Early Predictors Of Creative Writing At Age 9

The present study investigated the extent to which creative expressiveness in writing at age 9 could be predicted by early human figure drawing ability and general cognitive ability, measured at age 4. Participants (N=277) were members of the Twins Early Development Study, for whom measures of human figure drawing and general cognitive ability were available at age 4 and a measure of creative writing was available at age 9. Creativity was measured with the Consensual Assessment Technique, which is a commonly used technique to estimate creativity of a product. Each story, based on three pictures shown to children, was coded on 10 dimensions by five independent judges. Creative Expressiveness score was created as a composite measure of dimensions that correlated highly with creativity dimension. Human figure drawing ability, measured by The Draw-A-Child test at 4, was found to be a weak but significant predictor of Creative Expressiveness at age 9 (r =.17). General cognitive ability at 4 did not predict Creative Expressiveness in writing at 9. It is concluded that examining individual differences in human figure drawing ability may provide a promising direction for exploring the early antecedents of creativity throughout childhood

Risk environment in early childhood and subsequent development: the role of epigenetics.

НЕБЛАГОПРИЯТНАЯ СРЕДА В РАННЕМ ВОЗРАСТЕ И ПОСЛЕДУЮЩЕЕ РАЗВИТИЕ: РОЛЬ ЭПИГЕНЕТИКИ In Russian (references and abstract in English) The paper reviews current research findings on epigenetic processes mediating the link between unfavorable conditions in early age and the child's subsequent development, and discusses conceptual and methodological limitations of epigenetics

The development of path integration: combining estimations of distance and heading

Efficient daily navigation is underpinned by path integration, the mechanism by which we use self-movement information to update our position in space. This process is well-understood in adulthood, but there has been relatively little study of path integration in childhood, leading to an underrepresentation in accounts of navigational development. Previous research has shown that calculation of distance and heading both tend to be less accurate in children as they are in adults, although there have been no studies of the combined calculation of distance and heading that typifies naturalistic path integration. In the present study 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds took part in a triangle-completion task, where they were required to return to the startpoint of a multi-element path using only idiothetic information. Performance was compared to a sample of adult participants, who were found to be more accurate than children on measures of landing error, heading error, and distance error. 7-year-olds were significantly more accurate than 5-year-olds on measures of landing error and heading error, although the difference between groups was much smaller for distance error. All measures were reliably correlated with age, demonstrating a clear development of path integration abilities within the age range tested. Taken together, these data make a strong case for the inclusion of path integration within developmental models of spatial navigational processing

Cognitive and regulatory characteristics and mathematical performance in high school students.

The study examined the links of cognitive and regulatory characteristics with mathematical outcomes in high school students. Participants were 318 14-16 year old students from 7 state schools in Russia. A computerized test battery was used to measure aspects of number sense, spatial ability, spatial memory and processing speed. The battery also included two measures of mathematical performance. Academic grades and final school test scores in mathematics were also collected. In addition, the students completed the Self-Regulation Profile of Learning Activity Questionnaire – SRPLAQ, which measures different aspects of self-regulation related to achieving learning goals, such as goal planning, results evaluation, and responsibility. The results suggest that cognitive and regulatory features are independently associated with mathematical performance, and that the links differ depending on the specific aspect of mathematical performance used

Assessing Creative Expressiveness In Children's Written Stories Using The Consensual Assessment Technique

The study investigated methodological issues relating to the use of the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) for measuring creativity in children’s written stories. The CAT is a commonly used measure to estimate creativity of a product, based on social recognition of creativity by independent judges. Across domains, the CAT has shown high inter-rater reliability. The present study utilised the CAT to assess creativity in children’s written stories. The stories were also evaluated for: Imagination, Novelty, Liking (how much the judges liked the story), Detail, Emotion, Vocabulary, Straightforwardness, Logic and Grammar. The sample consisted of 277 nine-year-olds. The results showed that to reach sufficient inter-rater reliability, 5 coders were needed. The results gave evidence of a 2-factor structure among the 10 dimensions, indexing ‘Creative Expressiveness’ and ‘Logic’ constructs related to individual differences in writing. Girls outperformed boys on both constructs. The story length was positively correlated with the constructs, explaining 63% of the variance in Creative Expressiveness, and 42% in Logic. Creative Expressiveness was positively correlated with verbal ability (r = .20) and with teacher rating of writing (r = .28). Similarly, Logic was also correlated with verbal ability (r = .34) and teacher rating of writing (r = .44). The findings inform future research employing the CAT to measure creativity in children’s storytelling

Reading Self-Perceived Ability, Enjoyment and Achievement: A Genetically Informative Study of Their Reciprocal Links Over Time

Extant literature has established a consistent association between aspects of reading motivation, such as enjoyment and self-perceived ability, and reading achievement, in that more motivated readers are generally more skilled readers. However, the developmental etiology of this relation is yet to be investigated. The present study explores the development of the motivation–achievement association and its genetic and environmental underpinnings. Applying cross-lagged design in a sample of 13,825 twins, we examined the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the association between reading enjoyment and self-perceived ability and reading achievement. Children completed a reading comprehension task and self-reported their reading enjoyment and perceived ability twice in middle childhood: when they were 9–10 and 12 years old. Results showed a modest reciprocal association over time between reading motivation (enjoyment and perceived ability) and reading achievement. Reading motivation at age 9–10 statistically predicted the development of later achievement, and similarly, reading achievement at age 9–10 predicted the development of later motivation. This reciprocal association was observed beyond the stability of the variables and their contemporaneous correlation and was largely explained by genetic factors

Attitudes towards genetic testing: The role of genetic literacy, motivated cognition, and socio-demographic characteristics

Understanding reasons for why people choose to have or not to have a genetic test is essential given the ever-increasing use of genetic technologies in everyday life. The present study explored the multiple drivers of people’s attitudes towards genetic testing. Using the International Genetic Literacy and Attitudes Survey (iGLAS), we collected data on: (1) willingness to undergo testing; (2) genetic literacy; (3) motivated cognition; and (4) demographic and cultural characteristics. The 37 variables were explored in the largest to-date sample of 4311 participants from diverse demographic and cultural backgrounds. The results showed that 82% of participants were willing to undergo genetic testing for improved treatment; and over 73%—for research. The 35 predictor variables together explained only a small proportion of variance: 7%—in the willingness to test for Treatment; and 6%—for Research. The strongest predictors of willingness to undergo genetic testing were genetic knowledge and deterministic beliefs. Concerns about data misuse and about finding out unwanted health-related information were weakly negatively associated with willingness to undergo genetic testing. We also found some differences in factors linked to attitudes towards genetic testing across the countries included in this study. Our study demonstrates that decision-making regarding genetic testing is influenced by a large number of potentially interacting factors. Further research into these factors may help consumers to make decisions regarding genetic testing that are right for their specific circumstances. Copyright: © 2023 Likhanov et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Maths Anxiety Does Not Moderate the Link Between Spatial and Maths Ability

Spatial ability (SA) is known to be closely related to mathematical ability (Tosto et al., 2014). Maths anxiety (MA) has been shown to affect both mathematical and spatial ability (Maloney, 2011). The present study investigated the relationship between maths performance and spatial ability, as well as the effects of MA and gender on the association between them. General cognitive ability and trait anxiety were added as control variables. Data were collected from 146 twins (32% males) aged 17-33. Maths performance was measured with Problem Verification Task (PVT). SA was measured with Mental rotation task. MA was measured with sMARS questionnaire. General cognitive ability was measured with Raven’s matrices. Trait anxiety was measured with Spielberger anxiety rating scale. There were no correlations between SA and maths performance, except a negative correlation between SA and PVT reaction time variance. MA did not moderate the association between SA and maths performance. Interestingly, the interaction term between trait anxiety and SA was significant as a predictor for PVT reaction time. Posthoc analysis showed that higher spatial ability was associated with lower reaction time in PVT for high trait anxiety individuals only. Neither main effects of gender and maths anxiety, nor the interaction term between them were significant while predicting spatial ability. Altogether, our results indicate that the interplay between anxiety and mathematical cognition is complex and requires further research

Assessing Creative Expressiveness in Children’s Written Stories Using the Consensual Assessment Technique

The study investigated methodological issues relating to the use of the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) for measuring creativity in children’s written stories. The CAT is a commonly used measure to estimate creativity of a product, based on social recognition of creativity by independent judges. Across domains, the CAT has shown high inter-rater reliability. The present study utilised the CAT to assess creativity in children’s written stories. The stories were also evaluated for: Imagination, Novelty, Liking (how much the judges liked the story), Detail, Emotion, Vocabulary, Straightforwardness, Logic and Grammar. The sample consisted of 277 nine-year-olds. The results showed that to reach sufficient inter-rater reliability, 5 coders were needed. The results gave evidence of a 2-factor structure among the 10 dimensions, indexing ‘Creative Expressiveness’ and ‘Logic’ constructs related to individual differences in writing. Girls outperformed boys on both constructs. The story length was positively correlated with the constructs, explaining 63% of the variance in Creative Expressiveness, and 42% in Logic. Creative Expressiveness was positively correlated with verbal ability (r = .20) and with teacher rating of writing (r = .28). Similarly, Logic was also correlated with verbal ability (r = .34) and teacher rating of writing (r = .44). The findings inform future research employing the CAT to measure creativity in children’s storytelling

The relationship of birth weight with physical activity and stressful events in mother's life before and during pregnancy.

Open Access. In Russian (Abstract and References in English