and directed (“look only at the happy faces”). Regardless of instruction, all age groups more often looked first to negative versus positive faces (no age differences), suggesting that initial orienting is driven by bottom-up processes. In contrast, biases in more sustained attention—last looks and looking duration—varied by age and could be modified by top-down instruction. On the free-viewing task, all age groups exhibited a negativity bias which attenuated with age and remained stable across trials. When told to look only at happy faces (directed task), all age groups shifted to a positivity bias, with linear age-related improvements. This ability to implement the “look only at the happy faces” instruction, however, fatigued over time, with the decrement stronger for children. Controlling for age, individual differences in executive function (working memory and inhibitory control) had no relation to the free-viewing task; however, these variables explained substantial variance on the directed task, with children and adults higher in executive function showing better skill at looking last and looking longer at happy faces. Greater anxiety predicted more first looks to angry faces on the directed task. These findings advance theory and research on normative development and individual differences in the bias to prioritize negative information, including contributions of bottom-up salience and top-down control.

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“…While work with young children often uses just error rates (e.g., Montgomery & Koeltzow, 2010; Sabbagh, Xu, Carlson, Moses, & Lee, 2006) , research with older children and adults frequently relies on response times (e.g., Prencipe et al, 2011). Moreover, prior work has demonstrated that error rates and cumulative response time are strongly correlated (Kramer, Lagattuta, & Sayfan, 2015; Lagattuta et al, 2011), and both have been associated with advanced ToM (Kennedy et al, 2015; Lagattuta et al, 2010, 2014). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do thoughts, emotions, and decisions align? A new way to examine theory of mind during middle childhood and beyond

Lagattuta

Elrod

Kramer

2016

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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The current study examined 4- to 10-year-olds’ and adults’ (N = 280) tendency to connect people’s thoughts, emotions, and decisions into valence-matched mental state triads (thought valence = emotion valence = decision valence; such as, anticipate something bad + feel worried + avoid) and valence-matched mental state dyads (thought-emotion, thought-decision, and emotion-decision). Participants heard vignettes about focal characters who re-encountered individuals who had previously harmed them twice, helped them twice, or both harmed and helped them. Baseline trials involved no past experience. Children and adults predicted the focal characters’ thoughts (anticipate something good or bad), emotions (feel happy or worried), and decisions (go near or stay away). Results showed significant increases between 4 and 10 years in the formation of valence-matched mental state triads and dyads, with thoughts and emotions most often aligned by valence. We also documented age-related improvement in awareness that uncertain situations elicit less valence-consistent mental states than more certain situations, with females expecting weaker coherence among characters’ thoughts, emotions, and decisions than males. Controlling for age and sex, individuals with stronger executive function (working memory and inhibitory control) predicted more valence-aligned mental states. These findings add to the emerging literature on development and individual differences in children’s reasoning about mental states and emotions during middle childhood and beyond.

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Why is happy–sad more difficult? Focal emotional information impairs inhibitory control in children and adults.

Cited by 18 publications

References 100 publications

The contributions of mental state understanding and executive functioning to preschool‐aged children's lie‐telling

The contributions of mental state understanding and executive functioning to preschool‐aged children's lie‐telling

Try to look on the bright side: Children and adults can (sometimes) override their tendency to prioritize negative faces.

How do thoughts, emotions, and decisions align? A new way to examine theory of mind during middle childhood and beyond

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