Helping children think: Gaze aversion and teaching

Abstract

Looking away from an interlocutor's face during demanding cognitive activity can help adults answer challenging arithmetic and verbal‐reasoning questions (Glenberg, Schroeder, & Robertson, 1998). However, such ‘gaze aversion’ (GA) is poorly applied by 5‐year‐old school children (Doherty‐Sneddon, Bruce, Bonner, Longbotham, & Doyle, 2002). In Experiment 1 we trained ten 5‐year‐old children to use GA while thinking about answers to questions. This trained group performed significantly better on challenging questions compared with 10 controls given no GA training. In Experiment 2 we found significant and monotonic age‐related increments in spontaneous use of GA across three cohorts of ten 5‐year‐old school children (mean ages: 5;02, 5;06 and 5;08). Teaching and encouraging GA during challenging cognitive activity promises to be invaluable in promoting learning, particularly during early primary years.

‘Epistemic status check’ as an interactional phenomenon in instructed learning settings

“…Researchers working within a cognitive paradigm claim that averting gaze indicates a cognitive process, and can even be conducive to learning (Phelps et al, 2006). However, a sequential analysis in the present study showed that it can be performed by the students within the sequential environment of ESCs, and it indicates a kind of avoidance, unwillingness to talk or display of insufficient knowledge, which is oriented to by the teacher as such.…”

Effect of Perceptual Load on Semantic Access by Speech in Children

“…Younger children relative to older children have more difficulties during face-to-face communication on some types of tasks, such as describing abstract shapes (Doherty-Sneddon, Bonner, & Bruce, 2001; Doherty-Sneddon, McAuley, Bruce, Langton, Blokland, & Anderson, 2000). In fact, when young children were trained to look away from the talker during questioning, the accuracy of their answers improved (Phelps, Doherty-Sneddon, & Warnock, 2006). Doherty-Sneddon and her colleagues (e.g., Doherty-Sneddon, Phelps, & Calderwood, 2009) have speculated that their observed "face-to-face interference effect" (Doherty-Sneddon et al, 2000, p. 595) in younger children is related to the general phenomenon of gaze aversion, in which individuals attempt to reduce the perceptual load of environmental input to enhance performance (Glenberg, Schroeder, & Roberson, 1998).…”

Eye-closure improves memory for a witnessed event under naturalistic conditions

“…Instructing undergraduate students or children to close their eyes improves their performance on mathematical, verbal-reasoning, visuo-spatial, and general knowledge tests (Doherty-Sneddon, Bonner, & Bruce, 2001;Glenberg, Schroeder, & Robertson, 1998;Markson & Paterson, 2009;Phelps, Doherty-Sneddon, & Warnock, 2006). Furthermore, eye-closure may help episodic recall of past public events (Wagstaff et al, 2004), and recall of both live and videotaped mundane events (Perfect et al, 2008).…”