United States

Past studies have suggested associations between children’s mindset and Achievement Orientation, but most research was conducted with children from Western countries. This study aims to examine how Failure and Intelligence Mindset relate to children’s Achievement Orientation across culture. An online interview was conducted with 113 Singaporean children and 122 U.S. children aged between 4 to 9, during which Achievement Orientation was measured with a hypothetical scenario, and mindset was measured with child-friendly Likert scale items adapted from previous surveys. Results showed that after controlling for age, the correlation between Intelligence Mindset and Achievement Orientation was not significant for either culture. Failure Mindset correlated with Achievement Orientation for Singaporean children but not for U.S. children. These findings suggest that Failure Mindset maybe especially important in Asian culture, where a failure-is-motivating mindset can encourage children to face challenging tasks.

CogSci 2023

Failure Mindset is Associated with Achievement Orientation Among Singaporean Children

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The 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society will take place in Sydney, Australia as a modified hybrid conference. Presentations from the main-session room will be live-streamed every day for all events. This will include all invited talks and award sessions. Recordings of all CogSci 2023 sessions will be made available for on-demand viewing after the conference.<br>
The in-person component will be held at the International Convention Centre Sydney at Darling Harbour. The Conference will take place Wednesday July 26th – Saturday July 29th, 2023 (Wednesday, July 26th is the Workshops Day).

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The 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society presents the latest research across cognitive science and highlights the theme of Cognition in Context.

Resources and examples of building equity into the design of rigorous education studies of cognitive interventions is lacking. Here we describe an early-stage attempt to build equity into a large-scale randomized trial of a cognitive intervention - i.e., interleaved practice - for middle-school mathematics learning. Our approach is informed by WestEd's Anti-Racist Evaluation Strategies (WestEd, 2021) which is informed by literature on equitable research and evaluation. It incorporates three overarching themes: self-reflection and learning, equitable partnerships, and understanding context. Our approach incorporates the themes into two major strands of equitable research practices: (1) engaging the study team in learning and self-reflection around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and (2) Engaging relevant parties in the research processes. Though early stage in the project, we will report both successes and challenges of these efforts and aim to foster discussion about how to best incorporate equity-based approaches in cognitive science research.


Embedding Equitable Research Practices into the Rigorous Study of a Cognitive Learning Intervention

In the U.S., Heritage language learners (HLLs) are bilinguals who grew up in homes where a non-English language was spoken but received English instruction from school. We used resting-state functional connectivity analysis to examine the differences in the reading networks of HLL and matched bilingual children who are biliterate in both languages (bilingual-biliterates). Compared to bilingual-biliterates, HLLs built a wider and more distributed reading network. This more distributed network included connections to regions known to be involved in motor control, verbal memory, speech production, and language control. Moreover, even though no significant difference in English reading was found, HLLs continued to show differentiated intrinsic connectivity associated with English reading scores. For HLLs only, better English reading scores were related to stronger functional connectivity between reading and language control areas. This suggests that HLLs are more likely to recruit brain regions involved in language control to achieve advanced English word reading.

Speaking a Language is Not Enough! Distinct Neurobiological Reading Networks Support Heritage Language and Bilingual-Biliterate Children’s Reading

Textbooks often consist not only of textual information but also of supplementary information. In this study, we investigated whether the comprehension of supplementary information differs when it is placed around the text or inserted into the text. 81 university students were asked to read texts with supplementary information around the text and texts with supplementary information inserted into the text, and to answer questions related to the content. They were asked to answer questions about the content. They were also asked about their reading skills and the ease with which they could understand each text. The results showed that comprehension scores were higher when additional information was inserted into the text. In addition, only participants who think they are poor readers rated the supplementary information as easier to understand and remember when it was inserted into the text. Based on these results, the better layout of the textbook was discussed.

What is a Textbook Layout that Everyone Understands? : Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of Text and Supplementary Information

Numerous cross-cultural comparative studies have claimed East Asian children’s superiority in spatial cognition and the significance of intensive Chinese character writing experience in shaping this superiority. However, the specific mechanism/pathways behind this functioning remain unclear. To fill this gap, this study focused on the spatial-orientated legibility dimension and investigated the relationship between Chinese handwriting legibility and spatial cognition with different spatial subskills (i.e., visual-motor integration, spatial visualization, and mental rotation) in the particular Chinese cultural context. A total of 249 4th graders participated in the investigation and finished the relevant measurements. The results suggested that Chinese handwriting legibility had a strong relationship with visual-motor integration, and this relationship can be generalized to spatial visualization and mental rotation, thus confirming the close relationship between Chinese handwriting and spatial cognition and specifying the mechanism/pathways behind this relationship. Interpretations for the results and implications for school practitioners are discussed.

Linguistic Pathways to Spatial Cognition: The relations between Chinese handwriting legibility and different spatial subskills

Several learning principles have emerged from cognitive science research that have direct applications for education (e.g., interleaved practice, worked examples, etc.). However, applying these principles at scale in education is complicated, as the principles fail to specify how they should be applied in different content areas, curricula, and classroom contexts. We summarize several challenges we have faced when attempting to apply and study the efficacy of cognitive learning principles in STEM educational contexts: 1) design challenges, e.g., how to enact the principle in new materials, 2) contextual/practical challenges, e.g., feasibility of implementation, scalability; 3) study-design challenges, e.g., implementation variability, data collection considerations; and 4) theory-specification, i.e., areas where principles may be underspecified for application. We aim to provide concrete suggestions and lessons learned related to translating cognitive principles, as well as spark discussion that could lead to new research and advance theory specification.

Applying cognitive learning principles to practice: Challenges in translation and large-scale study design

When learning to solve mathematical equivalence problems, students benefit from instruction with hand gesture. However, little is known about the mechanism by which gesture supports student’s learning. Since gesture is highly visual, it is possible that gesture supports learning by changing students’ visual attention during instruction. We used eye-tracking to investigate how observing gesture in instruction influences visual attention during subsequent problem-solving. Children were taught how to solve mathematical equivalence problems using video instruction with or without gesture. Children who were taught using instruction with gesture had increased attention to the blank during post-test problem solving compared to children who were taught without gesture. Children’s visual attention patterns on the blank also differed by problem features and learning outcomes. These findings suggest that gesture influences visual attention during problem-solving which may an important mechanism in gesture’s influence on children’s learning.

The Influence of Instruction with Hand Gesture on Children’s Visual Attention after Instruction

High-quality multiple-choice tests are required to assess learners' abilities in language education. When creating such tests, it is important to create appropriate false answer choices. Because a wealth of experience is required in creating tests without easy correct answers, the number of people who can create such tests is limited.
In this study, we evaluated whether large-scale language models can create false-answer choices for language education. Specifically, we discussed the extent to which language models can predict false-answer choices in tests created by applied linguists.

Applying Large Language Models to Generate High-Quality Multiple-Choice Test Questions

The present study investigates the use of exam retake as an alternative to curving low test scores and as a learning opportunity for students. Students received their scores on a midterm but not which questions they got incorrect or the correct answer (i.e., no feedback). Instead of curving the exam, the students (n = 71) were offered an opportunity to retake the exam for points back and informed that retaking would not hurt their midterm. They received two days to re-study for the exam and completed a survey after their retake. Majority (87.32%) of students retook the exam and almost everyone (90.32%) scored higher on the retake. Post-retake surveys revealed that students used more effective studying strategies (e.g., testing, flash cards) for the retake and discovered better test-taking strategies for themselves (e.g., reading carefully, not second guessing, time management).

The Use of Exam Retake as a Learning Opportunity for the Content and Test-Taking Strategies

Space and time are highly interconnected in language and cognition. Here, we ask to what extent the conceptual and perceptual processes of space and time influence how word meanings are learned and extended in space and time domains. We taught 4-5-year-olds and adults a novel word with spatial (i.e., length) or temporal meaning (i.e., duration) and tested how well they learned and extended the word meaning to the other domain. We manipulated two aspects of learning multiple word meanings: the direction of extension and the modality of temporal perception. Children learned the spatial meaning better than the temporal one. Although they learned the spatial meaning, they could not extend it to the time domain. Adults learned both meanings equally successfully. However, they learned the temporal meaning better when they perceived time through visual modality. Once they learned the temporal meaning, they extended it to space as easily, regardless of modality.

Is word learning of spatial metaphors grounded in perceptual modality?

Creative people move in ways that seem aimless. Artists and mathematicians wander about, sometimes standing next to their easel or blackboard, other times standing across the room. Why do creatives expend energy on aimless movement? We propose that such movements facilitate insight by changing visually available information. We tested this mechanism in two online studies (N = 337). Participants solved an insight puzzle. We manipulated whether participants could only see a diagram representing the puzzle, as though they were standing close to it, or could also see a diagram from an earlier puzzle, as though they had stepped back. Visual access to the second diagram acted as a visual hint, increasing the rate of insight by suggesting an analogous solution. We argue that this mechanism explains the creative benefits of seemingly aimless movement. We discuss implications for understanding creativity as arising from interactions among brain, body, and environment.

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Failure Mindset is Associated with Achievement Orientation Among Singaporean Children

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