Abstract: Do bilingual children make moral decisions differently than monolingual children? In a previous study, bilingual children were more likely to make utilitarian decisions in response to child-friendly adaptations of the trolley and footbridge dilemmas than monolingual children (Michelin et al., 2010). Our study aimed to replicate and extend Michelin et al.’s study by presenting 4-6 year old bilingual and monolingual children with the trolley and footbridge dilemmas as well as an everyday-life moral dilemma. In contrast to Michelin et al.’s findings, we found that monolingual children were more likely to make utilitarian decisions in the footbridge dilemma than bilingual children.
Sophie Williamson ’22 is a Psychology and Education Studies, double major. She is currently interested in early childhood development and education, and the practice of translating research into practice in the classroom. She has worked in both preschool and daycare settings as well as tutoring and teaching swim lessons. When she is not in class she works as a tutor and Coordinator for the Traverse Square After School program.
Claudia Ferrara ’21 is a Psychology and Education Studies double major. She is pursuing her Masters degree in Psychology beginning at Wesleyan this fall. Outside of Wesleyan, she has spent three summers working at schools in Massachusetts helping children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), while continuing to work for the Blue Lab. She is interested in early childhood development and education and hopes to pursue a career in the intersection of those fields.
Abstract: Guided play has proven to be an effective way to teach preschool-aged children, but the term guided play encompasses a wide range of activities. Through testing the efficacy and best implementation practices of the Wesleyan Preschool Math Games, we aim to separate guided play out into a Low Guidance and a High Guidance condition. Over the last year, a group of undergraduate research students has been exploring how to make different levels of guided play tangible within the math game instructions. Through intense deliberation, we have identified the guidance towards numerical content within the instructions, the directiveness of the questions posed by the adults, and whether there is a correct way to play with the materials, as keyways to differentiate the two conditions.
Emma is a senior at Wesleyan University majoring in Neuroscience & Behavior and Italian Studies. Emma has conducted research in the Cognitive Development Lab for two years with a focus on the development of spatial cognition.
Abstract: Executive function and spatial abilities are essential components of human cognition and underscore academic success in fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The aim of the present study is to examine the association between executive function and landmark integration in reorientation behavior, which is thought to develop independently of other foundational cognitive processes. After controlling for the effects of age, executive function was found to be a significant predictor of reorientation. These findings suggest that landmark integration does not develop independently of other cognitive mechanisms.
