Learning science often appears to involve replacement of naïve, intuitive ideas with correct, counterintuitive ones. Recent studies indicate that the old naïve, intuitive ideas are not actually replaced but exist alongside the correct but often counterintuitive ones. On this account, newer knowledge for scientific thinking might involve inhibition of the old idea. However, instead of merely inhibiting old ideas, it is possible that switching is necessary to select between new and old scientific ideas. In this study, we explored the direct and indirect contributions of behavioural inhibition, cognitive inhibition and switching to intuitive and counterintuitive science reasoning in adults (N = 167). After replicating the commonly observed processing costs of counterintuitive items relative to intuitive ones, we find that individual differences in switching rather than in inhibition are most strongly associated with variation in the accuracy and speed of adult intuitive and counterintuitive science reasoning. These results suggest that adults switch between older and newer ideas when reasoning about science rather than suppressing one in favour of the other.

Cross-site comparisons indicate that East Asian children typically excel on tests of executive function (EF), but interpreting this contrast is made difficult by both the heavy reliance on testing in school settings and by the scarcity of studies that assess across-site measurement invariance. Addressing these gaps, our study included remote home-based assessments of EF for 1002 children (Mage = 5.19 years, SD = 0.51; 49% male) from England, Hong Kong, and mainland China, as well as parental ratings of externalizing and internalizing adjustment problems (data collected between June 2021 and December 2022). The models established partial scalar invariance but did not show clear site differences. Supporting the universal importance of EF for behavioral self-regulation, EF task performance and parent-rated externalizing problems showed similar inverse associations across sites.

In this study, we look at the influence of whether knowledge about how and why retrieval practice works can reduce test anxiety and increase self-efficacy in test taking for Year 6 students (ages 10 to 11 years) from England (N = 171). This was a different kind of use of retrieval practice because it used recall of what the testing effect is itself to teach students how memory works for tests. This is the first time this strategy has been used to in classroom settings to give students more control over anxiety and self-efficacy when taking tests. The findings indicate that the intervention significantly reduced test anxiety and increased self-efficacy for the most anxious students, with improvements on intrusive thoughts, autonomic reactions, but not off-task behaviours. These findings indicate that learning how and why retrieval practice works can improve student wellbeing around test taking.

Failure of replication attempts in experimental psychology might extend beyond p-hacking, publication bias or hidden moderators; reductions in experimental power can be caused by violations of fidelity to a set of experimental protocols. In this paper, we run a series of simulations to systematically explore how manipulating fidelity influences effect size. We find statistical patterns that mimic those found in ManyLabs style replications and meta-analyses, suggesting that fidelity violations are present in many replication attempts in psychology. Scholars in intervention science, medicine, and education have developed methods of improving and measuring fidelity, and as replication becomes more mainstream in psychology, the field would benefit from adopting such approaches as well.

Executive functions and play have been researched separately over the last few decades. Only recently has the association between the two constructs received more attention. Thus, a Special Issue on this association is timely. The six empirical studies of the Special Issue applied various types of play (e.g., dramatic play or physical play) in their research. Children's executive functions were also measured with a variety of tasks. The wide variability of the studies was a learning point, especially given the cultural connotation of executive function measures. All the studies of the Special Issue were conducted in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries raising the issue of generalizability. We discuss future directions of the research on executive functions and play hoping for longitudinal studies on the association between these constructs in the future.

Computational thinking (CT) is an emerging and multifaceted competence important to the computing era. However, despite the growing consensus that CT is a competence domain, its theoretical and empirical account remain scarce in the current literature. To address this issue, rigorous psychometric evaluation procedures were adopted to investigate the structure of CT competency, as measured by Computational Thinking Challenge (Lai, 2021a), in a large sample of 1,130 British secondary school students ( M age = 14.14 years, SD age = 1.45). Based on model comparison from an exploratory multidimensional item response theory approach, the results supported the multidimensional operationalization of CT competency. A confirmatory bi-factor item response theory model further suggested CT competency is comprised of a general CT competency factor and two specific factors for programming and non-programming problem-solving. Despite the multidimensionality, the common variance is largely explained by a primary general factor of CT competency, thus the use of a single scale score is recommended. Psychometric evaluation from the bi-factor model indicated good psychometric properties of the assessment tool. Overall, the bi-factor model provides a useful approach to investigating CT competency and serves as a robust test validation tool.

BackgroundCognitive flexibility (CF) enables individuals to readily shift from one concept or mode of practice/thoughts to another in response to changes in the environment and feedback, making CF vital to optimise success in obtaining goals. However, how CF relates to other executive functions (e.g., working memory, response inhibition), mental abilities (e.g., creativity, literacy, numeracy, intelligence, structure learning), and social factors (e.g., multilingualism, tolerance of uncertainty, perceived social support, social decision-making) is less well understood. The current study aims to (1) establish the construct validity of CF in relation to other executive function skills and intelligence, and (2) elucidate specific relationships between CF, structure learning, creativity, career decision making and planning, and other life skills. MethodsThis study will recruit up to 400 healthy Singaporean young adults (age 18-30) to complete a wide range of cognitive tasks and social questionnaires/tasks. The richness of the task/questionnaire battery and within-participant administration enables us to use computational modelling and structural equation modelling to examine connections between the latent constructs of interest. Significance and ImpactThe current study is the first systematic investigation into the construct validity of CF and its interrelationship with other important cognitive skills such as learning and creativity, within an Asian context. The study will further explore the concept of CF as a non-unitary construct, a novel theoretical proposition in the field. The inclusion of a structure learning paradigm is intended to inform future development of a novel intervention paradigm to enhance CF. Finally, the results of the study will be useful for informing classroom pedagogy and the design of lifelong learning policies and curricula, as part of the wider remit of the Cambridge-NTU Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualised Cognition (CLIC).

When compared to research centered on the executive function development of white, middle-class children, relatively little is known about their non-white, low socioeconomic status peers. In an effort to harmonize how executive functions are measured within under-represented contexts, the present study addresses gaps in the evaluation of everyday executive functioning to better understand whether behavior rating scales completed by teachers (BASC2(EF) - BASC executive function scale, 2nd edition; BASC3(EF) - BASC executive function scale, 3rd edition) capture distinctions between performance-based measures. This study includes two large samples of older, ethnic minority children from high-poverty backgrounds (Sample 1. N = 243; M-age = 9.28 years, SDage = 0.80; n(female) = 125; n(AfricanAmerican) = 216, n(LatinAmerican) = 15, n(AsianAmerican) = 6; Sample 2. N = 229; M-age = 10.02 years, SDage = 1.01; n(female) = 120; n(AfricanAmerican) = 132, n(LatinAmerican) = 92, n(White) = 3, n(PacificIslander) = 1). Based on structural equation models testing the links between computerized performance-based measures and the teacher rating scales, the results indicate that BASC2(EF) in its original form might be a good fit for some populations but there is not a strong factor structure for the current high-poverty samples. In addition, post-hoc analyses suggest that only including BASC2(EF) items also in BASC3(EF) or using BASC3(EF) is best practice for high-poverty populations. BASC3(EF) seems better able to capture different components of performance-driven tasks, whereas BASC2(EF) captures overall executive functioning better than individual tasks. These findings encourage continued questioning surrounding metrics used to assess everyday executive functions in older children from diverse backgrounds. Highlights This study explores whether teacher ratings of children's everyday executive functioning (using standardized behavior rating scales) capture distinctions between performance-based measures. Results indicate that BASC2(EF) teacher rating scale (Karr & Garcia-Barrera, 2017) is not a good representation of everyday executive function behaviors by children from schools in high-poverty communities. The findings suggest that restricting BASC2(EF) analyses to only items included in BASC3(EF) (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2015) or using BASC3(EF) for high-poverty populations. BASC3(EF) seems better able to capture the different components of performance-driven tasks, whereas BASC2(EF) captures overall executive functioning better than individual tasks.

Many children struggle to comprehend grade-level texts in their first and additional languages despite having adequate decoding and good additional language proficiency. Recent studies often attribute monolingual's poor comprehension to weak executive functions. However, little research has investigated this association in children speaking more than one language. In this small-scale study, eight 9-to -10-year-old (Mage=9.99 years, SD= 0.40 years) learners of English as an Additional Language completed executive functions (indexed by measures of working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility), reading comprehension and decoding (words and non-words) in Arabic and in English, and additional language proficiency tasks. Results indicated a positive correlation between Arabic nonword decoding and inhibition efficiency as well as cognitive flexibility efficiency and English language proficiency. Further, findings showed a positive significant association between children’s ability to decode words and non-words in both languages as well as a strong correlation between English words and non-words with English comprehension.

There is a need for more evidence-based research in education and research; however, the difficulty of conducting interventional research in educational settings is often less acknowledged. This article provides practical examples when implementing school-based interventions, and highlights the importance of designing a multifaceted, cost-effective intervention, especially when working with hard-to-reach families. Additionally, the article notes the importance of being consistent and attentive to the developmental stage of the children and supporting parental engagement, two aspects that are crucial to the implementation of the intervention. The article also provides suggestions for building the researcher-practitioner relationship from study onset, and outlines the use of scaffolding, positive reinforcement, and play-based learning strategies over the course of the intervention to support child outcomes.

The study examines the efficacy of a guided pretend play intervention on the self-regulation and language skills of children from families with low incomes who are English Language Learners (Mage = 63.54 months, SDage = 3.7 months). Data on ethnicity were not collected. The sample (N = 151, 77 boys) was randomized into two groups: (a) Pretend play; (b) Art activities. The 30-minute intervention included 16 sessions based on shared storybook reading and role-playing with props. During storybook reading explicit phonological awareness and vocabulary instruction were provided for the target words. The findings showed that children in the intervention group had significantly higher post-test phonological awareness scores than children in the typical curriculum group (β = -21.95, p = .001).

Metacognition is important for monitoring and regulating cognitive processes, decision-making, problem-solving and learning. Despite widespread interest in metacognition, measuring metacognition in children poses a significant challenge. Some qualitative and observational metrics exist, but are restricted by scalability, range of metacognitive components measured, and use of different metrics compared with tasks for adults. We developed the Zoo Task - a novel, scalable, paper-based task that measures multiple aspects of metacognition that is less conflated by other variables like verbal ability and does not require video recording children. Children (N = 204, ages 7-12 years, mostly from African American backgrounds) attending schools in high poverty urban areas contributed to its development. In addition, they completed a standard metacognition of memory task similar to those already used with children and adults. The results indicate that the novel task trials are reliable and have good criterion validity. The Zoo Task could bridge the current gap between existing metrics of metacognition for children and adults.

It is common knowledge that physical activity leads to physiological and psychological benefits. The current study explored the association between physical activity and self-regulation longitudinally and the indirect relationship this may have on academic achievement, using secondary data on primary and secondary school children from the Millennium Cohort Study, a cohort of infants born in 2000–2001 in the United Kingdom. There are two main findings. First, there is a positive link between physical activity and emotional (not behavioural) regulation both concurrently and longitudinally across all three time points, 7-years-old, 11-years-old and 14-years-old. The relationship was negative for emotional regulation and negligible for behavioural regulation when controlling for socioeconomic status. Second, across two time points (due to data availability), physical activity positively predicted academic achievement through emotional regulation for 7-year-olds and behavioural regulation in 11-year-olds. The impact of this relationship was more pronounced when controlling for socioeconomic status. Together these findings indicate that emotional regulation is linked to physical activity in early childhood. Subsequently, emotion regulation predicts academic attainment, suggesting that early interventions might focus on attention rather than behaviour.

This poster described the development of a Syntactic Awareness task that stemmed from a larger project exploring the possible interplay of the psycholinguistic and cognitive predictors of reading comprehension in British and Chinese children. A word-order correction paradigm, ie. rearranging the fragmented words or phrases into logical and meaningful sentences (Brimo et al., 2017; Cain, 2007; Nation & Snowling, 2000), was adopted in the development of the measurement. Based on Nation and Snowling’s (2000) findings, items were developed with varying degree of syntactic complexity (the grammatical structure of the sentences) and semantic ambiguity (the possible correct combinations of the words) by adapting the materials from their study. The instrument was administered to a group of Year 5 and 6 children. Reliability was established using Cronbach’s Alpha, split-half reliability, inter-rater reliability, and composite reliability. The findings indicated the suitability of this six-item instrument as a measure of Syntactic Awareness.