Poster #121 - Children consider changes in performance over time when reasoning about academic achievements

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

We all desire achievement, but individual routes to achieving success vary. While some people achieve high from the start, others may start from a lower place and improve over time. How do children and adults consider changes in academic performance over time in their evaluations of academic achievement? Here we investigate this question in children aged 4-10.

In Study 1, we presented 4- to 10-year-olds (N = 102) with two characters and their performance (indicated by the number of stickers received) on two exams over one semester. One of the characters received three stickers on the first exam and four stickers on the second (i.e., the improving character). The other character received four stickers on both exams (i.e., the constant character). Participants were then asked about their inferences (i.e., "Who is smarter?", "Who is more hardworking?"), and comparative evaluations (i.e., "Who would you award a prize to?", "Who do you prefer?", "Who will be more successful in the future?") about the two characters. Children across ages inferred the constant character as smarter (t(100) = -7.578, p < .001). However, children’s inferences and evaluations about who was more hardworking showed notable developmental changes. With age, children gradually inferred the improving character to be more hardworking (r = .381, p < .001) and evaluated the improving character more favorably than the constant character (r = .654, p < .001) (See Figure 1).

Study 2 further examined whether children’s inferences and evaluations vary with the direction of change (i.e., improving or decreasing, within-subjects) among 4- to 9-year-olds (N = 103). The methods were similar to Study 1 with an exception. In addition to comparing a constant character with an improving character (i.e., improving condition), we added a within-subject condition where participants were asked to compare a constant character with a character whose performance decreased over time (i.e., decreasing condition). Results of the improving condition were consistent with those in Study 1 (see Figure 2(a)). However, in the decreasing condition, with age, children increasingly favored the constant character (r = -.377, p < .001) in all measures (See Figure 2(b)).

Studies 1 and 2 only investigated scenarios wherein two characters performed equally well on the last exam. In Study 3, we investigated whether younger children's (4-6-year-olds, N = 49) comparative evaluations of the constant character vs. the improving character were affected by whether the improving character outperformed the constant character on the last exam. We found that, 4- to 6-year-olds evaluated the improving character more favorably only when this character outperformed the constant character on the last exam (M = .646, t(47) = 2.665, p = .011), and not when the two characters’ performances were matched on the last exam (M = .410, t(48) = -1.638, p = .108).

In summary, between ages 4 and 10, children can gradually consider changes in performance over time in their inferences and evaluations of academic achievements. They can also flexibly take into consideration factors such as direction of change and comparative final performance.

Authors

• Ying Hu, East China Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Yuhang Shu, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Xin Alice Zhao, East China Normal University