title: Young children's reasoning about the effects of emotional and physiological states on academic performance.
abstract: This study assessed young children's understanding of the effects of emotional and physiological states on cognitive performance. Five, 6-, 7-year-olds, and adults (N= 96) predicted and explained how children experiencing a variety of physiological and emotional states would perform on academic tasks. Scenarios included: (a) negative and positive emotions, (b) negative and positive physiological states, and (c) control conditions. All age groups understood the impairing effects of negative emotions and physiological states. Only 7-year-olds, however, showed adult-like reasoning about the potential enhancing effects of positive internal states and routinely cited cognitive mechanisms to explain how internal states affect performance. These results shed light on theory-of-mind development and also have significance for children's everyday school success.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. amsterj@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Amsterlaw
authors.forename: Kristin Hansen
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lagattuta
authors.forename: Andrew N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Meltzoff
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D001076:Aptitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D004644:Emotions; D005221:Fatigue / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006815:Hunger; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D012951:Socialization