Karen Bartsch | University of Wyoming (original) (raw)
Papers by Karen Bartsch
British Journal of Development Psychology, Nov 1, 1997
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2019
In challenging the assumption of autistic social uninterest, Jaswal &... more In challenging the assumption of autistic social uninterest, Jaswal & Akhtar have opened the door to scrutinizing similar unexamined assumptions embedded in other literatures, such as those on children's typically developing behaviors regarding others’ minds and morals. Extending skeptical analysis to other areas may reveal new approaches for evaluating competing claims regarding social interest in autistic individuals.
Journal of Cognition and Development, Jul 1, 2012
and attunement to others ' mental states
Routledge eBooks, Feb 10, 2020
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2020
For Tomasello's proposed ... more For Tomasello's proposed ontology of the human sense of moral obligation, observations of early moral language may provide useful evidence complementary to that afforded by experimental research. Extant reports of children's everyday moral talk reveal patterns of participation and content that accord with the proposal and hint at extensions addressing individual differences.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Oct 1, 2014
Cimpian &... more Cimpian & Salomon's (C&S's) characterization of a domain-general inherence heuristic, available to young children, underplays the importance of our early interest in and recognition of agency, intentionality, and mental life. A consideration of the centrality of desires, goals, and agency in our earliest reasoning suggests an alternative, perhaps complementary, account of our tendency to be satisfied with the status quo.
Social Development, Apr 12, 2011
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Dec 1, 1997
Abstract Developmental psychology should play an essential constraining role in developmental cog... more Abstract Developmental psychology should play an essential constraining role in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Theories of neural development must account explicitly for the early emergence of knowledge and abilities in infants and young children ...
Journal of Psychology Research, May 1, 2012
INTRODUCTIONThis article concerns the development of prospective memory (i.e., memory for perform... more INTRODUCTIONThis article concerns the development of prospective memory (i.e., memory for performing planned intentions) in children. As children get older, they are no longer just directed by adults to immediately perform tasks, but in addition, they are expected to remember to perform tasks on their own. For example, a 6-year-old might be asked to remember to bring home a sweater that has been left at school. An 11-year-old might be expected to wait for her father to pick her up after school instead of taking the usual bus home. A child's success in remembering to perform these everyday prospective memory tasks will depend on multiple factors (e.g., Kvavilashvili, Kyle, and Messer, 2008), but we contend that an important factor is motivation to perform the task.This paper is organized around two central theses. First, we suggest that motivation is a critical element in prospective memory performance in children. Specifically, increased motivation improves prospective memory performance in children. Second, we suggest that motivation may be especially important for younger children and that younger children can sometimes remember to perform prospective memory tasks just as well as older children if the task is important to them. We will review the extant literature relevant to these claims and present new supporting evidence from a study of parent reports of prospective memory in school-age children. We limit our focus to the topic of prospective memory in children through age 12 (about 5th or 6th grade in the U.S.) and do not address prospective memory performance or development in adolescence or young adulthood.THESIS #1: MOTIVATION (E.G., TASK IMPORTANCE OR GOAL-RELATEDNESS) IMPROVES PROSPECTIVE MEMORY PERFORMANCE IN CHILDRENThe idea that motivational factors play a central role in children's prospective memory is suggested in two aspects of the extant prospective memory literature. First, there are many studies showing that motivation improves prospective memory in adults. We summarize this research in the next section. Second, there is a small but convincing set of findings supporting the more specific conclusion that motivation improves prospective memory in children. These findings, along with some that raise questions about this thesis, are summarized and evaluated following the next section.Research Has Shown That Higher Task Motivation Improves Prospective Memory Performance in GeneralResearchers from both social psychology and cognitive psychology have theorized that motivation is pivotal in remembering to perform prospective memory tasks (e.g., Kruglanski, et al. 2002; McDaniel and Einstein, 2000; Meacham, 1982; Sheeran, Webb, and Gollwitzer, 2005; Winograd, 1988). Many studies have shown that prospective memory tasks that are regarded as more important are remembered better (e.g., Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, and Einstein, 2004; Kvavilashvili, 1987; Marsh, Hicks, and Landau, 1998; Meacham and Singer, 1977). For example, in one naturalistic study, participants who first listed their upcoming real-life prospective memory tasks, and later reported on whether they remembered them, reported higher forgetting rates for tasks they had rated as lower in importance (Marsh et al., 1998). Possible reasons for links between task importance and improved performance include an increased use of memory strategies (Einstein and McDaniel, 1990; Penningroth, 2005), performance benefits specifically for social and prosocial tasks (i.e., tasks that benefit others; Altgassen, Kliegel, Brandimonte, and Filippello, 2010; Brandimonte, Ferrante, Bianco, and Villani, 2010; Penningroth, Scott, and Freuen, 2011), and an increased allocation of attentional resources when monitoring for performance cues (Kliegel et al., 2004).A Motivational-Cognitive Model of Prospective MemoryResults showing motivational effects on prospective memory in adults have inspired a motivational-cognitive model of prospective memory (Penningroth and Scott, 2007). …
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Feb 1, 2004
Abstract Carpendale & Lewis's (C&L's) proposal of a social inte... more Abstract Carpendale & Lewis's (C&L's) proposal of a social interaction account makes clear the need for researchers of all theoretical orientations to get specific about how social experience influences children's developing understanding of mind, but it is premature to ...
Social Development, May 1, 2010
Child Development, Aug 1, 1996
... care centers for their cooperation. I am also indebted to David Estes for help with experimen... more ... care centers for their cooperation. I am also indebted to David Estes for help with experimental design and analysis and to Tanya Hickerson and Melissa Cray for research assistance. Gorrespon-dence conceming this article ...
Merrill-palmer Quarterly-journal of Developmental Psychology, 2008
Cognitive Development, Apr 1, 2003
Learning and Individual Differences, 1996
Monographs of The Society for Research in Child Development, 1986
Research on Piaget's stage 4 object concept has failed to reveal a clear or consistent pa... more Research on Piaget's stage 4 object concept has failed to reveal a clear or consistent pattern of results. Piaget found that 8-12-month-old infants would make perserverative errors; his explanation for this phenomenon was that the infant's concept of the object was contextually dependent on his or her actions. Some studies designed to test Piaget's explanation have replicated Piaget's basic finding, yet many have found no preference for the A location or the B location or an actual preference for the B location. More recently, researchers have attempted to uncover the causes for these results concerning the A-not-B error. Again, however, different studies have yielded different results, and qualitative reviews have failed to yield a consistent explanation for the results of the individual studies. This state of affairs suggests that the phenomenon may simply be too complex to be captured by individual studies varying 1 factor at a time and by reviews based on similar qualitative considerations. Therefore, the current investigation undertook a meta-analysis, a synthesis capturing the quantitative information across the now sizable number of studies. We entered several important factors into the meta-analysis, including the effects of age, the number of A trials, the length of delay between hiding and search, the number of locations, the distances between locations, and the distinctive visual properties of the hiding arrays. Of these, the analysis consistently indicated that age, delay, and number of hiding locations strongly influence infants' search. The pattern of specific findings also yielded new information about infant search. A general characterization of the results is that, at every age, both above-chance and below-chance performance was observed. That is, at each age at least 1 combination of delay and number of locations yielded above-chance A-not-B errors or significant perseverative search. At the same time, at each age at least 1 alternative combination of delay and number of locations yielded below-chance errors and significant above-chance correct performance, that is, significantly accurate search. These 2 findings, appropriately elaborated, allow us to evaluate all extant theories of stage 4 infant search. When this is done, all these extant accounts prove to be incorrect. That is, they are incommensurate with one aspect or another of the pooled findings in the meta-analysis. Therefore, we end by proposing a new account that is consistent with the entire data set.
British Journal of Development Psychology, Nov 1, 1997
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2019
In challenging the assumption of autistic social uninterest, Jaswal &... more In challenging the assumption of autistic social uninterest, Jaswal & Akhtar have opened the door to scrutinizing similar unexamined assumptions embedded in other literatures, such as those on children's typically developing behaviors regarding others’ minds and morals. Extending skeptical analysis to other areas may reveal new approaches for evaluating competing claims regarding social interest in autistic individuals.
Journal of Cognition and Development, Jul 1, 2012
and attunement to others ' mental states
Routledge eBooks, Feb 10, 2020
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2020
For Tomasello's proposed ... more For Tomasello's proposed ontology of the human sense of moral obligation, observations of early moral language may provide useful evidence complementary to that afforded by experimental research. Extant reports of children's everyday moral talk reveal patterns of participation and content that accord with the proposal and hint at extensions addressing individual differences.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Oct 1, 2014
Cimpian &... more Cimpian & Salomon's (C&S's) characterization of a domain-general inherence heuristic, available to young children, underplays the importance of our early interest in and recognition of agency, intentionality, and mental life. A consideration of the centrality of desires, goals, and agency in our earliest reasoning suggests an alternative, perhaps complementary, account of our tendency to be satisfied with the status quo.
Social Development, Apr 12, 2011
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Dec 1, 1997
Abstract Developmental psychology should play an essential constraining role in developmental cog... more Abstract Developmental psychology should play an essential constraining role in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Theories of neural development must account explicitly for the early emergence of knowledge and abilities in infants and young children ...
Journal of Psychology Research, May 1, 2012
INTRODUCTIONThis article concerns the development of prospective memory (i.e., memory for perform... more INTRODUCTIONThis article concerns the development of prospective memory (i.e., memory for performing planned intentions) in children. As children get older, they are no longer just directed by adults to immediately perform tasks, but in addition, they are expected to remember to perform tasks on their own. For example, a 6-year-old might be asked to remember to bring home a sweater that has been left at school. An 11-year-old might be expected to wait for her father to pick her up after school instead of taking the usual bus home. A child's success in remembering to perform these everyday prospective memory tasks will depend on multiple factors (e.g., Kvavilashvili, Kyle, and Messer, 2008), but we contend that an important factor is motivation to perform the task.This paper is organized around two central theses. First, we suggest that motivation is a critical element in prospective memory performance in children. Specifically, increased motivation improves prospective memory performance in children. Second, we suggest that motivation may be especially important for younger children and that younger children can sometimes remember to perform prospective memory tasks just as well as older children if the task is important to them. We will review the extant literature relevant to these claims and present new supporting evidence from a study of parent reports of prospective memory in school-age children. We limit our focus to the topic of prospective memory in children through age 12 (about 5th or 6th grade in the U.S.) and do not address prospective memory performance or development in adolescence or young adulthood.THESIS #1: MOTIVATION (E.G., TASK IMPORTANCE OR GOAL-RELATEDNESS) IMPROVES PROSPECTIVE MEMORY PERFORMANCE IN CHILDRENThe idea that motivational factors play a central role in children's prospective memory is suggested in two aspects of the extant prospective memory literature. First, there are many studies showing that motivation improves prospective memory in adults. We summarize this research in the next section. Second, there is a small but convincing set of findings supporting the more specific conclusion that motivation improves prospective memory in children. These findings, along with some that raise questions about this thesis, are summarized and evaluated following the next section.Research Has Shown That Higher Task Motivation Improves Prospective Memory Performance in GeneralResearchers from both social psychology and cognitive psychology have theorized that motivation is pivotal in remembering to perform prospective memory tasks (e.g., Kruglanski, et al. 2002; McDaniel and Einstein, 2000; Meacham, 1982; Sheeran, Webb, and Gollwitzer, 2005; Winograd, 1988). Many studies have shown that prospective memory tasks that are regarded as more important are remembered better (e.g., Kliegel, Martin, McDaniel, and Einstein, 2004; Kvavilashvili, 1987; Marsh, Hicks, and Landau, 1998; Meacham and Singer, 1977). For example, in one naturalistic study, participants who first listed their upcoming real-life prospective memory tasks, and later reported on whether they remembered them, reported higher forgetting rates for tasks they had rated as lower in importance (Marsh et al., 1998). Possible reasons for links between task importance and improved performance include an increased use of memory strategies (Einstein and McDaniel, 1990; Penningroth, 2005), performance benefits specifically for social and prosocial tasks (i.e., tasks that benefit others; Altgassen, Kliegel, Brandimonte, and Filippello, 2010; Brandimonte, Ferrante, Bianco, and Villani, 2010; Penningroth, Scott, and Freuen, 2011), and an increased allocation of attentional resources when monitoring for performance cues (Kliegel et al., 2004).A Motivational-Cognitive Model of Prospective MemoryResults showing motivational effects on prospective memory in adults have inspired a motivational-cognitive model of prospective memory (Penningroth and Scott, 2007). …
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Feb 1, 2004
Abstract Carpendale & Lewis's (C&L's) proposal of a social inte... more Abstract Carpendale & Lewis's (C&L's) proposal of a social interaction account makes clear the need for researchers of all theoretical orientations to get specific about how social experience influences children's developing understanding of mind, but it is premature to ...
Social Development, May 1, 2010
Child Development, Aug 1, 1996
... care centers for their cooperation. I am also indebted to David Estes for help with experimen... more ... care centers for their cooperation. I am also indebted to David Estes for help with experimental design and analysis and to Tanya Hickerson and Melissa Cray for research assistance. Gorrespon-dence conceming this article ...
Merrill-palmer Quarterly-journal of Developmental Psychology, 2008
Cognitive Development, Apr 1, 2003
Learning and Individual Differences, 1996
Monographs of The Society for Research in Child Development, 1986
Research on Piaget's stage 4 object concept has failed to reveal a clear or consistent pa... more Research on Piaget's stage 4 object concept has failed to reveal a clear or consistent pattern of results. Piaget found that 8-12-month-old infants would make perserverative errors; his explanation for this phenomenon was that the infant's concept of the object was contextually dependent on his or her actions. Some studies designed to test Piaget's explanation have replicated Piaget's basic finding, yet many have found no preference for the A location or the B location or an actual preference for the B location. More recently, researchers have attempted to uncover the causes for these results concerning the A-not-B error. Again, however, different studies have yielded different results, and qualitative reviews have failed to yield a consistent explanation for the results of the individual studies. This state of affairs suggests that the phenomenon may simply be too complex to be captured by individual studies varying 1 factor at a time and by reviews based on similar qualitative considerations. Therefore, the current investigation undertook a meta-analysis, a synthesis capturing the quantitative information across the now sizable number of studies. We entered several important factors into the meta-analysis, including the effects of age, the number of A trials, the length of delay between hiding and search, the number of locations, the distances between locations, and the distinctive visual properties of the hiding arrays. Of these, the analysis consistently indicated that age, delay, and number of hiding locations strongly influence infants' search. The pattern of specific findings also yielded new information about infant search. A general characterization of the results is that, at every age, both above-chance and below-chance performance was observed. That is, at each age at least 1 combination of delay and number of locations yielded above-chance A-not-B errors or significant perseverative search. At the same time, at each age at least 1 alternative combination of delay and number of locations yielded below-chance errors and significant above-chance correct performance, that is, significantly accurate search. These 2 findings, appropriately elaborated, allow us to evaluate all extant theories of stage 4 infant search. When this is done, all these extant accounts prove to be incorrect. That is, they are incommensurate with one aspect or another of the pooled findings in the meta-analysis. Therefore, we end by proposing a new account that is consistent with the entire data set.