Interval timing and temperament in 4-year-old children

Name: Interval timing and temperament in 4-year-old children
Keywords: INTERVAL TIMING

Datos de investigación

Interval timing and temperament in 4-year-old children

Autores: Segretin, María Soledad Icon

; Agostino, Patricia Icon

; Nachon, Juan Ignacio Icon

; Ruetti, Eliana Martha Icon

; Golombek, Diego Andres Icon

; Lipina, Sebastián Javier Icon

Publicador: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Fecha de depósito: 21/10/2024

Fecha de recolección: 08/2016-09/2017

Clasificación temática:

Otras Psicología

Resumen

Interval timing refers to the ability of the brain to perceive and measure the duration of time in the seconds-to-minute range. Young children’s time judgments are significantly more variable than adults’, associated with different factors (e.g., age, hormones, chronotype, and cognition). Despite this, little is known regarding the modulation of time estimation in children younger than five. In this study we explore time estimation in 4-year-old children and its modulation by individual (i.e., sex and temperament) and socio-environmental factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, SES). One hundred twenty-one children completed a time reproduction task with three stimuli durations (2s, 3s, and 4s). Parents reported on the child’s SES and temperament (data was collected in 2016–2017). Results indicate that mean reproduction time was significantly different between SES for the 4 s interval. Also, timing performance varied by child sex across all evaluated variables, except for the score in the 4s interval, with girls achieving higher scores than boys. Finally, significant differences were verified according to child temperament and SES. Specifically, higher scores in the 2 s interval were obtained for children with higher effortful control. Furthermore, the distribution of temperament groups was similar across SES conditions, except for surgency, where more cases with unsatisfied basic needs were observed in the low surgency group. In sum, the results of this study present evidence of the importance of considering individual characteristics (i.e., temperament and sex) in the study of time estimation since they would provide possible sources of variation in children’s performances, even beyond the SES conditions.

Métodos

The task procedure and data collection were performed on a laptop computer (PC). In a quiet room, children were seated comfortably on a chair facing the computer screen. A time reproduction task -widely used in both adults (Agostino et al., 2017; Fortin et al., 2009) and children (Bauermeister et al., 2005; Gautier & Droit-Volet, 2002)- was administered to each child. In this task, participants were asked to reproduce intervals of 2, 3 and 4 s following a visual stimulus (an animal drawn on a colored background). The number of target intervals used, as well as the duration of each interval are commonly used in classical timing procedures (Arlin, 1986b; Droit- Volet, 2003). The time reproduction task was thus divided into two main phases: a first one in which children encoded the duration of the stimulus (the “Observe” phase), and a second one in which they reproduced this duration. A cat and a dog, a bear and a lion, and a giraffe and a crocodile were used as visual stimuli for the Observe and Reproduce phase for the 4 s, 3 s, and 2 s target intervals, respectively. These target intervals were evaluated in three separate 20-trial blocks. The participants’ preferred hand rested on the spacebar of the computer keyboard. In each block, the children were instructed to reproduce the duration of the stimulus by pressing the spacebar to mark when they judged that sufficient time had elapsed (i.e., when they judged that the animal appearing in the Reproduce phase was on the screen for the same amount of time than the animal that previously appeared in the Observe phase). To familiarize participants with the task and experimental setting, 3 practice trials were included at the beginning of each block. These practice trials were followed by a feedback picture, showing a different animal depending on the child’s response (early, correct or late). Responses given between 10% of target interval (e.g., between 1800 ms and 2200 ms for the 2 s interval target) were accepted as correct in practice trials, and a happy dog sitting over a reference cone was presented. Earlier responses were illustrated by a rabbit located on the left of the reference cone (indicating that response was too fast), while later responses were illustrated by using a turtle situated on the right of the reference cone (indicating that responses were too slow). Visual feedback was also accompanied by verbal feedback from the researcher. Practice trials were not included in the data analysis. Altogether, participants performed 69 trials (9 for practice and 60 for the test) in three blocks with short breaks in between them. In each block, the couple of animals and the background color changed. Subjects were not instructed about counting, since it has been established that children younger than 7 or 8 years do not spontaneously use a counting strategy to time continuous durations (Wilkening et al., 1987). Accuracy, precision, and scalar property were analyzed. In interval timing analysis, accuracy refers to the degree of a match between objectives (physical) and subjective (perceived) durations. Precision is related to the variance of perceived durations across repeated trials, and the scalar property of timing is a form of conformity to Weber’s law, which is a linear relation between the standard deviation of subjective time and the mean subjective time (i.e., constant coefficient of variation). Performance in accuracy was evaluated by assessing the mean reproduced time / real time for each target interval, performance in precision was obtained from the analysis of standard deviation in reproduced durations for each target interval, and scalar property was evaluated by comparing the coefficient of variation (CV) across all 3 target intervals. Scores for each target interval was calculated (total score 2s, total score 3s, and total score 4s), by the addition of performance in accuracy and precision within each target interval. In addition, a global total score was calculated by adding the performance in accuracy, precision, and scalar property for all target intervals evaluated). Scores were calculated to have an integrated measure of the different aspects of performance (i.e., sum of accuracy, precision, and scalar property scores).

Palabras clave: INTERVAL TIMING, EFFORTFUL CONTROL, NEGATIVE AFFECT, SURGENCY, SES, SEX

Alcance geográfico

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Identificador del recurso

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/11336/246180

Colecciones

Datos de Investigación(CEMIC-CONICET)
Datos de Investigación de CENTRO DE EDUCACION MEDICA E INVESTIGACIONES CLINICAS "NORBERTO QUIRNO"

Datos de Investigación(SEDE CENTRAL)
Datos de Investigación de SEDE CENTRAL

Citación

Segretin, María Soledad; Agostino, Patricia; Nachon, Juan Ignacio; Ruetti, Eliana Martha; Golombek, Diego Andres; Lipina, Sebastián Javier; (2024): Interval timing and temperament in 4-year-old children. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. (dataset). http://hdl.handle.net/11336/246180

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