Environmental Sensitivity in School Children: Understanding Cognitive Empathy, Memory and Behavior of Highly Sensitive Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Several theories have described that individuals differ in their responsivity or reactivity to external stimuli. These different perspectives have been integrated into a meta-framework of Environmental Sensitivity, according to which individuals vary in their response to environmental influences because they differ in how they perceive and process stimuli in the environment (Pluess, 2015). Findings from the adult literature suggest that at the phenotypic level, individual differences in environmental sensitivity can be characterized by greater awareness of subtle stimuli, subtle stimuli changes, and deeper cognitive processing (Aron & Aron, 1997, Acevedo et al., 2021). In the developmental literature, these cognitive sensitivity characteristics have gained less attention. Likewise, little is known about how sensitive children are perceived in classroom contexts. The proposed symposium includes three papers using different research methodologies: The first paper presents data on the association of sensitivity and cognitive empathy in primary school children in the UK. The second paper used functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in a Polish sample to measure hemodynamic brain processes of high and low-sensitive children during a working memory task. The third paper examined teachers’ perceptions, characterization, and understanding of sensitive children in Swiss classrooms. The symposium will provide insights into the neuro-cognitive underpinnings of environmental sensitivity and the perception of sensitive children in a social context. A leading expert in the field will discuss the implications of these findings not only to advance our understanding of environmental sensitivity in children but also to refine our understanding of children’s cognitive development.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Niamh Oeri, Universität Bern

Discussant

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London

Individual Presentations

• Environmental Sensitivity in Children is Associated with Performance in a Theory of Mind Task - Presenting Author: Jenni Elise kahkonen, Queen Mary University of London; Francesca Lionetti, G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara and Queen Mary University of London; Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London

• Prefrontal Cortex Activity During the N-Back Tasks in High and Low Sensitivity Groups: An fNIRS Study - Presenting Author: Monika Baryła-Matejczuk, WSEI University; Dariusz Zapała, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin; Robert Porzak, WSEI University; Pawel Augustynowicz, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

• Primary School Teachers’ Perception, Characterization, and Understanding of Sensitive Children: A Qualitative Study - Presenting Author: Regula Neuenschwander, University Bern; Niamh Oeri, Universität Bern