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1. Undergraduate Lay Theories of Abilities: Mindset, universality, and brilliance beliefs uniquely predict undergraduate educational outcomes

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-12-0250  

   Limeri, Lisa B. ; Carter, Nathan T. ; Lyra, Franchesca ; Martin, Joel ; Mastronardo, Halle ; Patel, Jay ; Dolan, Erin L. ( December 2023 , CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Nehm, Ross (Ed.)

   Students’ beliefs about their abilities (called “lay theories”) affect their motivations, behaviors, and academic success. Lay theories include beliefs about the potential to improve intelligence (mindset), who (i.e., everyone or only some people) has the potential to be excellent in a field (universality), and whether reaching excellence in a field requires raw intellectual talent (brilliance). Research demonstrates that each of these beliefs influences students’ educational experiences and academic outcomes. However, it remains unclear whether they represent distinct latent constructs or are susceptible to the “jangle fallacy” (i.e., different names given to the same underlying construct). We conducted a multiphase, mixed-methods study to 1) evaluate whether mindset, universality, and brilliance beliefs represent conceptually and empirically discriminable concepts, and 2) evaluate whether mindset, universality, and brilliance beliefs contribute unique explanatory value for both psychosocial (e.g., sense of belonging) and academic outcomes (e.g., course grades). To address these questions, we developed and collected validity evidence for a new measure of science and math undergraduates’ lay theories, called the Undergraduate Lay Theories of Abilities (ULTrA) survey. Factor analyses suggest that mindset, brilliance, and universality are distinct and empirically discriminable constructs. Structural Equation Models indicate that each lay theory contributes unique predictive value to relevant outcomes. 

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2. Early Sources of Children’s Math Achievement in Chile: The Role of Parental Beliefs and Feelings about Math

   https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2020.1799617  

   del Río, M. Francisca ; Susperreguy, María Inés ; Strasser, Katherine ; Cvencek, Dario ; Iturra, Carolina ; Gallardo, Ismael ; Meltzoff, Andrew N. ( January 2020 , Early Education and Development)

   Research Findings: Two hundred and sixty-seven Chilean children from grades 1–3, their fathers and their mothers completed measures of implicit and explicit math-related beliefs (math–gender stereotypes, math selfconcepts) and feelings (math anxiety), as well as tests of mathematical achievement. Children, fathers, and mothers exhibited stereotypes that link math with males. More specifically, mothers identified more with language than with math, while fathers and children identified more with math than with language. Path analyses models revealed that children’s explicit math self-concepts significantly predicted their actual math achievement. Children’s explicit self-concept was, in turn, explained marginally by the mathematical anxiety of their mothers. Practice or Policy: These results contribute to our understanding of the relation between parental and children’s beliefs and children’s math achievement during early elementary school years. In countries such as Chile, with a significant gender gap in math achievement, these findings may highlight relevant aspects to consider when designing interventions aimed at educational equity and providing equal mathematical learning opportunities to boys and girls. 

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3. What counts as STEM , and does it matter?

   https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12639  

   Adler, Rebecca M. ; Xu, Mingkai ; Rittle‐Johnson, Bethany ( October 2023 , British Journal of Educational Psychology)

   To accurately measure students' science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career interest, researchers must get inside the ‘black box’ to understand students' conceptualizations of STEM careers.

   The aim of Study 1 was to explore whether students' conceptualizations of STEM included medical careers. The aim of Study 2 was to explore whether predictors of STEM career interest (e.g., gender and motivation) varied by STEM definition (inclusion/exclusion of medical careers).

   In Study 1, the sample was US college students (N = 125) who were mostly White (80%). In Study 2, the sample was US 10th‐grade high school students (N = 455) who were mostly Black (79%).

   In Study 1, students completed an online questionnaire. In Study 2, students completed various measures of math achievement, motivation (science and math expectancies of success, interest and importance value) and career interest with an importance.

   In Study 1, medical careers were less often classified as STEM careers than traditional STEM careers, but more often classified as STEM than non‐STEM careers. In Study 2, science importance value was the only motivational predictor of students' STEM+Medicine career interest, and no motivation constructs predicted traditional STEM career interest. Boys expressed greater interest in traditional STEM careers, while girls expressed greater interest in STEM+Medicine careers.

   Students' conceptualizations of STEM are not binary. Thus, we recommend researchers are explicit about their definition of STEM with study participants, in their coding and in their publications.

    

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4. The impact of sufferers’ wealth status on pain perceptions: Its development and relation to allocation of healthcare resources

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13467  

   Shu, Yuhang ; Li, Huisi ; Ma, Shaocong ; Bian, Lin ( December 2023 , Developmental Science)

   Wealth‐based disparities in health care wherein the poor receive undertreatment in painful conditions are a prominent issue that requires immediate attention. Research with adults suggests that these disparities are partly rooted in stereotypes associating poor individuals with pain insensitivity. However, whether and how children consider a sufferer's wealth status in their pain perceptions remains unknown. The present work addressed this question by testing 4‐ to 9‐year‐olds from the US and China. In Study 1 (N = 108, 56 girls, 79% White), US participants saw rich and poor White children experiencing identical injuries and indicated who they thought felt more pain. Although 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds responded at chance, children aged seven and above attributed more pain to the poor than to the rich. Study 2 with a new sample of US children (N = 111, 56 girls, 69% White) extended this effect to judgments of White adults’ pain. Pain judgments also informed children's prosocial behaviors, leading them to provide medical resources to the poor. Studies 3 (N = 118, 59 girls, 100% Asian) and 4 (N = 80, 40 girls, 100% Asian) found that, when evaluating White and Asian people's suffering, Chinese children began to attribute more pain to the poor than to the rich earlier than US children. Thus, unlike US adults, US children and Chinese children recognize the poor's pain from early on. These findings add to our knowledge of group‐based beliefs about pain sensitivity and have broad implications on ways to promote equitable health care.

   Four studies examined whether 4‐ to 9‐year‐old children's pain perceptions were influenced by sufferers’ wealth status.

   US children attributed more pain to White individuals of low wealth status than those of high wealth status by age seven.

   Chinese children demonstrated an earlier tendency to attribute more pain to the poor (versus the rich) compared to US children.

   Children's wealth‐based pain judgments underlied their tendency to provide healthcare resources to people of low wealth status.

    

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5. Relational thinking: An overlooked component of executive functioning

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13320  

   Starr, Ariel ; Leib, Elena R. ; Younger, Jessica W. ; Project iLead Consortium ; Uncapher, Melina R. ; Bunge, Silvia A. ( September 2022 , Developmental Science)

   Relational thinking, the ability to represent abstract, generalizable relations, is a core component of reasoning and human cognition. Relational thinking contributes to fluid reasoning and academic achievement, particularly in the domain of math. However, due to the complex nature of many fluid reasoning tasks, it has been difficult to determine the degree to which relational thinking has a separable role from the cognitive processes collectively known as executive functions (EFs). Here, we used a simplified reasoning task to better understand how relational thinking contributes to math achievement in a large, diverse sample of elementary and middle school students (N= 942). Students also performed a set of ten adaptive EF assessments, as well as tests of math fluency and fraction magnitude comparison. We found that relational thinking was significantly correlated with each of the three EF composite scores previously derived from this dataset, albeit no more strongly than they were with each other. Further, relational thinking predicted unique variance in students’ math fluency and fraction magnitude comparison scores over and above the three EF composites. Thus, we propose that relational thinking be considered an EF in its own right as one of the core, mid‐level cognitive abilities that supports cognition and goal‐directed behavior.

   Relational thinking, the process of identifying and integrating relations, develops over childhood and is central to reasoning.

   We collected data from nearly 1000 elementary and middle schoolers on a test of relational thinking, ten standard executive function tasks, and two math tests.

   Relational thinking predicts unique variance in math achievement not accounted for by canonical EFs throughout middle childhood.

   We propose that relational thinking should be conceptualized as a core executive function that supports cognitive development and learning.

    

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