Spontaneous perspective-taking in real-time language comprehension: evidence from eye-movements and grain of coordination.

Linguistic communication requires interlocutors to consider differences in each other's knowledge (perspective-taking). However, perspective-taking might either be spontaneous or strategic. We monitored listeners' eye movements in a referential communication task. A virtual speaker gave temporally ambiguous instructions with scalar adjectives ("big" in "big cubic block"). Scalar adjectives assume a contrasting object (a small cubic block). We manipulated whether the contrasting object (a small triangle) for a competitor object (a big triangle) was in common ground (visible to both speaker and listener) or was occluded so it was in the listener's privileged ground, in which case perspective-taking would allow earlier reference-resolution. We used a complex visual context with multiple objects, making strategic perspective-taking unlikely when all objects are in the listener's referential domain. A turn-taking, puzzle-solving task manipulated whether participants could anticipate a more restricted referential domain. Pieces were either confined to a small area (requiring fine-grained coordination) or distributed across spatially distinct regions (requiring only coarse-grained coordination). Results strongly supported spontaneous perspective-taking: Although comprehension was less time-locked in the coarse-grained condition, participants in both conditions used perspective information to identify the target referent earlier when the competitor contrast was in privileged ground, even when participants believed instructions were computer-generated.

Musical coordination affects children's perspective-taking, but musical synchrony does not.

Perspective-taking, which is important for communication and social activities, can be cultivated through joint actions, including musical activities in children. We examined how rhythmic activities requiring coordination affect perspective-taking in a referential communication task with 100 Chinese 4- to 6-year-old children. In Study 1, 5- to 6-year-old children played an instrument with a virtual partner in one of three coordination conditions: synchrony, asynchrony, and antiphase synchrony. Eye movements were then monitored with the partner giving instructions to identify a shape referent which included a pre-nominal scalar adjective (e.g., big cubic block). When the target contrast (a small cubic block) was in the shared ground and a competitor contrast was occluded for the partner, participants who used perspective differences could, in principle, identify the intended referent before the shape was named. We hypothesized that asynchronous and antiphase synchronous musical activities, which require self-other distinction, might have stronger effects on perspective-taking than synchronous activity. Children in the asynchrony and antiphase synchrony conditions, but not the synchrony condition, showed anticipatory looks at the target, demonstrating real-time use of the partner's perspective. Study 2 was conducted to determine if asynchrony and antiphase asynchrony resulted in perspective-taking that otherwise would not have been observed, or if synchronous coordination inhibited perspective-taking that would otherwise have occurred. We found no evidence for online perspective-taking in 4- to 6-year-old children without music manipulation. Therefore, playing instruments asynchronously or in alternation, but not synchronously, increases perspective-taking in children of this age, likely by training self-other distinction and control. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/TM9h_GpFlsA. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: This study is the first to show that rhythmic coordination, a form of non-linguistic interaction, can affect children's performance in a subsequent linguistic task. Eye-movement data revealed that children's perspective-taking in language processing was facilitated by prior asynchronous and antiphase synchronous musical interactions, but not by synchronous coordination. The results challenge the common "similar is better" view, suggesting that maintaining self-other distinction may benefit social interactions that involve representing individual differences.

Effects of rhythmic turn-taking coordination on five-year-old children's prosocial behaviors.

Rhythmic activities such as joint music-making and synchronous moving are known to produce prosocial effects in both adults and children, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. One possible mechanism is that the time-locked, fine-grained coordination characteristic of rhythmic activities plays a key role in producing powerful prosocial effects. The present study investigated how coordination in a joint music-making task would influence kindergarteners' prosociality toward both coperformers and unaffiliated strangers. The study involved 138 Chinese children (72 girls, M = 5 years and 6 months, range = 5.0 to 6.0 years) from urban middle-class families. Participants were paired and instructed to play percussion instruments in alternation accompanying a song. In the fine-grained coordination condition, the dyad alternated every measure, resulting in a moment-to-moment coordinative experience; in the coarse-grained coordination condition where the coordination was sparser, the dyad alternated every eight measures. Children in the fine-grained coordination condition were subsequently more willing to help their partner complete a block-assembly task and more generous in sharing stickers with unknown children in a dictator game, compared with children in the coarse-grained coordination condition. These findings demonstrate that fine-grained coordination in rhythmic activities increases prosociality above and beyond having a shared goal of coperforming, supporting that coordination is an integral part of the prosocial mechanism. The prosocial effects of joint rhythmic activities generalized beyond the coperformers to anonymous strangers, indicating that the role of coordination may change from directing specific bonding in infancy to encouraging general prosociality from early childhood and onward. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Power grabbed or granted: Children's allocation of resources in social power situations.

Notwithstanding alternative ways of obtaining power, social power is mostly commonly acquired through either a dominance approach, where power is grabbed by the powerholder, or a prestige approach, where power is granted by group members. Although children's attitude toward power in the dominance situation has been studied, little is known about how children understand and distinguish different ways of obtaining power. We examined the understanding of power in children aged 4-8 years by their resource allocation behavior in two social power acquisition situations. In Study 1, 4- to 8-year-olds (N = 123) gradually shifted from distributing more to the powerholder to showing no preference for either party (in the prestige situation) or to distributing more to the subordinates (in the dominance situation) as they age. Older children (6-8 years), but not 4- and 5-year-olds, were more likely to favor the powerholders in the prestige situation than in the dominance situation. In Study 2, when power did not produce unfair results, 7- and 8-year-olds (N = 48) favored the powerholder in the prestige situation but showed no preference in the dominance situation. The results suggest that children's attitudes toward the two ways of acquiring power are gradually differentiated with age, and children's resource allocation in the power situations is influenced by the way of acquiring power and children's equity concern.

Effect of transfer type on labor's role in ownership judgments.

Many property issues in real life occur in the transfer contexts. Previous studies have investigated the role of creation and value change in people's use of the labor rule when solving property issues involving conflicting cues between labor and first possession, but have neglected the possible effect of transfer types. This study explored how items get transferred from the original owner to the next affected adults' use of the labor rule when assigning ownership. Eighty-two participants (Mage = 22.10 years) read some scenarios in which a person modified some redwoods into a set of furniture after he (a) was requested to store the redwoods for another person, (b) borrowed the redwoods from another person, or (c) found the redwoods lost by another person. Participants were then asked to decide whether the original possessor or the modifier of the transferred objects was the owner, and to explain their answers. The results showed that most subjects were inclined to select the laborer as owner in the losing context, and support the original possessor as owner in the storing context. Participants were more likely to justify their answers with the first possession heuristic in the storing context, but more likely to justify their answers with transfer types in the borrowing context and justify their answers with knowledge and intention in the losing context. The study shows that transfer types affect use of the labor rule in adults' ownership judgments, and may shed light on legislation and court decisions in real life.

Relationship between Chinese children's imaginary companions and their understanding of second-order false beliefs and emotions.

We investigated relationship between Chinese children's imaginary companions (ICs) and their understanding of second-order false beliefs and emotions in 180 children, aged 5-6 years old. We examined the potential differences in second-order false belief understanding and emotion understanding between children with and without ICs, children with egalitarian IC relationships and hierarchical IC relationships, as well as children with invisible friends and personified objects. The results revealed that children with ICs had better second-order false belief understanding and emotion understanding than children without ICs. Compared with children with hierarchical relationships, children with egalitarian relationships had better second-order false belief understanding. However, children with invisible friends and personified objects did not differ on their understanding of second-order false beliefs and emotions. The results suggest that compared with IC types, IC status and child-IC relationship qualities may be more relevant to children's theory of mind. It will be interesting for the future researchers to investigate the underlying mechanism of the differences between children with egalitarian IC relationships and hierarchical IC relationships.

Temporal predictability promotes prosocial behavior in 5-year-old children.

Although interpersonal coordinative activities have been shown to produce prosocial effects in both adults and children, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. While most approaches focus on the effect of mimicry and synchronous behavioral matching, we hypothesize that temporal predictability might play a central role in producing prosocial effects, as it directs coordination and might therefore strengthen shared intentionality. In a percussion task with pairs of 5-year old children, we manipulated temporal predictability and movement similarity/predictability between the pair's movements. Temporal predictability was manipulated by instructing the pair to play the instruments either to beats that were evenly-spaced, and therefore predictable, or to beats that were random, and therefore unpredictable. Movement similarity/predictability was manipulated by having the pair play rhythmic patterns that were similar, predictable, or independent from each other. Children who played to predictable beats were more willing to solve problems cooperatively with their partners and to help when their partners had an accident. In contrast, there was no positive effect of rhythmic predictability or similarity. These results are the first to show that temporal predictability affects prosociality independent of movement similarity or predictability. We conclude that the predictable time frame commonly seen in coordinative activities may be key to strengthening shared intentionality and producing prosocial effects.

Effects of coordination and gender on prosocial behavior in 4-year-old Chinese children.

In a block-assembly task with 138, 4-year-old Chinese kindergarten children, tested in pairs, we manipulated whether fine-grained coordination was required for accomplishing a shared goal with the same end product: building two adjoined towers with alternating levels of orange and green colored blocks to match a depicted model. In the coordination condition, each child had blocks of only one color and built the towers together. In the shared-goal-only condition, each child had both color blocks and built one of the towers, which they then adjoined. We predicted that children in the coordination condition would be more prosocial than children in the shared-goal-only condition. Studies with Western children typically find that girls are more generous than boys. However, we predicted the opposite pattern because Chinese culture emphasizes the importance of generosity more for males than females. Children in the coordination condition were more willing to help their partner complete an unrelated task and were more generous in sharing stickers with unknown children in a dictator game. These results demonstrate that level of coordination affects prosociality above and beyond having a shared goal, and are the first demonstration that prosocial effects of a collaborative task with children generalize beyond the participants to anonymous strangers. Boys shared more stickers with unknown children than girls, suggesting that gender differences in generosity are, in part, culturally conditioned.

Chinese children's imaginary companions: Relations with peer relationships and social competence.

We investigated relationships between Chinese children's imaginary companions (ICs) and peer relationships and social competence in 160 children, aged 5-6 years old. Children and their mothers participated in the interviews regarding the details of the children's ICs, including the type of the companion and the quality of the child-IC relationship. Peer relationships were assessed using sociometric nomination and perceived popularity nomination. Teachers rated children's social competence. Here, 55 children (34.3%) were deemed to have engaged in imaginary companion play. There was no relationship between imaginary companion types and child-IC relationship qualities. Children with invisible friends received more positive nominations than children with personified objects. Children with egalitarian relationships received more positive nominations and popularity nominations, but fewer negative nominations and unpopularity nominations than children with hierarchical relationships. Compared with children with hierarchical relationships, teachers rated the children with egalitarian relationships higher in social competence. The results suggest that imaginary companion types and relationship qualities may represent different dimensions of imaginary companions, calling attentions to the different mechanisms underlying imaginary companion types and relationship qualities with respect to social functioning.

The application of group forgiveness intervention for courtship-hurt college students: a Chinese perspective.

Forgiveness intervention has been shown to be effective in dealing with problems caused by interpersonal hurt. Problems caused by courtship hurt could also be resolved by this approach. This paper describes the theoretical foundations and application of a group forgiveness treatment program which reflected some elements of collectivist Chinese culture positivity for individuals hurt in romantic relationships. Thirty-one female students from a Chinese university were randomly assigned to three groups (forgiveness group, general group, and control group). They completed a Scale of Courtship Forgiveness, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Index of Well-Being & Index of General Affect at entry (baseline), at the end of treatment, and at a four-week follow-up. Compared with the control group, clients both from forgiveness and general groups showed significant improvement in anxiety, depression, and well-being at the end of treatment, but only the forgiveness group showed significant improvement in courtship forgiveness. Further, the effectiveness of treatment for the forgiveness group lasted longer than for the general group. The findings suggest that the forgiveness treatment can be beneficial for college students hurt in romantic relationship.