Human Development & Quantitative Methodology
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2248
The departments within the College of Education were reorganized and renamed as of July 1, 2011. This department incorporates the former departments of Measurement, Statistics & Evaluation; Human Development; and the Institute for Child Study.
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Item Statistical Learning Across Modalities, Domains and Languages(2024) Ren, Jinglei; Wang, Min; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation establishes a comprehensive line of research that systematically exploresstatistical learning (SL) across modalities, domains, and languages. The first study delves into SL development, exploring SL changes across different ages, linguistic and non-linguistic domains, visual and auditory modalities, and languages (specifically, Chinese and English). In the second study, the focus is shifted to the probabilistic regularities embedded in a specific written language. This study investigated the ability to use word endings as a probabilistic cue to lexical stress among those who acquired a second language (L2) in formal learning settings through years of practice. The third study broadens the scope further, delving into whether beginning English learners benefit from a specialized training program emphasizing the association between word endings and lexical stress. The collective body of research in this dissertation makes significant contributions to the fields of cognitive science, linguistics, and education. Ultimately, the insights gleaned have the capacity to positively impact learners of various ages and diverse backgrounds, and to offer valuable implications for educational practices.Item Uncovering the Relations Among College Students’ Expectancies, Task Values, Engagement, and STEM Course Outcomes(2020) Gladstone, Jessica R.; Wigfield, Allan; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the last thirty years, student engagement has received much attention as an important contributor to students’ school success. One major limitation of the research on student engagement is that there is not a widely accepted theory regarding what constitutes it and how it relates to motivation. In the present study I examined relations of college students’ motivational beliefs and task values (as defined in Eccles and colleagues’ expectancy-value theory, EVT) to proposed dimensions of their engagement: behavioral, cognitive, social, agentic, and behavioral and emotional disaffection. In particular, I examined: (1) empirical overlap among certain dimensions of engagement and task value constructs; (2) which EVT constructs are associated with which dimensions of engagement; (3) how motivational beliefs, values, and engagement dimensions relate over time; and (4) whether engagement dimensions mediate the relationship between motivational beliefs, values, and math and science grades. Students (Ntime1 = 486, Ntime2 = 516) were recruited from a large public university and then completed surveys about their motivation and engagement in their introductory math or science course twice, at the beginning of the semester and again after mid-terms examinations. Findings indicated that although there were strong associations among certain engagement dimensions and task value constructs, structural equation model fit indices indicated that these should be treated as separate constructs. Regression analyses showed that in general, students’ competence beliefs and values were associated with behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement and behavioral and emotional disaffection dimensions. However, the relations between the motivational variables and social and agentic engagement were weak or non-significant. Cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that some relations among task values and engagement dimensions were reciprocal over time, but more often motivation predicted engagement rather than the reverse. Students’ behavioral and cognitive engagement were strong mediators of the relations between their task values and domain-specific grades in math and science. I conclude from these results that (at least for college-aged students) certain engagement constructs should be integrated more fully into the well-established expectancy-value model; however, future research is needed to ensure that these relations hold across different domains.Item A FRAMEWORK FOR THE PRE-CALIBRATION OF AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED ITEMS(2018) Sweet, Shauna Jayne; Hancock, Gregory R; Harring, Jeffrey R; Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This paper presents a new conceptual framework and corresponding psychometric model designed for the pre-calibration of automatically generated items. This model utilizes a multi-level framework and a combination of crossed fixed and random effects to capture key components of the generative process, and is intended to be broadly applicable across research efforts and contexts. Unique among models proposed within the AIG literature, this model incorporates specific mean and variance parameters to support the direct assessment of the quality of the item generation process. The utility of this framework is demonstrated through an empirical analysis of response data collected from the online administration of automatically generated items intended to assess young students’ mathematics fluency. Limitations in the application of the proposed framework are explored through targeted simulation studies, and future directions for research are discussed.Item GUIDED DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES SUPPORTING MATHEMATICAL UNDERSTANDING IN CHILDREN(2018) Daubert, Emily; Ramani, Geetha B; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Early numerical knowledge lays the foundation for later mathematics achievement, career advancement, and daily functioning. Therefore, it is troubling that mathematics achievement in the United States is especially poor. For this reason, it is crucial that ways to improve learning outcomes in young children, particularly in the area of mathematical development are explored. Mathematics is a complex process, which requires flexible thinking, exploration and analysis of novel, complicated, and real world problems. Guided discovery is a pedagogical context, which is adult-initiated and child-directed and promotes flexible thinking, analysis of complex problems- the same skills required for early mathematical learning. The goal of this study was to examine the effectiveness of one element of guided discovery- dialogic inquiry- for improving children’s numerical knowledge when used in a guided discovery setting. Dialogic inquiry is the practice of asking questions that lead children to think differently about the mathematical concepts at hand or act differently on the objects in their environments. Ninety-four preschoolers played a life-sized linear number board game under three conditions and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: math-related dialogic inquiry, math statements, and positive encouragement. Children’s learning from pretest to posttest was compared on four numerical knowledge outcomes: number line estimation, magnitude comparison, arithmetic, and ordinality. Additionally, children’s mathematical talk and behavior during board game play were compared across conditions. Children in the dialogic inquiry condition improved more than children in the math statements and positive encouragement conditions on arithmetic performance. Children in the math statements condition declined in performance on magnitude comparison significantly more than children in the dialogic inquiry and positive encouragement conditions. Lastly, children in both the dialogic inquiry and math statements conditions outperformed children in the positive encouragement condition on ordinality. There were no significant differences between conditions for mathematical talk and behavior. Understanding the specific mechanisms, such as dialogic inquiry, which contribute to the effectiveness of guided discovery will improve the implementation of guided discovery pedagogies aimed at improving numerical knowledge.Item NEURAL CHRONOMETRY OF VISUAL ATTENTION & THREAT PROCESSING(2018) Haas, Sara A; Fox, Nathan A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Most anxiety disorders in adults emerge during adolescence, and if left untreated, pediatric anxiety disorders predict adverse mental and physical health outcomes in adolescents and adults. While genetic heritability is a contributing risk factor, a heightened tendency to direct attention preferentially to threat represents one of the strongest information-processing correlates of anxiety; such an attention bias may shape both the development and maintenance of anxiety symptoms. Attentional performance differences have been observed on emotion cueing visual attention tasks as a function of both clinical and sub-clinical anxiety levels. Previous work in adults observed that for adults with higher anxiety symptoms, efficiency of visual search was degraded by threat-cueing faces. However, further work is required to clarify the emergence attentional biases in adolescents, to inform methods for early identification, intervention and treatment of individuals at risk for anxiety. The present study examined the impact of emotional priming on attention as a function of anxiety using a task in which emotional faces were used as primes for a visual search task. Event Related Potentials (ERP) (P1, N170 and N2pc) were recorded in concert with behavioral responses to address the chronometry and quality of attentional processing as a function of anxiety symptoms in adolescents, 12-17 years of age. Early P1 and N170 processing in the first few hundred milliseconds of viewing face primes, differed as a function of both anxiety and prime emotion. Moreover, these anxiety-related early processing differences related to subsequent behavior. Variability in the N2pc attention-related processing during visual search also varied as a function of anxiety and prime type, as well as affected subsequent behavior. This dissertation found both early and later occurring attentional processes have significant ramifications for individuals with higher anxiety scores, such that in addition to neural differences, high anxious individuals also display significant differences in behavior. While early and late neural processes varied in lower anxious individuals as a function of face prime type, relations with behavior were minimal in comparison. These findings are discussed as they relate to emotion processing, threat responsivity to facial stimuli, and applicability to pediatric and adult clinical anxiety.Item CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING OF MERIT IN FAIR RESOURCE ALLOCATION(2017) Noh, Jee Young; Killen, Melanie; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While previous studies have documented children’s consideration of merit in fairness decisions, less is known about specifically how merit has been conceptualized by children, as effort and outcome were confounded in merit (Baumard et al., 2012; Kienbaum & Wilkening, 2009). Thus, the current study aimed to disentangle these two components of merit in understanding children’s conceptions of fairness. One hundred children (3 to 6 year-olds and 7 to 10 year-olds) participated in this study. Children’s understanding of merit was documented in four contexts: a) when effort and outcome were confounded (baseline), b) when outcome was controlled (i.e., when the level of effort was varied), c) when effort was controlled (i.e., when the level of outcome was varied), and d) when given the opportunity to prioritize either effort or outcome. Novel findings were that with increasing age, children prioritized effort over outcome and thus found it to be fair when more resources were allocated to the hardworking peer than to the productive peer. That is, older children were more likely to focus on the positive intentions of an act rather than positive consequences compared to younger children. In addition, when merit was examined when effort and outcome was controlled, children were still able to take into consideration for merit, thereby allocating more resources to a peer who was hardworking over a peer who was lazy (when outcome was the same) and to a peer who was productive over a peer who was unproductive (when effort was the same). Interesting findings were revealed when authority figures’ messages were present: all-aged children rejected a teacher’s allocation decision that was against merit; however, older children rejected a teacher’s equal allocation decision while younger children found a teacher’s equal allocation to be okay. The current study made a significant contribution to the current literature by examining the process in which children integrate two different aspects of merit in their fairness decisions.Item The Best Friendships of Shy/Withdrawn Middle Schoolers(2017) King, Shakeena Jasmine; Rubin, Kenneth H; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Social withdrawal during childhood and adolescence tends to be associated with many outcome such as peer difficulties, and internalizing problems (see Rubin, Coplan, & Bowker 2009). Given the buffering effects of friendship, researchers have also suggested that friendship may help mitigate the negative outcomes socially withdrawn individuals experience throughout their life (e.g. Bukowski, Laursen, & Hoza, 2010) Research pertaining to social withdrawal and friendship quality tends to be rich in nature; however, more research is needed examining socially withdrawn children’s friendship quality and quantity during the middle school years and beyond. Given that friendships tend to have an impact on one’s social development, and peers become increasingly important during adolescence (see Brown & Larson, 2009 for a review), it is important to study friendship quality and quantity beyond the elementary school years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality and quantity of friendships among socially withdrawn 6th and 8th graders. Specifically the following study was use to examine whether differences in friendship quality and quantity exist between socially withdrawn 6th graders and 8th graders, to investigate how socially withdrawn children’s mutual best friendships function during middle school years compared to those of typical children, to discover possible gender differences in friendship quality that may occur for socially withdrawn young adolescents, to expand the literature on social withdrawal and its possible association with friendship quantity and quality during early adolescence. The mutual best friendships of shy/withdrawn and control children were examined for prevalence, stability and friendship quality. Through peer nominations of shy/withdrawn and aggressive behaviors that were reported on the Extended Class Play (Rubin et al., 2006), the Shy/Withdrawn and Control groups for the 6th and 8th grade sample were identified from a sample of 6th graders and 8th graders. The Shy/Withdrawn group consisted of 72 8th graders and 152 6th graders and the Control group consisted of 85 8th graders and 158 6th graders. After identifying the groups, the best friend dyads visited the lab and completed several questionnaires such as the The Network of Relationships Inventory (NRI; Furman & Buhrmester, 1985). Consistent with Rubin and colleagues’ (2006) study, findings revealed that shy/withdrawn children were just as likely as control children to have mutual best friendships in both the 6th grade and 8th grade. Furthermore, 6th graders, compared to 8th graders, were more likely to report having a mutual best friend. In terms of the characteristics of the target groups’ best friendships, using the aggression, shy/withdrawn, and peer rejection/victimization ECP factors, no significant group differences were found among the 6th grade sample. Only in the 8th grade sample, shy/withdrawn best friends were significantly more likely to be shy/withdrawn and experience peer rejection and victimization. However, no significant group differences between shy/withdrawn and control young adolescents were found in terms of friendship quality on the NRI. Only significant age differences were found in the NRI in which 8th graders as a whole, compared to the 6th graders, were more likely to rate their friendship quality higher. Furthermore, no significant gender differences in terms of best friendships were found in the 6th grade and 8th grade. Future research involving longitudinal samples on how socially withdrawn adolescents form best friendships is encouraged in order to identify the possible trends and factors associated with forming best friendships and their friendship quality from childhood to adolescence. It may be possible that because early adolescence is a developmental period when peer relationships play a more important role in one’s life, young adolescents, regardless of whether or not they are withdrawn, actively form friendships with others in order to fulfill the need to fit in and form relationships with others. Furthermore, for future studies, researchers should investigate the best friendships of socially withdrawn children and young adolescents based on their motivations for withdrawal since socially withdrawn behavior is not exclusive to only shyness and possible differences in friendship prevalence and stability may exist between these different motivations of social withdrawal.Item The Influence of Orthographic Experiences on the Development of Functional Phonological Unit in Spoken Word Production(2015) Li, Chuchu; Wang, Min; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current dissertation project examined the influence of orthographic experiences on the development of the functional phonological unit in spoken word production in native Mandarin-speaking children. Functional phonological unit refers to the first selectable phonological unit after lexical selection in the planning of spoken word production. Previous research has shown that the acquisition of orthographic knowledge restructures literate speakers’ phonological representation and in particular, the acquisition of alphabetic orthographic knowledge improves children’s phonological awareness at the phonemic level. However, few studies have investigated the influence of orthographic experiences on phonological retrieval and encoding in spoken word production. The goal of this dissertation is to fill this gap. Four experiments were carried out to conduct the investigation. Participants consisted of native Mandarin speakers from four age groups with different orthographic experiences, including 1) Grade 1 children, who were comparatively more exposed to alphabetic Pinyin and had very limited Chinese character knowledge, 2) Grade 2 and Grade 4 children, who had better character knowledge and more exposure to characters, and 3) adult readers, who had the highest level of character knowledge and the most exposure to characters. Experiment 1 investigated whether the onset served as the functional phonological unit in producing monosyllables; Experiment 2 investigated whether the role of the onset in phonological retrieval and encoding was sustained when producing disyllabic words; Experiment 3 examined the role of the syllable segment (i.e., a syllable whose tone is indeterminate or an atonal syllable) in producing disyllabic words; Experiment 4 examined the role of the tonal syllable (i.e., tonal information is also included) in producing disyllabic words. Results showed that only Grade 1 children selected the onset as the functional phonological unit regardless of the word length during spoken word production and that additionally, they might process the rime segment and tone as a cohesive unit. By contrast, Grade 4 children and adults selected the syllable segment as the functional phonological unit. Grade 2 children were in their transitional stage of development, and they selected tonal syllable as the functional phonological unit. The different orthographic experiences of the four groups might contribute to the above differences. The current dissertation has important theoretical and pedagogical implications. The aforementioned findings help us better understand the mechanism of phonological processing, and as a result, may help educators develop more efficient pedagogical approaches to improve children’s phonological processing ability.Item Maternal Experiences of Parenting Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Analysis(2015) Duchene, Melissa S.; Jones Harden, Brenda; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite the increased prevalence rates of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) over the last two decades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015), little is known about the parenting of children with ASD, including parenting behaviors, parent-child interactions, and how the specific characteristics of children with ASD affect parenting practices. The goals of this qualitative study were: (1) To explore parenting practices and behaviors among mothers of children with ASD; and (2) To illuminate the unique experiences of mothers raising children with ASD. Three research questions guided the inquiry: 1) What are the parenting practices and behaviors that mothers use with their preschool age children with ASD?; 2) What are the beliefs and experiences of mothers relative to raising preschool aged children with ASD?; and 3) What facilitates or hinders mothers' parenting of their preschool aged children with ASD? In this qualitative inquiry, six mothers and their preschool-age children with ASD were recruited from the Autism Center in a metropolitan children's hospital. Each mother participated in three 1-1 ½ hour long semi-structured audio-recorded interviews that entailed a series of open-ended questions about the unique experiences associated with raising a child with ASD. Two home observations and one public observation of mother-child interactions lasting 1-2 hours in length were conducted per family. Eleven themes emerged during the coding process: 1) positivity within the mother-child relationship, 2) schedules and routines, 3) strategies encouraging child cooperation, 4) crisis management, 5) perspectives on child's maladaptive behavior, 6) perspectives on child's abilities, 7) perceptions and experiences around public interfacing, 8) stress associated with caring for a child with ASD, 9) maternal resources, 10) interpersonal supports, and 11) ecological factors. These results shed light on factors that contribute to the everyday realities and experiences of parents who have children with ASD, thereby allowing for a more accurate understanding of their parenting approaches and behaviors. Findings from this study can be considered in the context of developing interventions focused on parenting children with ASD.Item Coordinating School Goals: A Process Model of Multiple Goal Pursuit(2015) Baker, Sandra Ann; Wentzel, Kathryn R; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The social and academic goals students pursue in the classroom are important predictors of academic performance, particularly during the middle school years. Several motivational constructs, including self-regulation efficacy, have also been positively related to the goals students pursue in the classroom and academic performance. The role of multiple goal coordination (perceptions of inter-goal interference and facilitation) in predicting academic performance, however, has not been readily addressed. Goals are considered to interfere with one another when the pursuit of one goal conflicts with the pursuit of a second goal. Perceptions of inter-goal facilitation, on the other hand, occur when one goal is seen as beneficial to the pursuit of a second goal. The combined influence of these constructs in predicting academic achievement has not been explored. The purpose of the current study was to test a process model of multiple goal coordination that examined middle school students' self-regulation efficacy, multiple goals and perceptions of inter-goal interference and facilitation in relation to academic performance (GPA). Responses from sixth (n = 293), seventh (n = 226), and eighth (n =146) grade students from two racially diverse low-income school districts in the Southeastern U.S. indicated that self-regulation efficacy was a positive predictor of multiple goal pursuit. Students' multiple goals, in turn, mediated the relation between self-regulation efficacy and academic performance. Academic and social responsibility goals, in particular, were found to be important predictors of academic performance above and beyond levels of self-regulation efficacy. In addition, students' perceptions of inter-goal interference were negative predictors, and perceptions of inter-goal facilitation were positive predictors, of academic performance. Finally, results indicated that perceptions of inter-goal interference moderated the relation between self-regulation efficacy and academic performance (moderated mediation). If students perceived pursuit of one goal to interfere with the pursuit of a second goal, academic performance was lower regardless of levels of self-regulation efficacy. Findings provide evidence for a more complex model of multiple goal pursuit; one that includes both self-processes (self-regulation efficacy) and aspects of goal coordination (perceptions of inter-goal interference and facilitation) as factors that impact the relation between multiple goal pursuit and academic performance. Results also suggest that a measure of inter-goal relations can be a useful tool in examining motivational processes in young adolescent student samples.