Taking their eye off the ball: How shyness affects children’s attention during word learning

Hilton, Matt; Twomey, Katherine Elizabeth; Westermann, Gert

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2019.01.023

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…This hypothesis is consistent with work indicating that shy children tend to perform on a lower level when their linguistic knowledge is tested in unfamiliar social situations (Spere et al, 2004;Hilton and Westermann, 2017). However, if growing familiarity with the testing environment allows shy children to feel more comfortable (Hilton et al, 2019), we expected that in the second test situation, the gap between shy and the nonshy children in displayed learning outcomes would decrease or disappear.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Negative reactions (of distress) relate positively to general and social anxiety (Colonnesi et al, 2014), and negative shy reactions are associated with physiological changes that can activate the fightor-flight system (Colonnesi et al, 2020) that consequently inhibit adaptive behavior and cognitive processes. During learning with others, they are often inhibited, which is reflected in deviant attentional processes (Hilton et al, 2019) as well as infrequent eye gaze to the other (Putnam et al, 2006). Thus, in our view, a warmup that usually takes place a few minutes before the training or testing may not be sufficient for a specific population such as very shy children.…”

Section: Children's Expressions Of Pleasure and Distress Toward The Robotmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Moreover, our multilevel model also took into account the children's linguistic knowledge, and we were able to show that, in addition to a shy temperament, the children's receptive abilities also tend to contribute to a success in word learning. Surprisingly, past studies on learning words with shy children (Hilton and Westermann, 2017;Hilton et al, 2019) or language learning studies with robots (Vogt et al, 2019) have not considered these linguistic abilities; therefore, our study marks another novelty in this field.…”

Section: Children's Word Learningmentioning

confidence: 89%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Do Shy Preschoolers Interact Differently When Learning Language With a Social Robot? An Analysis of Interactional Behavior and Word Learning

2021

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Temperamental traits can decisively influence how children enter into social interaction with their environment. Yet, in the field of child–robot interaction, little is known about how individual differences such as shyness impact on how children interact with social robots in educational settings. The present study systematically assessed the temperament of 28 preschool children aged 4–5 years in order to investigate the role of shyness within a dyadic child–robot interaction. Over the course of four consecutive sessions, we observed how shy compared to nonshy children interacted with a social robot during a word-learning educational setting and how shyness influenced children’s learning outcomes. Overall, results suggested that shy children not only interacted differently with a robot compared to nonshy children, but also changed their behavior over the course of the sessions. Critically, shy children interacted less expressively with the robot in general. With regard to children’s language learning outcomes, shy children scored lower on an initial posttest, but were able to close this gap on a later test, resulting in all children retrieving the learned words on a similar level. When intertest learning gain was considered, regression analyses even confirmed a positive predictive role of shyness on language learning gains. Findings are discussed with regard to the role of shyness in educational settings with social robots and the implications for future interaction design.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Children's Expressions Of Pleasure and Distress Toward The Robotmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Children's Word Learningmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Do Shy Preschoolers Interact Differently When Learning Language With a Social Robot? An Analysis of Interactional Behavior and Word Learning

2021

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“…Shyness is characterized by the behavioural inhibition to novelty and challenges, especially social (Rothbart, 2007). It can impair learning of novel words in very young children (Hilton, Twomey, & Westermann, 2019) and in early adolescents, it is associated with lower academic achievement when mediated by peer preferences (Coplan, Liu, Cao, Chen, & Li, 2017), but not directly linked with poor achievement (Hughes & Coplan, 2010). Shyness, as a reactive temperament, interacts with the inhibitory control (component of EC) and for those high in this dimension, it promotes less prosocial behaviour and popularity in school (Sette, Hipson, Zava, Baumgartner, & Coplan, 2018).…”

Section: Shynessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Independent and interactive associations of temperament dimensions with educational outcomes in young adolescents

Hoffmann

Pan

Manfro

et al. 2020

Learning and Individual Differences

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“…Attention to language is critical for the acquisition of vocabulary. Research suggests that the more limited attention of children who are shy impacts their learning of new words (Hilton et al, 2019).…”

Section: Shyness and Language Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Between Perceived Assertiveness/Shyness and Emergent Bilinguals’ Vocabulary Intervention Outcomes: A Preliminary Investigation

Pérez

Creaghead

Washington

et al. 2022

Communication Disorders Quarterly

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This preliminary study examined the relationship between clinicians’ perceptions (i.e., speech pathologists) of children’s scores on the Assertiveness scale of the Teacher-Child Rating Scale 2.1 and gains in naming and defining words following English-only or Spanish–English intervention for emergent bilinguals (EBs). Twenty-eight Spanish-speaking preschoolers were randomly assigned to participate in one of two vocabulary intervention groups: English-only ( n= 14) and Spanish-English with Spanish provided through a tablet computer ( n = 14). EBs were assessed in naming and definition before and after interventions. The clinicians provided perceptions of levels of assertiveness and shyness of both groups of EBs using the Assertiveness scale. A correlation analysis indicated a strong relationship between the Assertiveness scale and English word naming and definition gains in both groups (English-only and Spanish–English) and Spanish gains in the Spanish–English group. Clinicians’ perceptions of shyness should be considered as a variable of interest that affects response to intervention.

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Taking their eye off the ball: How shyness affects children’s attention during word learning

Cited by 22 publications

References 50 publications

Do Shy Preschoolers Interact Differently When Learning Language With a Social Robot? An Analysis of Interactional Behavior and Word Learning

Do Shy Preschoolers Interact Differently When Learning Language With a Social Robot? An Analysis of Interactional Behavior and Word Learning

Independent and interactive associations of temperament dimensions with educational outcomes in young adolescents

The Relationship Between Perceived Assertiveness/Shyness and Emergent Bilinguals’ Vocabulary Intervention Outcomes: A Preliminary Investigation

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