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All Outputs (46)

Young children's referent selection is guided by novelty for both words and actions (2016)
Journal Article
Dysart, E. L., Mather, E., & Riggs, K. J. (2016). Young children's referent selection is guided by novelty for both words and actions. Journal of experimental child psychology, 146, 231-237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2016.01.003

Young children are biased to select novel, name-unknown objects as referents of novel labels (e.g., Markman, 1990) and similarly favour novel, action-unknown objects as referents of novel actions (Riggs, Mather, Hyde & Simpson, 2015). What process un... Read More about Young children's referent selection is guided by novelty for both words and actions.

Parallels between action-object mapping and word-object mapping in young children (2015)
Journal Article
Riggs, K. J., Mather, E., Hyde, G., & Simpson, A. (2016). Parallels between action-object mapping and word-object mapping in young children. Cognitive science, 40(4), 992-1006. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12262

© 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. Across a series of four experiments with 3- to 4-year-olds we demonstrate how cognitive mechanisms supporting noun learning extend to the mapping of actions to objects. In Experiment 1 (n = 61) the demonstration... Read More about Parallels between action-object mapping and word-object mapping in young children.

Young children retain fast mapped object labels better than shape, color, and texture words (2015)
Journal Article
Holland, A., Simpson, A., & Riggs, K. J. (2015). Young children retain fast mapped object labels better than shape, color, and texture words. Journal of experimental child psychology, 134, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.01.014

We compared short- and long-term retention of fast mapped color, shape and texture words as well as object labels. In an exposure session, 354 3- and 4-year-old children were shown a set of two familiar and three novel stimuli. One of the novel stimu... Read More about Young children retain fast mapped object labels better than shape, color, and texture words.

Developing thoughts about what might have been (2014)
Journal Article
Beck, S. R., & Riggs, K. (2014). Developing thoughts about what might have been. Child development perspectives, 8(3), 175-179. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12082

Recent research has changed how developmental psychologists understand counterfactual thinking or thoughts of what might have been. Evidence suggests that counterfactual thinking develops over an extended period into at least middle childhood, depend... Read More about Developing thoughts about what might have been.

The costs of giving up: Action versus inaction asymmetries in regret (2013)
Journal Article
Nicolle, A., & Riggs, K. (2013). The costs of giving up: Action versus inaction asymmetries in regret. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(6), 702. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X13001143

Kurzban et al.'s opportunity cost model of mental effort relies heavily on counterfactual thinking. We suggest that a closer inspection of the role of counterfactual emotions, and particularly of action/inaction asymmetries in anticipated regret, may... Read More about The costs of giving up: Action versus inaction asymmetries in regret.

Conditional Reasoning and Emotional Experience: A Review of the Development of Counterfactual Thinking (2013)
Journal Article
Beck, S. R., Weisberg, D. P., Burns, P., & Riggs, K. J. (2014). Conditional Reasoning and Emotional Experience: A Review of the Development of Counterfactual Thinking. Studia Logica, 102(4), 673-689. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11225-013-9508-1

What do human beings use conditional reasoning for? A psychological consequence of counterfactual conditional reasoning is emotional experience, in particular, regret and relief. Adults' thoughts about what might have been influence their evaluations... Read More about Conditional Reasoning and Emotional Experience: A Review of the Development of Counterfactual Thinking.

Prepotency in action: Does children's knowledge of an artifact affect their ability to inhibit acting on it? (2013)
Journal Article
Riggs, K. J., Simpson, A., & Carroll, D. J. (2014). Prepotency in action: Does children's knowledge of an artifact affect their ability to inhibit acting on it?. Journal of experimental child psychology, 118(1), 127-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2013.07.015

Prepotent actions are actions that are strongly triggered by the environment, and so tend to be carried out, unless intentionally avoided. Understanding what makes an action prepotent is central to an understanding of inhibitory control. The current... Read More about Prepotency in action: Does children's knowledge of an artifact affect their ability to inhibit acting on it?.

Seeing triggers acting, hearing does not trigger saying: Evidence from children's weak inhibition (2013)
Journal Article
Simpson, A., Cooper, N. R., Gillmeister, H., & Riggs, K. J. (2013). Seeing triggers acting, hearing does not trigger saying: Evidence from children's weak inhibition. Cognition, 128(2), 103-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.03.015

There is evidence to suggest action imitation is automatic in adults and children. Children's weak inhibitory control means that automatic activation can have dramatic effects on behaviour. In three developmental studies, we investigated whether verb... Read More about Seeing triggers acting, hearing does not trigger saying: Evidence from children's weak inhibition.

The role of inhibitory control in the development of human figure drawing in young children (2013)
Journal Article
Riggs, K. J., Jolley, R. P., & Simpson, A. (2013). The role of inhibitory control in the development of human figure drawing in young children. Journal of experimental child psychology, 114(4), 537-542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2012.10.003

We investigated the role of inhibitory control in young children's human figure drawing. We used the Bear-Dragon task as a measure of inhibitory control and used the classification system devised by Cox and Parkin to measure the development of human... Read More about The role of inhibitory control in the development of human figure drawing in young children.

How do alternative ways of responding influence 3- and 4-year-olds' performance on tests of executive function and theory of mind? (2012)
Journal Article
Carroll, D. J., Riggs, K. J., Apperly, I. A., Graham, K., & Geoghegan, C. (2012). How do alternative ways of responding influence 3- and 4-year-olds' performance on tests of executive function and theory of mind?. Journal of experimental child psychology, 112(3), 312-325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2012.03.001

A total of 69 preschool children were tested on measures of false belief understanding (the Unexpected Transfer task), inhibitory control (the Grass/Snow task), and strategic reasoning (the Windows task). For each task, children indicated their respo... Read More about How do alternative ways of responding influence 3- and 4-year-olds' performance on tests of executive function and theory of mind?.

Refining the understanding of inhibitory processes: how response prepotency is created and overcome (2011)
Journal Article
Simpson, A., Riggs, K., Beck, S. R., Gorniak, S. L., Wu, Y., Abbott, D., & Diamond, A. (2012). Refining the understanding of inhibitory processes: how response prepotency is created and overcome. Developmental Science, 15(1), 62-73. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01105.x

Understanding (a) how responses become prepotent provides insights into when inhibition is needed in everyday life. Understanding (b) how response prepotency is overcome provides insights for helping children develop strategies for overcoming such te... Read More about Refining the understanding of inhibitory processes: how response prepotency is created and overcome.

Executive control and the experience of regret (2011)
Journal Article
Burns, P., Riggs, K. J., & Beck, S. R. (2012). Executive control and the experience of regret. Journal of experimental child psychology, 111(3), 501-515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.10.003

The experience of regret rests on a counterfactual analysis of events. Previous research indicates that regret emerges at around 6 years of age, marginally later than the age at which children begin to answer counterfactual questions correctly. We hy... Read More about Executive control and the experience of regret.

Three- and 4-year-olds encode modeled actions in two ways leading to immediate imitation and delayed emulation (2011)
Journal Article
Simpson, A., & Riggs, K. J. (2011). Three- and 4-year-olds encode modeled actions in two ways leading to immediate imitation and delayed emulation. Developmental Psychology, 47(3), 834-840. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023270

When copying a model's behavior with a tool, children tend to imitate (copy the specific actions to replicate the model's goal) rather than emulate (bring about the model's goal in the most efficient way). Tasks producing these findings test children... Read More about Three- and 4-year-olds encode modeled actions in two ways leading to immediate imitation and delayed emulation.

Under what conditions do children have difficulty in inhibiting imitation? Evidence for the importance of planning specific responses (2011)
Journal Article
Simpson, A., & Riggs, K. J. (2011). Under what conditions do children have difficulty in inhibiting imitation? Evidence for the importance of planning specific responses. Journal of experimental child psychology, 109(4), 512-524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.015

The response set effect has been observed in a number of developmental tasks that are proposed to required inhibition. This effect has been interpreted as evidence that the specific responses children plan to make in these tasks become prepotent. Her... Read More about Under what conditions do children have difficulty in inhibiting imitation? Evidence for the importance of planning specific responses.

The development of visual short-term memory for multifeature items during middle childhood (2011)
Journal Article
Riggs, K. J., Simpson, A., & Potts, T. (2011). The development of visual short-term memory for multifeature items during middle childhood. Journal of experimental child psychology, 108(4), 802-809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.11.006

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) research suggests that the adult capacity is limited to three or four multifeature object representations. Despite evidence supporting a developmental increase in capacity, it remains unclear what the unit of capacity... Read More about The development of visual short-term memory for multifeature items during middle childhood.

The effect of causal chain length on counterfactual conditional reasoning (2010)
Journal Article
Beck, S. R., Riggs, K. J., & Gorniak, S. L. (2010). The effect of causal chain length on counterfactual conditional reasoning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28(3), 505-521. https://doi.org/10.1348/026151009X450836

We investigated German and Nichols' finding that 3-year-olds could answer counterfactual conditional questions about short causal chains of events, but not long. In four experiments (N =192), we compared 3- and 4-year-olds' performance on short and l... Read More about The effect of causal chain length on counterfactual conditional reasoning.

Subitizing in congenitally blind adults (2010)
Journal Article
Ferrand, L., Riggs, K. J., & Castronovo, J. (2010). Subitizing in congenitally blind adults. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 17(6), 840-845. https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.6.840

We investigated the role of vision in tactile enumeration within and outside the subitizing range. Congenitally blind and sighted (blindfolded) participants were asked to enumerate quickly and accurately the number of fingers stimulated. Both groups... Read More about Subitizing in congenitally blind adults.

Relating developments in children's counterfactual thinking and executive functions (2009)
Journal Article
Beck, S. R., Riggs, K. J., & Gorniak, S. L. (2009). Relating developments in children's counterfactual thinking and executive functions. Thinking and Reasoning, 15(4), 337-354. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546780903135904

The performance of 93 children aged 3 and 4 years on a battery of different counterfactual tasks was assessed. Three measures: short causal chains, location change counterfactual conditionals, and false syllogisms—but not a fourth, long causal chains... Read More about Relating developments in children's counterfactual thinking and executive functions.

What makes responses prepotent for young children? Insights from the grass-snow task (2008)
Journal Article
Simpson, A., & Riggs, K. J. (2009). What makes responses prepotent for young children? Insights from the grass-snow task. Infant and Child Development, 18(1), 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.576

Understanding how responses become prepotent is essential for understanding when inhibitory control is needed in everyday behaviour. We investigated prepotency in the grass–snow task—in which a child points to a green card when the experimenter says... Read More about What makes responses prepotent for young children? Insights from the grass-snow task.

Counterfactual and mental state reasoning in children with autism (2004)
Journal Article
Grant, C. M., Riggs, K. J., & Boucher, J. (2004). Counterfactual and mental state reasoning in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(2), 177-188. https://doi.org/10.1023/B%3AJADD.0000022608.57470.29

The contributions of counterfactual conditional reasoning (CCR), belief understanding, and inferential reasoning to the performance of children with autism (CWA) on standard false belief tasks were investigated. To assess the roles of these three fac... Read More about Counterfactual and mental state reasoning in children with autism.