Are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science constructs? A content analysis of U.S. standards

In the current paper, we report on the recommendations for preschool science put forward in the educational standards of U.S. states. Our focus was specifically on whether educational standards recommend abstract science constructs—constructs that are difficult to learn. In Study 1, we focused on science constructs related to inquiry (i.e., activities geared towards the generation of scientific knowledge). And in Study 2, we focused on science constructs related to facts (i.e., established scientific knowledge). In each study, we developed a coding scheme to distinguish between concrete and abstract constructs and then determined the relative prevalence of each. Our findings show that preschoolers are indeed expected to learn abstract science constructs. At the same time, educational standards varied considerably across U.S. states. Implications for the field of early science learning are discussed

Beliefs as Self-Sustaining Networks: Drawing Parallels Between Networks of Ecosystems and Adults’ Predictions

In this paper, we argue that beliefs share common properties with the self-sustaining networks of complex systems. Matching experiences are said to couple with each other into a mutually reinforcing network. The goal of the current paper is to spell out and develop these ideas, using our understanding of ecosystems as a guide. In Part 1 of the paper, we provide theoretical considerations relevant to this new conceptualization of beliefs, including the theoretical overlap between energy and meaning. In Part 2, we discuss the implications of this new conceptualization on our understanding of belief emergence and belief change. Finally, in Part 3, we provide an analytical mapping between beliefs and the self-sustaining networks of ecosystems, namely by applying to behavioral data a measure developed for ecosystem networks. Specifically, average accuracies were subjected to analyses of uncertainty (H) and average mutual information (AMI). The ratio between these two values yields degree of order, a measure of how organized the self-sustained network is. Degree of order was tracked over time and compared to the amount of explained variance returned by a categorical nonlinear principal components analysis (CATPCA). Finding high correspondence between the two measures of order, together with the theoretical groundwork discussed in Parts 1 and 2, lends preliminary validity to our theory that beliefs have important similarities to the structural characteristics of self-sustaining networks

Long-range correlations and patterns of recurrence in children and adults' attention to hierarchical displays

In order to make sense of a scene, a person must pay attention to several levels of nested order, ranging from the most differentiated details of the display to the integrated whole. In adults, research shows that the processes of integration and differentiation have the signature of self-organization. Does the same hold for children? The current study addresses this question with children between 6 and 9 years of age, using two tasks that require attention to hierarchical displays. A group of adults were tested as well, for control purposes. To get at the question of self-organization, reaction time data were submitted to a detrended fluctuation analysis and a recurrence quantification analysis. Hurst exponents shows a long-range correlations (1/f noise), and recurrence measures (percent determinism, maximum line, entropy, and trend), show a deterministic structure of variability being characteristic of self-organizing systems. Findings are discussed in terms of organism-environment coupling that gives rise to fluid attention to hierarchical displays

Assessing selective sustained attention in 3-to 5-year-old children: Evidence from a new paradigm

a b s t r a c t Selective sustained attention (SSA) is crucial for higher order cognition. Factors promoting SSA are described as exogenous or endogenous. However, there is little research specifying how these factors interact during development, due largely to the paucity of developmentally appropriate paradigms. We report findings from a novel paradigm designed to investigate SSA in preschoolers. The findings indicate that this task (a) has good psychometric and parametric properties and (b) allows investigation of exogenous and endogenous factors within the same task, making it possible to attribute changes in performance to different mechanisms of attentional control rather than to differences in engagement in different tasks

Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

Learning in Cognitive Niches / Gerhardt, Ana Flávia Lopes Magela -- Using the Dynamics of a Person-Context System to Describe Children’s Understanding of Air Pressure / Steen, Steffie Van der; Steenbeek, Henderien; Geert, Paul Van -- Preschoolers Learning Science: Myth or Reality? / Kloos, Heidi; Baker, Heather; Luken, Eleanor; Brown, Rhonda; Pfeiffer, David; Carr, Victoria -- The Emergence of Scientific Reasoning / Morris, Bradley J.; Croker, Steve; Masnick, Amy M.; Zimmerman, Corinne -- Cognition and the Child Witness : Understanding the Impact of Cognitive Development in Forensic Contexts / Segovia, Daisy A.; Crossman, Angela M. -- Beyond the Black-and-White of Autism : How Cognitive Performance Varies with Context / Amaral, Joseph L.; Collins, Susan; Bohache, Kevin T.; Kloos, Heidi -- Psychological Fitness in Young Adult Video Game Players / Pokorski, Mieczyslaw; Borecki, Lukasz; Jernajczyk, Urszula -- The Impact of Moving Away from Home on Undergraduate Metacognitive Development / Downing, KevinAs a whole, the essays in this book address theoretical and empirical issues related to children's learning and cognition. The first essay, titled Learning in Cognitive Niches, treats the process of sense making on a theoretical level, discussing the complexity of factors that give rise to children's learning. It is followed by an essay, titled Using the Dynamics of a Person-Context System to Describe Children's Understanding of Air Pressure, that applies ideas from complexity science and dynamics-systems theory to children's learning about science. The next four essays summarize and synthesize already published findings, in an effort to go beyond individual viewpoints and present a more nuanced picture of children's sense making. In particular, two of these summaries, Preschoolers Learning Science: Myth or Reality? and The Emergence of Scientific Reasoning, focus on children's ability to make sense of their physical environment. The essay Cognition and the Child Witness: Understanding the Impact of Cognitive Development in Forensic Contexts seeks to shed light on children's sense making relevant to forensic issues. And the essay Beyond the Black-and-White of Autism: How Cognitive Performance Varies with Context ventures in the area of autism, a disorder that demonstrates atypical processes of combining pieces of information. The final two essays provide original data to add to the discussion of what factors affect cognitive functioning. In particular, the essay Cognitive Fitness in Young Adult Video Game Players seeks to re-assess the often-assumed relation between video gaming and various aspects of thinking, memory, intelligence, and visual-spatial abilities. And the essay Impact of Moving Away from Home on Undergraduate Metacognitive Development explicitly connects life circumstances to the ability to monitor and control one's thinking. Together, the collection of essays are a further step towards understanding the process of sense making as children and young adults interact with their environment

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Are natural kinds psychologically distinct from nominal kinds? Evidence from learning and development

Known theories of categorization operate under the assumption that most concepts are fundamentally similar. The current research argues that this assumption is unwarranted: Different types of concepts may differ in how they are represented and learned. We specifically focus on naturalkind and nominal-kind concepts, concepts that differ in their statistical structure. Natural kinds consist of highly redundant and intercorrelated features, whereas nominal kinds consist of isolated rules that do not correlate with other features. If these types of concepts are fundamentally different, they should exhibit important dissociations in how they are learned. Two learning regimes were contrasted: one in which participants were shown instances of the concept without being given a definition of the concept (implicit learning regime), and one in which participant were given a definition of the concept without being shown individual instances (explicit learning regime). Preschoolers and adults participated. The results show a strong dissociation between the two kinds of concepts in terms of acquisition, indicating that existing theories of categorization are incomplete