Children’s Cognitive Development in Social and Cultural Contexts

Dear Colleagues,

Research on cognitive development has been dominated by the assumption that universal processes guide cognition; thus, the social and cultural aspects of cognitive development have not been well represented in the literature. That said, researchers have found that culture shapes memory (Wang et al., 2024; Tsethlikai and Rogoff, 2013), perception (Chen et al., 2024), and attention (Falon et al., 2024; Taverna et al., 2024). Social processes also shape cognitive development with in-group versus out-group influences on cognitive control (Doebel and Munakata, 2018), and delay of gratification (Munakata et al., 2020), with social contexts more broadly influencing executive function development (Munakata and Michaelson, 2020). A solid foundation exists to build upon; however, recent reviews clearly illustrate the need for more research, especially research on cognitive development in diverse populations (Roberts et al., 2020: Tsethlikai et al., 2024).

For this Special Issue, we invite articles focused on understanding cognitive development in high-risk contexts with a focus on social and cultural processes that buffer or protect children from the negative effects of stress and toxic environments on cognitive development. Additionally, research focused on the social aspects of cognitive development among all children, but especially underrepresented, underserved, and international children, is welcomed. Review articles that examine measurement issues in studying cultural and social aspects of cognition or the conceptualization of what cognitive development means in international, ethnic, and vulnerable communities are also invited for consideration. Within-group longitudinal studies of cultural and social aspects of cognitive development are particularly needed in the field, but we recognize that working in underserved, underrepresented, international, and vulnerable populations often necessitates the use of cross-sectional studies.

The aim of this Special Issue is to select a representative set of empirical articles that attempt to shed light on how cultural and social processes influence children’s cognitive development. We invite articles from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives (psychology, education, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, and developmental psychology) that address various aspects of cognitive development (attention, memory, perception, executive function, and language), and various social and cultural factors (e.g., cultural and spiritual customs and practices, ethnic/racial socialization, in-group versus out-group influences, and the roles of emotion and social context) that guide development.

References

(Chen et al. 2024) Chen, P.; Chung-Fat-Yim, A.; Guo, T.; Marian, V. 2024. Cultural background and input familiarity influence multisensory emotion perception. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology 30: 487–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000577

(Doebel and Munakata 2018) Doebel, S.; Munakata, Y. 2018. Group Influences on Engaging Self-Control: Children Delay Gratification and Value It More When Their In-Group Delays and Their Out-Group Doesn’t. Psychological Science 29: 738–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617747367

(Falon et al. 2024) Falon, S.L.; Jobson, L.; Liddell, B.J. 2024. Does culture moderate the encoding and recognition of negative cues? Evidence from an eye-tracking study. PLoS ONE 19: 22. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295301

(Munakata and Michaelson 2020) Munakata, Y.; Michaelson, L.E. 2020. Executive Functions in Social Context: Implications for Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Supporting Developmental Trajectories. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology 3: 139–63. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-121318-085005

(Munakata et al. 2020) Munakata, Y.; Yanaoka, K.; Doebel, S.; Guild, R.M.; Michaelson, L.E.; Saito, S. 2020. Group Influences on Children’s Delay of Gratification: Testing the Roles of Culture and Personal Connections. Collabra. Psychology 6: 1. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.265

(Roberts et al. 2020) Roberts, S.O.; Bareket-Shavit, C.; Dollins, F.A.; Goldie, P.D.; Mortenson, E. 2020. Racial Inequality in Psychological Research: Trends of the Past and Recommendations for the Future. Perspectives on Psychological Science 15: 1295–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620927709.

(Taverna et al. 2024) Taverna, A.; Padilla, M.; Waxman, S. 2024. How pervasive is joint attention? Mother-child dyads from a Wichi community reveal a different form of “togetherness”. Developmental Science 27: 13. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13471

(Tsethlikai et al. 2024) Tsethlikai, M.; Cole, A.B.; Hoffman, A.; Ng, F.; Bang, M. 2024. To heal, grow, and thrive: Pursuing Indigenous perspectives and paradigms in developmental science. Child Development Online

(Tsethlikai and Rogoff 2013) Tsethlikai, M.; Rogoff, B. Involvement in traditional cultural practices and American Indian children’s incidental recall of a folktale. Dev. Psychol. 2013, 49, 568–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031308. PMID: 23316771.

(Wang et al. 2024) Wang, Q.; Mert, N.; Tian, Y. 2024. Remembering the good and bad and the self and others in a culturally modulated self-memory system. Memory 32: 790. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2024.2372373.

Dr. Monica Tsethlikai
Dr. Stephanie Miller
Guest Editors

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• cultural and social influences
• cognitive development
• attention
• learning
• memory
• academic outcomes