Inside a child's mind: The relations between mind wandering and executive function across 8- to 12-year-olds.

Mind wandering refers to attention oriented away from a current task to thoughts unrelated to the task, often resulting in poorer task performance. In adults, mind wandering is a common occurrence that is associated with the executive function facets of inhibitory control, working memory capacity, and task switching. In this study, we cross-sectionally examined whether the relation between mind wandering frequency and executive function changes across 8- to 12-year-old children. A total of 100 children completed three tasks targeting three facets of executive function. During each task, participants were occasionally prompted to report whether they were focused on the task or mind wandering. In examining the association between mind wandering frequency and executive function across the age range, we found a significant interaction between age and working memory capacity, such that it was negatively associated with mind wandering frequency only in 12-year-olds. This interaction with age was not significant for inhibitory control and task switching ability. Our results revealed differential relations between mind wandering and executive function facets, which vary with developmental stages. These findings highlight potential areas for targeted intervention to improve mind wandering regulation in children.

Daily mindfulness training reduces negative impact of COVID-19 news exposure on affective well-being.

COVID-19 has led to mental health adversities worldwide. The current study examined whether daily practice of brief mindfulness training has a beneficial impact on affective well-being, and mitigates the negative impact of exposure to COVID-19 news during the pandemic. Participants were randomly assigned into a mindfulness training (MT) group or a waitlist control (WC) group. Participants in the MT group practiced guided mindfulness meditation for a minimum of 10 min each day for 10 days. Both groups completed questionnaires assessing well-being at baseline and after the 10-day period. We also included four ecological momentary assessments (EMA) interspersed throughout the day to measure fine-grained affective states and recent exposure to COVID-19-related news, which has been linked to negative affect. We observed an increase in positive affect in the MT group compared to the WC group in the post-training assessment. However, no group differences emerged in the other three post-training affective measures of negative affect, anxiety and depression. EMA revealed that the MT group also showed more positive affective valence than the WC group across the 10 days. Notably, the WC group reported more negative affective valence following COVID-19 news exposure, whereas the MT group was not impacted. Taken together, our study indicates brief sessions of guided mindfulness meditation during COVID-19 may boost positive affect and serve as a protective buffer against the negative impact of exposure to COVID-19-related news on affective well-being. These findings highlight the utility of mindfulness meditation as an accessible and cost-effective technique to elevate positive affect amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trajectories of Vocabulary Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Across Multiple Measures.

This longitudinal study examined how receptive and expressive vocabulary assessments capture vocabulary development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children. Using mixed regression modelling, we explored when children with ASD significantly different from TD children. We also examined the variability of individual trajectories of vocabulary development in children with ASD. Children with ASD showed slowed trajectories and significantly differed from TD children by 24 months on all assessments except for picture-based assessments. Children with ASD also showed high heterogeneity in trajectories, with some showing inconsistent patterns of growth, stagnation, and regression across assessments. This suggests that conclusions based on individual assessments of vocabulary can vary and assessment characteristics must be considered when monitoring vocabulary development.

Task-unrelated thought increases after consumption of COVID-19 and general news.

Task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) are frequent distractions from our everyday tasks, which can reduce productivity and safety during task performance. This necessitates the examination of factors that modulate TUT occurrence in daily life. One factor that has previously been implicated as a source of TUT is personally salient concerns. External factors such as news media serve as cues for these concerns, potentially increasing TUT occurrence. However, this has not been thoroughly examined in everyday life settings. We thus utilized Ecological Momentary Assessment to survey participants throughout the day for ten days, on their TUTs and news consumption in two separate studies. Study 1 focused on the impact of news related to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, as a common and global concern. We found that TUT occurrence was significantly predicted by COVID-19 news consumption, such that TUT occurrence increased with COVID-19 news consumption. To extend these findings, we implemented Study 2 using similar methods, but focusing on the consumption of news media in general. TUT occurrence was predicted by general news consumption, with an increase in reports of TUT following consumption of news media in general. We thus extended the association found between TUT and COVID-19-related news in Study 1, to any news topic in Study 2. We speculate that the increase in TUTs was due to heightened salience of current concerns, cued by the news. These findings highlight the importance of considering when we choose to consume news media and the value of examining contextual factors when studying TUTs in daily life.