Chapter 12, Problem 53SE

For exercises 12.51-12.53, evaluate the study based on the extracts from the study abstracts by answering the following questions:

a. What is the research question that the investigators are trying the answer?

b. What is their answer to the research question?

c. What were the methods they used to collect data?

d. Is the conclusion appropriate for the methods used to collect data?

e. To what population do the conclusions apply?

f. Have the results been replicated (reproduced) in other articles?

What Would Batman Do? Researchers have found that psychological distance from our current situation facilitates self-control and allows individuals to transcend urgencies of a situation by taking a more distanced perspective. Executive function refers to higher-order regulatory processes such as inhibition and working memory. In this study published in the journal Developmental Science, researchers investigated the relationship between psycho-logical distance and executive function in pre-school children (White and Carlson 2015). Read the following excerpts from the study abstract and evaluate the study using the given questions.

Method: Three-year old $\left(n=48\right)$ and 5-year old $\left(n=48\right)$ children were randomly assigned to one of four manipulations of distance from self and asked to perform several tasks that assessed executive function (EF). The four groups were: 1) self-immersed, in which children were told to focus on what they are thinking and how they feel when the task got hard, 2) Third person, in which children were told to talk to themselves using their own name when the task got hard, 3) Exemplar, in which children were told to pretend they were someone else who would be really good at the task, like Batman, Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, or Rapunzel, and the children put on costume props before completing the task, and 4) a control group, in which children were given no instruction regarding distance from self before performing the task.

Results: Five-year-olds benefited from taking a self-distanced perspective on an executive function task through third person self-talk as well as taking the perspective of an exemplar other, such as Batman. Three-year-olds did not show increased EF performance as a function of greater distance from self.

Conclusion: The current study revealed the power of self-distancing to facilitate reflective, goal-directed action in the context of a cool EF task for young children. Children’s ability to improve EF by mentally transcending their context underscores the critical role that representational capacities play in the development of self-control.