Individual Development and Adaptive Education

Meat consumption contributes to climate change and causes animal suffering. Being aware of animal suffering while at the same time eating meat may lead to experiences of meat-related conflict. One outcome of this conflict are the reasoning justifications used to support or oppose meat-eating. The present study builds on burgeoning work that has examined children's reasoning about eating non-human animals by conceptually replicating and extending British findings in Germany. Here, 507 participants aged between 8 and 74 were asked to reason about why it is (not) okay to eat animals. Overall, meat-eating was justified as natural, necessary, or based on animal categories, and condemned as unnecessary or referencing animal welfare or rights. Conditional justifications for meat-eating included humane husbandry or reduced consumption. As hypothesized, children were more likely to mention animal welfare, whereas adolescents and adults were more likely to refer to eating meat as natural or to humane husbandry conditions. Additionally, participants' reasoning differed as a function of their moral evaluation of meat-eating. Opponents of eating animals were more likely to reason about animal welfare, unlike proponents who were more likely to refer to meat-eating as natural or necessary. Compared to proponents, participants who were ambivalent about eating meat were more likely to mention animal welfare. Lastly, an exploratory investigation of generational reasoning differences between emerging adults and adults revealed no effects. Overall, our findings suggest a developmental trajectory from a focus on animal welfare in childhood to a focus on biological and conventional justifications beginning in adolescence.

Object:Temperament provides a valuable framework for understanding ADHD across the lifespan, as extreme temperamental traits are considered etiological risk factors. The dual-pathway model links specific temperamental traits to ADHD symptom domains: elevated reactive traits, surgency and negative affect, to hyperactivity/impulsivity, and a low regulatory trait, effortful control, to inattention.Method:One hundred fifty-eight adults (79 with clinical diagnoses of ADHD and 79 controls) filled in the Adult Temperament Questionnaire. Consistent with a compensatory extension of the dual-pathway model, it was hypothesized that effortful control would moderate the effects of reactive traits (surgency/negative affect) on hyperactive/impulsive symptoms and influence both ADHD symptom domains. For exploratory purposes, orienting sensitivity, an adult temperament factor related to perceptual sensitivity, was included in the analyses.Results:Binary logistic regression identified lower effortful control as the strongest predictor of an ADHD diagnosis. Negative affect had a significant but small effect, while surgency and orienting sensitivity were non-significant. Two hierarchical regressions were performed for self-rated symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention. Consistent with a compensatory model, effortful control was significantly related to symptom expression in both ADHD symptom domains. Contrary to expectations, surgency did not explain variance in hyperactivity/impulsivity, and the effect of negative affect was strongly reduced, after effortful control was added to the model. Effortful control did not moderate the effects of surgency and negative affect.Conclusion:These findings challenge the dual-pathway model and highlight self-regulation deficits over reactive traits in sustaining ADHD in adulthood. They underscore the value of temperament-based approaches for refining diagnosis and developing targeted interventions for adult ADHD.

Abstract Students frequently rely on ineffective learning strategies instead of those that promote long-term retention. This is not simply a matter of lacking metacognitive knowledge. Research on self-regulated learning typically emphasizes that students deliberately avoid effective strategies due to time and effort demands, or because their academic goals can be met without them. In this paper, we aim to expand this perspective by investigating the role of non-deliberate, habitual behaviors in students’ self-directed use of learning strategies. Drawing on key principles of habit and habit formation, we argue that particularly ineffective learning strategies tend to develop strong habitual tendencies. An overreliance on them may therefore stem not only from a lack of deliberate choices but also from their automatic activation in response to environmental cues. We explore this idea both theoretically, by analyzing how ineffective strategies align with habit characteristics, and empirically, through a proof-of-concept study comparing the habit strength of strategies that differ in effectiveness. By framing learning strategy use through a habit-based lens, we highlight non-deliberate learning behavior and discuss possible implications for interventions that leverage behavior-change principles to promote the adoption of effective strategies.

The developmental Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT-D) measures children’s ability to override immediate reactions for more considered responses, a skill crucial for learning non-intuitive concepts, particularly in science. However, the predictive validity of the CRT-D for inquiry-based learning has not been established. This study validated a German version of the CRT-D and investigated its role in predicting children’s conceptual learning about balance. Data were collected across three studies with children aged 5 to 10 (N = 255), and predictive validity was tested in one study (n = 116), in which children participated in a balance scale task assessing conceptual learning before and after an inquiry-based learning session. The CRT-D demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (McDonald’s ω = .69), and its factor structure and developmental trends were consistent with other populations. Children’s CRT-D scores significantly predicted their conceptual learning, suggesting that cognitive reflection is essential for successful science learning.

Revising one’s goal in response to feedback about goal success or failure is a central but poorly understood self-regulatory process. Specifically, a theoretical model that specifies how and how much people revise their goal following goal success or failure is lacking. Therefore, we synthesized empirical studies on goal revision to shed light on the processes and individual differences in goal revision. Twenty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria and revealed a clear pattern: People raise their goals after success and lower them after failure. Results of a meta-analysis further showed that the discrepancy between goal and performance predicted the strength of upward goal revision after success and downward goal revision after failure (r = .51). Moreover, a narrative summary of previously tested moderators revealed two ways in which moderators affect the direction and strength of goal revision. Moderators affect either the direct link between goal-performance discrepancy and goal revision, or the link between goal-performance discrepancy and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy emerged as a central mediating variable between goal-performance discrepancy and goal revision. Based on these findings, we developed the Triple-A Model (Assessment, Appraisal, Adjustment) of Goal Revision, which allows deriving directional hypotheses about how much people revise their goals after successes and failures.

Reactive temperament traits, such as negative affect and surgency, interact with self-regulatory abilities, including effortful control and executive function, to shape psychopathological symptoms. In a cross-sectional sample of 416 preschool children (M-age = 4.15 years; SD = 0.88; 218 girls), temperament was assessed using the Child Behavior Questionnaire, executive function deficits with the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool, performance-based EF with the EF-Touch battery, and psychopathological symptoms with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Moderation analyses revealed no significant interaction effects. However, hierarchical regression analyses conducted separately by age showed age-specific patterns. Reactive traits (Negative Affect, Surgency) were particularly associated with symptoms at age 3, while executive dysfunction became more relevant at ages 4 and 5. Negative affect was most relevant for emotional symptoms in older children, while Surgency predicted ADHD and early conduct problem. Peer problems were least associated with temperament and showed increasing ties to executive dysfunction. The strongest effects were observed for ADHD (R2 = 0.61), followed by emotional symptoms (R2 = 0.45). These findings highlight the importance of considering temperament and self-regulation in combination and in relation to specific symptom domains. This supports dimensional, domain-sensitive models of psychopathology and has implications for individualized prevention and intervention.

Children with an immigrant background are often regarded as a risk group for poor educational outcomes due to their on average lower levels of German language skills. However, the heterogeneity within this group is often neglected when only averages are considered. We address this heterogeneity by analyzing patterns of German vocabulary development in early childhood among children with and without immigrant background with an explorative approach. Using the data from the newborn cohort of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we examine children’s German vocabulary trajectories from age three to nine by applying Growth Mixture Modeling. Our results show that a large share of children with an immigrant background exhibit an average or even above-average vocabulary trajectory. However, almost a fifth can be considered as having a “risk profile” since they show very below-average vocabulary levels at all measurement points. Such a risk profile also exists in the sample of non-immigrant children, but the share is smaller. The number of books in the family, the family language and children’s early cognitive skills are the strongest predictors for being in this risk profile.

Decades of research have repeatedly highlighted the relations between academic achievement and family contexts, such as socioeconomic status and immigration. Children facing such educational risks as well as those with learning and attention disorders encounter several challenges. A broad body of research emphasizes the relevance of self-regulated learning (SRL) for educational success. This study investigates the use of SRL strategies and metacognitive knowledge among students with educational risks. SRL among young learners was assessed using a multimethod approach. Results indicate relations with parents‘ socioeconomic status and self-reported SRL strategy use. Regarding immigration, results show that children from immigrant backgrounds show higher SRL strategy use in self-reports. Analyses also indicated associations of learning difficulties with lower SRL measured with the parent rating. No relations were found between the various risk factors and students' metacognitive knowledge. These findings offer first insights into the relations between SRL and educational risks, providing a basis for tailored interventions to enhance SRL.

Problem-solving is an important skill that is associated with reasoning abilities, action control and academic success. Nevertheless, empirical evidence on cognitive correlates of problem-solving performance in childhood is limited. Appropriate assessment tools are scarce and existing analog tasks require extensive coding. Thus, we developed and validated new tablet-based versions of existing analog tasks assessing technical problem-solving with gear construction tasks. To validate these tasks, 215 children (6-8 years) performed the problem-solving tasks in both modalities (analog, digital). To investigate whether performances in both modalities were correlated with other cognitive abilities, participants performed three additional tasks assessing language, reasoning and problem-solving. Structural equation modelling showed that performance was substantially correlated across modalities and also correlated with language, reasoning and another problem-solving task, showing the convergent validity of the digital tasks. We also found scalar measurement invariance across task modalities indicating that both task versions can be used interchangeably. We conclude that both versions (analog and digital) draw on similar cognitive resources and abilities. The analog tasks were thus successfully transferred to a digital platform. The new tasks offer the immense benefits of digital data collection, provide a valid measuring tool advancing problem-solving research in childhood and facilitate the application in the field, e.g., in the classroom.

Children showed less robust memory consolidation across short and long delay compared to young adults.From short to long delay, children show differential neural upregulation for remote versus recent memory compared to young adults.Over time, both children and young adults showed reduced scene-specific reinstatement of neural patterns.Children relied more on gist-like neural reinstatement in anterior hippocampal and medial prefrontal brain regions.Memory consolidation tends to be less robust in childhood than adulthood. However, little is known about the corresponding functional differences in the developing brain that may underlie age-related differences in retention of memories over time. This study examined system-level memory consolidation of object-scene associations after learning (immediate delay), one night of sleep (short delay), as well as two weeks (long delay) in 5-to-7-year-old children (n = 49) and in young adults (n = 39), as a reference group with mature consolidation systems. Particularly, we characterized how functional neural activation and reinstatement of neural patterns change over time, assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging combined with representational similarity analysis (RSA). Our results showed that memory consolidation in children was less robust and strong (i.e., more forgetting) compared to young adults. Contrasting correctly retained remote versus recent memories across time delay, children showed less upregulation in posterior parahippocampal gyrus, lateral occipital cortex, and cerebellum than adults. In addition, both children and adults showed decrease in scene-specific neural reinstatement over time, indicating time-related decay of detailed differentiated memories. At the same time, we observed more generic gist-like neural reinstatement in medial-temporal and prefrontal brain regions uniquely in children, indicating qualitative difference in memory trace in children. Taken together, 5-to-7-year-old children, compared to young adults, show less robust memory consolidation, possibly due to difficulties in engaging in differentiated neural reinstatement in neocortical mnemonic regions during retrieval of remote memories, coupled with relying more on gist-like generic neural reinstatement.