The Dynamics of Inhibition in Social Cognitive Development

本项目将探讨不同的抑制机制在儿童社会认知发展中的作用，特别是在儿童对他人心理状态的理解、对他人知识的信任和对公平的理解方面。除了增强关于抑制发展的具体机制的知识外，该项目还将解决社会认知中关于抑制在发展中的作用的长期争论。孤立不同的抑制过程在儿童社会判断中的作用，明确了儿童发展社会认知知识的机制，以及更广泛的认知发展。了解这些过程如何展开也适用于现实世界的实践。通过研究儿童如何理解他人的心理状态，研究人员将能够为描述儿童如何解决与他人的冲突提供一个框架。通过研究儿童是如何形成公平概念的，研究人员将能够确定促进合作和道德发展的因素。这些发现有可能影响旨在促进社会认知发展的课程设计和干预措施。这个项目使用了一种叫做触达轨迹追踪（RTT）的技术，它可以测量孩子们是如何对屏幕上显示的场景做出触达行为的。不同的抑制控制机制反映在儿童伸手反应的速度和轨迹上。社会认知的三个研究方向将被讨论：儿童心理理论、选择性社会学习和亲社会行为。每条研究路线都以社会认知过程的发展轨迹为目标，并辨别出不同的抑制过程在该发展中的作用。通过这种方式，研究小组可以阐明儿童社会认知发展的方式以及抑制在这一发展中所起的作用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate the role of distinct mechanisms for inhibition on children's developing social cognition, specifically focused on their understanding of others' mental states, their trust in others' knowledge, and their understanding of fairness. In addition to enhancing knowledge about how specific mechanisms of inhibition develop, the project will address long-standing debates in social cognition regarding the role of inhibition in development. Isolating the role of different inhibitory processes in children's social judgment specifies the mechanisms through which children develop social cognitive knowledge, and cognitive development more generally. Understanding how these processes unfold also applies to real-world practice. By examining how children understand others' mental states, the researchers will be able to provide a framework for describing how children resolve conflicts with others. By examining how children develop concepts of fairness, the researchers will be able to identify factors contributing to cooperation and moral development. These findings have the potential to impact curriculum design and interventions designed to promote social cognitive development. This project uses a technique called reach trajectory tracking (RTT), which measures how children engage in reaching behaviors in response to scenes shown to them on a screen. Different mechanisms of inhibitory control are reflected by the speed and trajectory of children's reaching responses. Three lines of research in social cognition will be addressed: children's theory of mind, selective social learning, and prosocial behavior. Each line of research targets the developmental trajectory of a social-cognitive process and discerns the role of distinct inhibitory processes in that development. In this way, the research team can articulate ways in which children's social cognition develops and what role inhibition plays in this development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.