Poster #46 - Age, but not Executive Functioning, is Associated With Academic Cheating in Early and Middle Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 07

Abstract

Academic cheating is a dishonest behaviour that has important implications for a child’s academic development later in life. Children’s executive functioning (EF) skills are goal-directed cognitions (e.g., working memory and inhibitory control) that increase in sophistication with age (Lee et al., 2013). It is controversial as to whether children’s EF skills are related to cheating and if they are indeed related, whether the relationship is positive or negative. This current study addressed this question by examining children’s actual academic cheating behaviors and their relations to age and EF skills in the early school years.
A total of 525 children aged 4 to 12 years (M=7.2, SD=1.8, 51% girls) participated online through Zoom in a large-scale research project. Academic cheating was examined by four challenging academic-type tests (e.g., a math test). Children were left alone to perform the tasks and instructed not to cheat (e.g., peeking at the answer that was blocked by a movable obstruction). Unbeknownst to the child, a screen-recorder recorded their behaviors. EF was examined with three activities: a Matching Game (Zelazo et al., 2004) measuring cognitive control, a Forward Digit Span Task measuring short-term memory, and a Backward Digit Span Task measuring working memory (Wechsler, 1991).
Among the children, 74.7% (N=392) cheated on at least one of the academic tasks (M=1.9, SD=1.5). On average, children correctly answered 78.6% the Matching Game questions (SD=18.1%), finished at 3.9 digits for the Forward Digit Span Task (Max=10.5, SD=1.6), and at 2.9 digits for the Backward Digit Span Task (Max=8.5, SD=1.3). Age was significantly correlated with Matching Game (r=.403, p<.001), Forward Digit Span Task (r=.506, p<.001), and Backward Digit Span Task (r=.489, p<.001) performance, with older children achieving higher scores on all three tasks.
A hierarchical regression was conducted with cheating as the predicted variable. The first step included age and was significant (ΔR=.13, ΔF(1, 478)=70.02, p<.001), indicating that with increased age, children became less likely to cheat. The second model included all three EF tasks and was not significant (ΔR=.01, ΔF(3, 475)=1.02, p=.384). None of the EF measures were significantly correlated with cheating after controlling for age (see Figure 1).
The present study revealed that children as young as 4 years already begin to cheat for academic reasons, but their tendency to cheat decreases with increased age. However, children’s EF abilities in terms of cognitive control, short-term memory, and working memory do not seem to play an important role in children’s tendency to cheat. Given the fact that the present study has the largest sample among all existing studies examining the relation between cheating and EF, our findings provide much needed evidence to address the current controversy regarding this relation, and suggest that future research must look beyond the current EF tasks to identify the cognitive and social factors that play a crucial role in children’s decision to cheat academically.

Authors

• Elizabeth Lynn Gerhardt, Saint Mary’s University
  Presenting Author

• Tz-yu Duan, University of British Columbia (UBC)

• Kaitlyn Monica Wilson, University of New Brunswick

• Kanza Batool, University of Toronto

• Yingxi Li, University of British Columbia

• Catherine Ann Cameron, University of British Columbia (UBC)

• Kang Lee, University of Toronto