phonics blog

thanks for delivering this story to me

Abstract— Digital games combining exercise with game play, known as exergames, can improve youths’ health status and provide social and academic benefits. Exergame play increases caloric expenditure, heart rate, and coordination. Psychosocial and cognitive impacts of exergame play may include increased self-esteem, social interaction, motivation, attention, and visual–spatial skills. This article summarizes the literature on exergames, with a special emphasis on physical education courses and the potential of exergames to improve students’ physical health, as well as transfer effects that may benefit related physical, social, and academic outcomes.

oh i can’t beleive it

Abstract— Children’s interaction with educational computer games reflects not only their game-playing expertise but also their knowledge and skills about embedded educational content. Recent pilot data, drawn from an ongoing evaluation of children’s learning from educational media, illustrate that, much like earlier research on formal classroom mathematics, children may engage in cycles of increasingly sophisticated mathematical thinking over the course of playing an online game. It is possible to detect these shifts in strategies not only through in-person observations, but via data mining of online tracking data as well. This article discusses implications for the study of mathematical reasoning, children’s use of educational games, and assessment.

if people only knew

Abstract— Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in the use of video games for education because of the high level of engagement of players. This article blends research on game engagement from the media flow perspective with current pedagogical theory to advance 2 core design principles for a model educational game design: model matching and layering.

oh i can’t beleive it

Abstract— Video games are at the center of a debate over what is helpful or harmful to children and adolescents, and there is research to substantiate both sides. The existing research suggests that there are at least 5 dimensions on which video games can affect players: the amount of play, the content of play, the game context, the structure of the game, and the mechanics of game play. This article describes each of these 5 dimensions with support from the scientific literature, arguing that this approach can allow people to get beyond the typical “good–bad” dichotomous thinking to have a more nuanced understanding of video game effects and to provide testable hypotheses for future research.

and i though i was the only one to see it this way

Abstract— The prevalence of video game play as an integral part of children and adolescents’ media diet has generated interest in how it might affect academic learning. However, current developmental research fails to highlight this issue. The 5 articles in this special section are designed to spark developmental psychologists’ greater interest by suggesting ways to conceptualize what children and adolescents gain from the time they spend playing video games, and how the cognitive skills and strategies they use may transfer to, or at least influence, what they do in the context of more academic tasks.

and i though i was the only one to see it this way

Abstract— Humans are cultural animals, enveloped in the arbitrary norms, practices, and symbols—or conventions—unique to a particular community of people. The adaptive value for children of recognizing such cultural conventions is indisputable, raising critical questions concerning how they do so. This article first reviews the extant evidence indicating that from early in life, young children appreciate that certain socially available knowledge is known only by members of their cultural community. It then discusses 2 possible accounts of the development of such an assumption and outlines certain challenges facing those accounts. The article concludes by suggesting some directions for future work that are grounded in a sociocognitive approach to cultural acquisition.

maybe this will change things

Abstract— “Transfer” is a venerable issue in cognitive development and education. However, its very existence is the subject of extensive debate, and there is as yet no consensus about its definition, measurement, and implications. This article proposes a 3-dimensional conceptual model of transfer distance for thinking about transfer of concepts or strategies in children, and presents some recent findings on children’s transfer of scientific reasoning strategies—task similarity, context similarity, and temporal interval—that exemplify these three dimensions. These studies yield several important and robust findings regarding children’s learning and transfer in problem solving within this model, which provides a valuable organizing framework for objectively measuring transfer distance and for guiding future research in children’s learning.

never miss a day, thanks for the blog

Abstract— A long-standing and diverse body of evidence has documented the importance of externalizing characteristics as very early etiologic predictors of a pathway to severe alcohol and other drug problems and substance use disorder (SUD). At the same time, much remains unclear about the mechanistic structure of this pathway, including understanding what the defining characteristics are that encompass the diverse behaviors included in the externalizing domain. This article proposes that the core risk phenotype unifying this domain is behavioral undercontrol–disinhibition. It describes the defining features of this phenotype and outlines the mediators, moderators, and developmental course that characterize the pathway from early risk to a SUD endpoint. A brief summary of the neurocognitive and brain functional response systems that underlie the behavioral phenotype emphasizes the operation of two systems in dynamic tension, one an effortful control system, the other an incentive reactivity system.

I like this:)

Abstract— Understanding human development in the context of socioeconomic–cultural change requires a consideration of both the contextual and the global aspects of development that involves an “integrative synthesis” of the 2. Such a synthesis may be considered a conceptual model or goal of human development and may be observed in different spheres of development. This article proposes “autonomous-related self” and “cognitive–social competence” as 2 integrative syntheses that provide insight into adaptations to changing environmental demands and suggests that although they are not adequately recognized in psychology, these syntheses can be considered as aspects of optimal development. The article presents the 22-year longitudinal Turkish Early Enrichment Project as a case in point that illustrates the relevance of these integrative syntheses, as well as how they can be promoted.

more to read in our archives

Abstract— This article discusses some of the ways in which dynamic systems approaches have been applied to developmental science. Dynamic systems thinking suggests that (a) there is always change within stability at the level of real-time (microscopic) behavior, and (b) microlevel change provides the seeds for developmental (macroscopic) change. It is only possible to study these propositions using microgenetic designs, case-based studies of change using frequent observations across development. Normal parent–infant relationships smooth out otherwise abrupt developmental transitions using a bridging process. The absence of developmental bridging may reflect problematic or even traumatic growth patterns, suggesting that bridging, a feature of a developmental trajectory, may serve as a diagnostic individual differences variable.