TY - JOUR
T1 - Hidden talents in context
T2 - Cognitive performance with abstract versus ecological stimuli among adversity-exposed youth
AU - Young, Ethan S.
AU - Frankenhuis, Willem E.
AU - DelPriore, Danielle J.
AU - Ellis, Bruce J
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.
PY - 2022/9/1
Y1 - 2022/9/1
N2 - Adversity-exposed youth tend to score lower on cognitive tests. However, the hidden talents approach proposes some abilities are enhanced by adversity, especially under ecologically relevant conditions. Two versions of an attention-shifting and working memory updating task—one abstract, one ecological—were administered to 618 youth (Mage = 13.62, SDage = 0.81; 48.22% female; 64.56% White). Measures of environmental unpredictability, violence, and poverty were collected to test adversity × task version interactions. There were no interactions for attention shifting. For working memory updating, youth exposed to violence and poverty scored lower than their peers with abstract stimuli but almost just as well with ecological stimuli. These results are striking compared to contemporary developmental science, which often reports lowered performance among adversity-exposed youth.
AB - Adversity-exposed youth tend to score lower on cognitive tests. However, the hidden talents approach proposes some abilities are enhanced by adversity, especially under ecologically relevant conditions. Two versions of an attention-shifting and working memory updating task—one abstract, one ecological—were administered to 618 youth (Mage = 13.62, SDage = 0.81; 48.22% female; 64.56% White). Measures of environmental unpredictability, violence, and poverty were collected to test adversity × task version interactions. There were no interactions for attention shifting. For working memory updating, youth exposed to violence and poverty scored lower than their peers with abstract stimuli but almost just as well with ecological stimuli. These results are striking compared to contemporary developmental science, which often reports lowered performance among adversity-exposed youth.
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U2 - 10.1111/cdev.13766
DO - 10.1111/cdev.13766
M3 - Article
C2 - 35404500
AN - SCOPUS:85128568917
SN - 0009-3920
VL - 93
SP - 1493
EP - 1510
JO - Child development
JF - Child development
IS - 5
ER -