Formalizing developmental phenomena as continuous-time systems: Relations between mathematics and language development.

We demonstrate how developmental theories may be instantiated as statistical models, using hierarchical continuous-time dynamic systems. This approach offers a flexible specification and an often more direct link between theory and model parameters than common modeling frameworks. We address developmental theories of the relation between the academic competencies of mathematics and language, using data from the online learning system Mindsteps. We use ability estimates from 160,164 observation occasions, across N = 4623 3rd to 9th grade students and five ability domains. Model development is step-by-step from simple to complex, with ramifications for theory and modeling discussed at each step.

The Embodiment of an Older Avatar in a Virtual Reality Setting Impacts the Social Motivation of Young Adults.

OBJECTIVES: Socio-emotional selectivity theory implies that an individual's motives change over their lifespan, starting with a focus on information seeking and shifting toward the motivation of maintaining emotionally meaningful social relationships in old age. The concept of future time perspective serves as an underlying mechanism for this phenomenon. METHODS: This study aimed to capture how social motivation changes as a result of the manipulation of one's own visual appearance. Thus, the explicit age stereotypes of N = 74 participants were assessed, among other covariates. The following intervention consisted of a virtual reality (VR) scenario in which the experimental group embodied an old age avatar and the control group a young age avatar. RESULTS: Changes in social motivation were assessed using the concept of socio-emotional selectivity based on imagined situational preferences. Results with strong effect sizes indicate that changes in social motivation commonly connected with old age might be caused by visual cues when actively embodying a virtual avatar.

Educational gains of in-person vs. distance learning in primary and secondary schools: A natural experiment during the COVID-19 pandemic school closures in Switzerland.

Using data from a computer-based formative feedback system, we compare learning gains in the 8 weeks of school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland with learning gains in the 8 weeks before these school closures. The school performance in mathematics and language of N = 28,685 pupils is modelled in second-order piecewise latent growth models with strict measurement invariance for the two periods under investigation. While secondary school pupils remain largely unaffected by the school closures in terms of learning gains, for primary school pupils learning slows down and at the same time interindividual variance in learning gains increases. Distance learning arrangements seem an effective means to substitute for in-person learning, at least in an emergency situation, but not all pupils benefit to the same degree.

Trajectories of Academic Performance Across Compulsory Schooling and Thriving in Young Adulthood.

Thriving is a developmental process that is shaped by previous and current interactions within developmental contexts. We hypothesized that academic performance in the school context will positively predict thriving in young adulthood. Data of N = 2,043 students from Zurich were assessed with standardized tests in Grades 1, 3, 6, and 9. Results showed that a stronger increase in academic performance significantly predicted thriving at age 20, even after statistically controlling for various covariates. Further analyses showed that school bonding might represent a mediating link between the academic performance and thriving. We argue that although schools can be considered the most widespread and intensive "youth development program" of sorts, their role for thriving has been largely neglected in developmental science.

On the preference for linear regression models in children: Results of a field study in elementary school children.

We aimed at showing that children are able to identify and draw a line of best fit through a cloud of points according to the concept of linear regression. A sample of 72 children in third and fourth primary school grades were given two different tasks. In a first task, 10 different sheets with three illustrations of the same scatterplot with different lines of regression to choose from were presented. In a second task, scatterplots were given and children were asked to draw a line of best fit with pencil and ruler. In the first task bisector regression was preferred (χ2 = 15.21, df = 4, p = .004), whereas in the second conventional regression ordinary least squares (X|Y) was favored (χ2 = 27.14, df = 4, p < .001). In summary, the preference of the traditional regression model using a minimization in the vertical dimension was only partly supported by our data.

Getting going and letting go: Religiosity fosters opportunity-congruent coping with work-related uncertainties.

This study investigated how religiosity relates to goal engagement (i.e., investing time and effort; overcoming obstacles) and goal disengagement (i.e., protecting self-esteem and motivational resources against failure experiences; distancing from unattainable goals) in coping with perceived work-related uncertainties (e.g., growing risk of job loss) that arise from current social change. We hypothesised that religiosity not only expands individuals' capacities for both engagement and disengagement but also fosters an opportunity-congruent pattern of engagement and disengagement, promoting engagement especially under favourable opportunities for goal-striving in the social ecology and facilitating disengagement especially under unfavourable opportunities. Multilevel analyses in a sample of N = 2089 Polish adults aged 20-46 years partly supported these predictions. Religiosity was associated with higher goal engagement, especially under favourable economic opportunities for goal-striving in the social ecology (as measured by the regional net migration rate). For disengagement, the results were more mixed; religiosity was related to higher self-protection independently of the economic opportunity structure and predicted higher goal-distancing only under the most unfavourable opportunities. These results suggest that religiosity can promote different coping strategies under different conditions, fostering a pattern of opportunity-congruent engagement and, to some extent, disengagement that is likely to be adaptive.

Changing contexts of youth development: an overview of recent social trends and a psychological model.

Globalization and economic change are translated into a variety of changes in the proximal contexts of youth development, which are perceived and tackled differently by different individuals.

Younger and Older Adults' Cognitive and Physical Functioning in a Virtual Reality Age Manipulation.

Objectives: Age group stereotypes (AGS), especially those targeting old age, affect an individual's behavior and long-term cognitive and physiological functioning. Conventional paradigms investigating the related mechanisms lack validity and stability. Our novel approach for the activation of self-relevant AGS uses a virtual reality (VR) ageing experience, measuring relevant effects on performance parameters. Methods: In a between-subjects experimental design, young participants embodied either a younger or older avatar in a 3D virtual environment to capture the effects on physical (Study 1; N = 68) and cognitive performance (Study 2; N = 45). In Study 3 (N = 117), the paradigm was applied to older participants. Results: For the younger participants, embodying older avatars was associated with declines in memory and physical performance when compared to the younger avatar age group. Furthermore, the manipulations' main effects were moderated by negative explicit AGS that matched the respective performance domains. For the older participants, we found no significant performance differences in the two domains investigated. Discussion: The experimental manipulation demonstrated an impact on relevant performance parameters on a motivational and strategic level, especially for strong performance-related AS, but for young participants only. Possible reasons and mechanisms for the differences in younger and older samples' results are discussed.

Supervised learning for analysing movement patterns in a virtual reality experiment.

The projection into a virtual character and the concomitant illusionary body ownership can lead to transformations of one's entity. Both during and after the exposure, behavioural and attitudinal changes may occur, depending on the characteristics or stereotypes associated with the embodied avatar. In the present study, we investigated the effects on physical activity when young students experience being old. After assignment (at random) to a young or an older avatar, the participants' body movements were tracked while performing upper body exercises. We propose and discuss the use of supervised learning procedures to assign these movement patterns to the underlying avatar class in order to detect behavioural differences. This approach can be seen as an alternative to classical feature-wise testing. We found that the classification accuracy was remarkably good for support vector machines with linear kernel and deep learning by convolutional neural networks, when inserting time sub-sequences extracted at random and repeatedly from the original data. For hand movements, associated decision boundaries revealed a higher level of local, vertical positions for the young avatar group, indicating increased agility in their performances. This occurrence held for both guided movements as well as achievement-orientated exercises.

Lexical access speed and the development of phonological recoding during immediate serial recall.

A recent Registered Replication Report (RRR) of the development of verbal rehearsal during serial recall (Elliott et al., 2021) revealed that children verbalized at younger ages than previously thought (Flavell et al., 1966), but did not identify sources of individual differences. Here we use mediation analysis to reanalyze data from the 934 children ranging from 5 to 10 years old from the RRR for that purpose. From ages 5 to 7, the time taken for a child to label pictures (i.e. isolated naming speed) predicted the child's spontaneous use of labels during a visually-presented serial reconstruction task, despite no need for spoken responses. For 6- and 7-year-olds, isolated naming speed also predicted recall. The degree to which verbalization mediated the relation between isolated naming speed and recall changed across development. All relations dissipated by age 10. The same general pattern was observed in an exploratory analysis of delayed recall for which greater demands are placed on rehearsal for item maintenance. Overall, our findings suggest that spontaneous phonological recoding during a standard short-term memory task emerges around age 5, increases in efficiency during the early elementary school years, and is sufficiently automatic by age 10 to support immediate serial recall in most children. Moreover, the findings highlight the need to distinguish between phonological recoding and rehearsal in developmental studies of short-term memory.

Digitalization in psychology: A bit of challenge and a byte of success.

Digital transformation affects research in almost every scientific discipline. We give a brief overview on how digital technologies have emerged into psychological science in the past and what the challenges and opportunities currently are. Providing two recent examples from our own research, we argue that interdisciplinary collaborations that make use of digital approaches without giving up a strong theoretical foundation will greatly enhance psychological research in the future.

Managing conflicting goals through prioritization? The role of age and relative goal importance.

Three studies tested the role of prioritization in solving conflict between multiple goals in different age groups. Study 1 (N = 185 young, middle-aged, older adults) stressed the importance to solve two competing tasks equally well within a short time. Older adults prioritized more than younger adults. However, contrary to our expectations, prioritization led to higher perceived conflict, more negative affect, and less control. Study 2 (N = 117 younger and older adults) found that, using a more lenient instruction, deemphasizing the importance of performing equally well on both tasks, prioritization was no longer associated with perceived goal conflict. Study 3 (N = 721 young, middle-aged, older adults) was an online study using hypothetical scenarios. This study was run to substantiate the potential mechanism underlying the differences between Study 1 and 2 and supported the hypothesized effect of the instructional strictness of pursuing two goals. Thus, when encountering conflicting goals older adults prioritize more than younger adults, but prioritization might not be optimal for solving short-term goal conflict when both conflicting goals are equally important.

Reaction Time-Based Cognitive Assessments in Virtual Reality - A Feasibility Study with an Age Diverse Sample.

INTRODUCTION: While virtual reality (VR) is an emerging paradigm in a variety of research contexts, VR-based embodiment effects on behavior and performance still lack in sufficient evidence regarding to bias in cognitive performance assessment. METHODS: In this methodological observational study, we compare the VR measurement of cognitive performance with a conventional computer-based testing approach in real life (RL) in younger and older adults. The differences between VR and RL scenarios are investigated using the background of two theoretical models from cognitive psychology. Furthermore, data assessment reliability and validity are analyzed, concerning the feasibility of technological and ergonomic aspects. RESULTS: A within-group comparison showed no change in information processing speed in either one of the two age groups, i.e., both groups perform equally well in RL and in a VR testing environment. CONCLUSION: The use of lifelike VR environments for cognitive performance tests seems not to lead to any performance changes compared to RL computer-based assessments, making VR suitable for similar applications. On technical concerns, we recommend the careful use of reaction time paradigms regarding to input hardware and stimuli presentation.

Differential Item Functioning for Boys and Girls in a Screening Instrument for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Differential item functioning (DIF) indicates differential response probabilities of items for different subgroups. While there is a vast amount of research and literature on DIF in the field of educational screening and career assessment, DIF analysis has hardly been applied in the field of clinical assessment. This paper aims at analyzing the presence of gender related DIF in a cross-sectional survey of children assessed by a structured questionnaire containing items on attention deficit and hyperactivity. A total of 1449 children (mean age: 1.94 ± 0.14 years; 51.2% male) were included. Almost no significant variations in parameters were found between boys and girls. Results based on a Partial Credit Model indicate an absence of DIF in eight out of nine items. Consistent with other studies in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) our results imply that the same level of rating for a symptom has the same meaning for boys and girls.

On the Development of a Computer-Based Tool for Formative Student Assessment: Epistemological, Methodological, and Practical Issues.

Formative assessments in schools have the potential to improve students' learning outcomes and self-regulation skills; they make learning visible and provide evidence-based guidelines for setting up and pursuing individual learning goals. With the recent introduction of the computer-based formative assessment systems for the educational contexts, there is much hope that such systems will provide teachers and students with valuable information to guide the learning process without taking much time from teaching and learning to spend on generating, evaluating and interpreting assessments. In this paper, we combine the theoretical and applied perspectives by addressing (a) the epistemological aspects of the formative assessment, with an emphasis on data collection, model building, and interpretation; (b) the methodological challenges of providing feedback in the context of instruction in the classroom; and (c) practical requirements for and related challenges of setting up and delivering the assessment system to a large number of students. In the epistemological section, we develop and explicate the interpretive argument of formative assessment and discuss the challenges of obtaining data with high validity. From the methodological perspective, we argue that computer-based formative assessment systems are generally superior to the traditional methods of providing feedback in the classroom, as they better allow supporting inferences of the interpretive argument. In the section on practical requirements, we first introduce an existing computer-based formative assessment system, as a case in point, for discussing related practical challenges. Topics covered in this section comprise the specifications of assessment content, the calibration and maintenance of the item bank, challenges concerning teachers' and students' assessment literacy, as well as ethical and data-protection requirements. We conclude with an outlook on possible future directions for computer-based formative assessment systems and the field in general.

Longitudinal findings on aging-related cognitions, control beliefs, and health in later life.

We examined the influence of individual views of aging on health changes in later life. We hypothesized that aging-related cognitions affect health changes irrespective of control beliefs and that the impact of aging-related cognitions on health is higher than for the reverse direction of causality. We based our analyses on data from the longitudinal part of the German Aging Survey (N = 1,286; participants were 40-85 years of age at baseline). Because of the selectivity of the sample, we also computed the same analyses for the baseline sample (N = 4,034) with estimated Time 2 data for those individuals who dropped out. The results of structural equation modeling were concordant with our hypotheses, and therefore they corroborate previous findings on the importance of beliefs about aging.

Some evidence for the usefulness of an optimal foraging theory perspective on goal conflict and goal facilitation.

Based on optimal foraging theory, we propose a metric that allows evaluating the goodness of goal systems, that is, systems comprising multiple goals with facilitative and conflicting interrelations. This optimal foraging theory takes into account expectancy and value, as well as opportunity costs, of foraging. Applying this approach to goal systems provides a single index of goodness of a goal system for goal striving. Three quasi-experimental studies (N = 277, N = 145, and N = 210) provide evidence for the usefulness of this approach for goal systems comprising between 3 to 10 goals. Results indicate that persons with a more optimized goal-system are more conscientious and open to new experience, are more likely to represent their goals in terms of means (i.e., adopt a process focus), and are more satisfied and engaged with their goals. Persons with a suboptimal goal system tend to switch their goals more often and thereby optimize their goal system. We discuss limitations as well as possible future directions of this approach. (PsycINFO Database Record

Beneficial effects of disengagement from futile struggles with occupational planning: a contextualist-motivational approach.

Globalized labor markets confront many adults, both employed and unemployed, with demands arising from career uncertainty that have the potential to jeopardize their occupational planning. This article investigated how individuals in different regions of Germany, which are characterized by different economic opportunities, negotiate such demands to pursue a career. The central hypothesis is that under unfavorable economic conditions, disengagement from demands of career planning, in terms of reducing commitment to their mastery, will predict positive changes in subjective well-being. This was tested using a sample of N = 806 adults living in 91 regions of Germany. Results suggest that disengagement predicts increased subjective well-being, but only if individuals report a very high load of demands of career planning and live in regions characterized by particularly poor opportunities for goal striving. It is concluded that disengagement can be an adaptive way of mastering occupational planning under particularly disadvantageous circumstances.

Is it adaptive to disengage from demands of social change? Adjustment to developmental barriers in opportunity-deprived regions.

This paper investigates how individuals deal with demands of social and economic change in the domains of work and family when opportunities for their mastery are unfavorable. Theoretical considerations and empirical research suggest that with unattainable goals and unmanageable demands motivational disengagement and self-protective cognitions bring about superior outcomes than continued goal striving. Building on research on developmental deadlines, this paper introduces the concept of developmental barriers to address socioeconomic conditions of severely constrained opportunities in certain geographical regions. Mixed-effects methods were used to model cross-level interactions between individual-level compensatory secondary control and regional-level opportunity structures in terms of social indicators for the economic prosperity and family friendliness. Results showed that disengagement was positively associated with general life satisfaction in regions that were economically devastated and has less than average services for families. In regions that were economically well off and family-friendly, the association was negative. Similar results were found for self-protection concerning domain-specific satisfaction with life. These findings suggest that compensatory secondary control can be an adaptive way of mastering a demand when primary control is not possible.

On the importance of a positive view on ageing for physical exercise among middle-aged and older adults: cross-sectional and longitudinal findings.

Physical activity is one of the most important health behaviours associated with the prevention and management of chronic diseases in older adults, but this potential is often insufficiently used. The present study examined for the first time whether a positive view on ageing (PVA) may contribute to a higher level of physical activity. Analyses were based on the German Ageing Survey, a longitudinal population-based survey (N = 4034) on middle-aged and older adults (40-85 years) conducted in the years 1996 and 2002. As hypothesised, middle-aged adults with a PVA not only engaged in physical activity in the form of sports more frequently; they even increased this activity provided that they were healthy enough to do so. For older adults, PVA was particularly associated with more regular walking and increases of walking over time. Because walking is often still recommended in spite of health problems, it was remarkable that even older people with worse health walked just as regularly as those with good health, provided that they had a positive view on ageing. The results shed some light on recent findings about the importance of PVA for health and longevity and point to a partial mediation between PVA and health by physical exercise.