University Child Development: Annotated Bibliography Assignment

This annotated bibliography examines three key articles related to child development and cognitive processes. The first article by Baroncelli et al. (2010) explores the impact of environmental enrichment on brain plasticity. The second article by Herrmann et al. (2013) investigates how children reason about biological and non-biological changes. The third article by Diamond et al. (2007) reviews the effectiveness of a preschool program in improving cognitive control skills. The bibliography provides summaries of each article, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and potential applications in early childhood education. The summative statement synthesizes the findings, emphasizing the importance of learning environments, executive functions, and the role of age in cognitive development. These articles offer valuable insights into strategies for enhancing cognitive skills and fostering a deeper understanding of child development, providing a framework for further research and practical applications in educational settings.

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Annotated Bibliography
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Article 1:
Baroncelli, L., Braschi, C., Spolidoro, M., Begenisic, T., Sale, A., & Maffei, L. (2010).
Nurturing brain plasticity: impact of environmental enrichment. Cell death and
differentiation, 17(7), 1092.
This article by Baroncelli et al. (2010) is focused on the influence of Environment
Enrichment (EE) on the development and nurturing of brain plasticity. It is to mention that
the life-long capacity of brain for experience-dependent plasticity that allows the adaptation
to the new environments and to the environmental changes, such as takes place in brain
damage. The paper discussed about the various impacts of the EE on the neuronal and
behaviour function that are further followed by the review of structural and molecular
changes that account for the EE-dependent plasticity in the normal brain. Both the younger
and the older group choose the high value words when compared to the low value ones. The
researcher team of this study have focused on several important aspects of the learning
behaviours of the different age groups. This study have revealed that both the age groups are
highly sensitive towards high value items and they spend more time on it and at the same
time, also on its process of recalling. Notwithstanding this fact, it is to mention that process
of recalling and the age differences are decreased to the highest value words. Older age group
people lay much emphasis on the high values and then recalls them before any test. The
findings of this study by Baroncelli et al. (2010) have shed light on the capacity of EE as a
non-invasive strategy for ameliorate deficits in the growth and development of CNS and for
treating the neurological issues or disorders. It is to note that the main strength of this article
lies in the fact that it has used applied methodology of research and is an exploratory based
that is based on primary data. The findings of this article could be easily implemented in the
early childhood education as it is providing a deep insight into the fact why the older adults
lay much emphasis on higher value items in their respective learning environment. However,

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a significant weakness of this article is that is focused on a particular age group. This is why
it can be said that this findings cannot be implemented to the general populations. It is to
mention that the finding of this article could be used in the early childhood education as it
helps in providing a deep insight the nature of old people and why they value higher value
items. Educators could implement the findings of this article in the process of education. For
example, the older adults could give more priority on the information and details that one has
to recall and remember first in the situation of self-learning. As the aging decline, the overall
memory of an individual, but the strategy of the self-regulated learning could help in
remembering the key information and points.
Article 2:
Herrmann, P. A., French, J. A., DeHart, G. B., & Rosengren, K. S. (2013). Essentialist
reasoning and knowledge effects on biological reasoning in young
children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 59(2), 198-220.
The authors Herrmann et al. (2013) in this article have investigated on how children
of diverse age range i.e., from 3, 4 and 7 years children’s reason regarding the biological and
non-biological mechanisms of change. The main focus on this study on analysing the
perceptions of children towards change in biological and non-biological aspects of the world.
The research team of this research study, Hermann, French, DeHart and Rosengren are of the
aim for examining whether reasoning of children regarding life-span change as a biological
process is affected by the change level. With the same, they also examined how the reasoning
of children regarding the types of changes are influenced by their age and development of
their knowledge. The main strength of this study is that it is experimental research. The
article started with providing a brief review of the modern perspectives on the concept of
psychological essentialism. A total of two studies were conducted for examining the impact

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of knowledge and age on the biological reasoning of the children regarding living kind that
undergo a wide range of changes in the natural life span to dramatic from subtle. Children
who were included in this study were shown some paired pictures of the juvenile and some
adult animals. They were then asked for endorsing the biological and the non-biological
casual mechanisms for accounting the life-span change. With the same, it is also to mention
that reasoning of the 3 and 4 years old children was compared after and before the exposure
to the caterpillars who were transforming into butterflies. The final findings of the study are
all framed on the basis of a developmental trajectory in the essentialist reasoning, a cognitive
bias, which has been related with the different difficulties in the process of understanding and
accepting the evolution. It is t to mention that this study by Herrmann et al. (2013) is an
important study as of the fact that by means of examining how children of different age think
or perceive of the different kinds of biological changes, one can gain a deep insight on how
they reason about the different changes in the species over the passage of time. Furthermore,
examining the knowledge of children about these different types of natural changes might be
especially informative for examining the essentialist reasoning in children and this is the type
of reasoning that might dominate the young children’s and adult’s thinking. It is also to
mention that this article reveals the developmental progression and the knowledge based
progression viewpoint as acceptable transformations are not only a mechanism and domain
specific but also are dependent upon the knowledge of biological possibilities in a particular
category. It also revealed that the more dramatic models of the within-species variation were
supported more as the age of the children are increased. It finally suggests that for promoting
greater understanding of the concept of evolution, Children would be beneficial from the
hands-on examples of the change in life-span while learning regarding within-species
variation, which is considered to be a significant concept of understanding the evolution.
Article 3:

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Diamond, A., Barnett, W. S., Thomas, J., & Munro, S. (2007). Preschool program
improves cognitive control. Science, 318(5855), 1387-1388.
Diamond et al. (2007) in this article have reviewed about the importance of cognitive
control skills in human life since their school years. The findings of this study show that play-
based Tools of the Mind (Tools) curriculum that are taught in the regular classrooms by the
regular teachers could actually help in improving the cognitive control of the children who
belong to the disadvantages backgrounds during their pre-school age. This curriculum was
based on the insights of Vygotsky into the EF (Executive Functions) and its development.
Observational trails were made for gaining a deep understanding about the concept. These
research team- Sarah Munro and Adele Diamond from the University of British Columbia
and Jessica Thomas and Steve Barnett from NIEER have evaluated a total of 147 5 year old
children from the poor urban school districts. Initially, the study included 18 classrooms and
later, added three more for every condition. All these classrooms were given the same type
and number of resources along with same number of teachers with similar teacher training
and support. These children were assigned with a program teaching Tools and a more
traditional curriculum. The teachers of Tools spend about 80% of their day in the promotion
of EF skills and it was refined through twelve long years for researching in the kindergartens
and preschools. It is seen that children receiving the Tools were turning into gaining a notably
higher scores on the conducted tests that require to inhibit the tendencies and transform their
focus and attention on the task that are given at their hand. The article focuses on assessing
how the Tools could improve the Executive functions (EFs) skills in the pre-schoolers. These
skills include inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility. It is also to
mention that Tools made use of mature and dramatic play for helping the children to improve
their EFs skills (Diamond et al. 2007). It can be said that this article is highly beneficial to
gain insight about child development, childhood learning, teaching pedagogies and strategies

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for enhancing the progression of children from low to high order thinking of the EF learning
experiences in the early childhood environments. However, the pre-schoolers were under
pressure for limiting down their play. The findings of the study also concluded that Tools
moved the children who were having poor EFs to a highly optimal state. Hence, it is a main
limitation of this study that it is based on the children with poor EFs and this is why it is not
known how much Tools would help the children with better EFs. Thus, the authors of this
study indicate that further and more extensive research is required to undertaken for
developing a much more in-depth understanding about the importance of Tools of the Mind
Curriculum in improving the cognitive control of children with beginning with better EF
skills.
Summative Statement
All these three articles are focused on learning environment and opportunity for
cognitive child development. These understanding are very useful to get supplementary
information for further researches on early child development and pedagogy. By means of
providing a self-learning environment with the implementation of the executive functions are
very beneficial along with the effective strategies used in the early childhood development
(Clements, Sarama & Germeroth, 2016). These article provides a basis on the implementation
of the findings in the education of early childhood. For example, the theoretical framework
that is related to the selectivity and aging claims that older children and even adults might get
engaged in the selective optimisation along with their compensation Diamond et al. (2007).
These further help in focusing on the key goals and functions. Educator or teacher needs to
understand that the part of biological process and the physical changes need to be related to
the executive functions and mental development (Black et al., 2017). It is also to conclude
that the process of teaching younger children could be made easier and less expensive as
compared to the adults and when these children grow as adults, they are able of

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understanding in better ways and at the same time, values. However, they retain it for longer
period of time. It is further emphasised that the EF are improved at the early stage within
children, together, along with the reduction in the societal costs that are caused because of the
unregulated and the anti-social behaviour. From reviewing these articles it is also clear that
the mental strength of the children could be improved and enhanced by means of knowledge
and usage of other models (Herrmann et al., 2013). Furthermore, it is also to mention that
according to Defoe et al. (2015), the age of children also plays a crucial role in decision
making process about the changes in life span. The grown up children are prone towards
identification of the insects who enter into a complicated life span (Baroncelli et al., 2010).
Potential of being selective improves child’s learning and also the metacognitive monitoring
capability of the adults.

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References:
Baroncelli, L., Braschi, C., Spolidoro, M., Begenisic, T., Sale, A., & Maffei, L. (2010).
Nurturing brain plasticity: impact of environmental enrichment. Cell death and
differentiation, 17(7), 1092.
Black, M. M., Walker, S. P., Fernald, L. C., Andersen, C. T., DiGirolamo, A. M., Lu, C., ... &
Devercelli, A. E. (2017). Early childhood development coming of age: science
through the life course. The Lancet, 389(10064), 77-90.
Clements, D. H., Sarama, J., & Germeroth, C. (2016). Learning executive function and early
mathematics: Directions of causal relations. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36,
79-90.
Defoe, I. N., Dubas, J. S., Figner, B., & van Aken, M. A. (2015). A meta-analysis on age
differences in risky decision making: Adolescents versus children and
adults. Psychological bulletin, 141(1), 48.
Diamond, A., Barnett, W. S., Thomas, J., & Munro, S. (2007). Preschool program improves
cognitive control. Science, 318(5855), 1387-1388.
Herrmann, P. A., French, J. A., DeHart, G. B., & Rosengren, K. S. (2013). Essentialist
reasoning and knowledge effects on biological reasoning in young children. Merrill-
Palmer Quarterly, 59(2), 198-220.