Piecing together the role of a spatial assembly intervention in preschoolers' spatial and mathematics learning: Influences of gesture, spatial language, and socioeconomic status.

Spatial skills are associated with mathematics skills, but it is unclear if spatial training transfers to mathematics skills for preschoolers, especially from underserved communities. The current study tested (a) whether spatial training benefited preschoolers' spatial and mathematics skills, (b) if the type of feedback provided during spatial training differentially influenced children's spatial and mathematics skills, and (c) if the spatial training's effects varied by socioeconomic status (SES). Preschoolers (N = 187) were randomly assigned to either a 'business-as-usual' control or one of three spatial training groups (modeling and feedback [MF]; gesture feedback [GF]; spatial language feedback [SLF]). Three-year-olds were trained to construct puzzles to match a model composed of various geometric shapes. New models were created similar to the 2-dimensional trials of the Test of Spatial Assembly (TOSA). Training was given once per week for 5 weeks. Preschoolers were pretested and posttested on 2D and 3D TOSA trials, spatial vocabulary, shape identification, and 2 mathematics assessments. Results indicate that first, any spatial training improved preschoolers' 2D TOSA performance, although a significant interaction with SES indicated improvement was driven by low-SES children. Furthermore, low-SES children showed greatest gains on the 2D TOSA with MF and GF. Second, MF and GF improved low-SES children's performance on the 3D TOSA. Third, only low-SES children with MF saw improvements in far-transfer to mathematics (Woodcock-Johnson: Applied Problems, but not the Test of Early Mathematical Ability). Results indicate that, especially for low-income learners, spatial training can improve children's early spatial and mathematics skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Infants' generalizations about other people's emotions: Foundations for trait-like attributions.

Adults often attribute internal dispositions to other people and down-play situational factors as explanations of behavior. A few studies have addressed the origins of this proclivity, but none has examined emotions, which rank among the more important dispositions that we attribute to others. Two experiments (N = 270) explored 15-month-old infants' predictive generalizations about other people's emotions. In exposure trials, infants watched an adult (Experimenter) perform actions on a series of objects and observed another adult (Emoter) react with either anger or neutral affect. Infants were then handed the objects to test whether they would imitate the Experimenter's actions. One chief novelty of the study was the inclusion of a generalization trial, in which the Experimenter performed a novel act on a novel object. We systematically manipulated whether the Emoter did or did not respond angrily to this novel demonstration, and whether the Emoter watched the infant's response. Even when no further emotional information was presented in the generalization trial, infants were still hesitant to perform the act when the previously angry Emoter was watching them. Infants tracked the Emoter's affective behavior and, based on her emotional history, they predicted that she would become angry again if she saw them perform a novel act. Making predictive generalizations of this type may be a precursor to more mature trait-like attributions about another person's emotional dispositions.

Infant, Control Thyself: Infants' Integration of Multiple Social Cues to Regulate Their Imitative Behavior.

This study investigated 15-month-old infants' (N = 150) ability to self-regulate based on observing a social interaction between two adults. Infants were bystanders to a social exchange in which an Experimenter performed actions on objects and an Emoter expressed anger, as if they were forbidden acts. Next, the Emoter became neutral and her visual access to the infant was experimentally manipulated. The Emoter either: (a) left the room, (b) turned her back, (c) faced the infant but looked down at a magazine, or (d) faced and looked toward the infant. Infants were then presented with the test objects. When the previously angry Emoter was facing them, infants were hesitant to imitate the demonstrated acts in comparison to the other conditions. We hypothesize that infants integrated the emotional and visual-perceptual cues to determine whether the Emoter would get angry at them, and then regulated their behavior accordingly. Temperament was related to infants' self-regulation -infants with higher impulsivity scores were more likely to perform the forbidden acts. Taken together, these findings provide insight into the roots of executive functions in late infancy.