Browsing by Author "Şen, Hilal H."

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Citation - WoS: 1
Citation - Scopus: 1
Developmental Differences in Children and Adults' Enforcement of Explore Versus Exploit Search Strategies in the United States and Turkey
(Wiley, 2024) Kiefer, Sarah L.; Aksu, Ece; Şen, Hilal H.; Lucca, Kelsey
Across development, as children acquire a deeper understanding of their environment, they explore less and take advantage, or "exploit," what they already know. Here, we test whether children also enforce exploration-oriented search behaviors onto others. Specifically, we ask whether children are more likely to encourage a search agent to explore versus exploit their environment, and whether this pattern varies across childhood (between 3 and 6 years). We also ask whether this pattern differs between children and adults, and generalizes across two different sociocultural contexts-Turkey and the United States-that differ on dimensions that might relate to children's decisions about exploration (e.g., curiosity-focused educational practices, attitudes toward uncertainty avoidance). Participants (N = 358) watched an agent search for rewards and were asked at various points whether the agent should "stay" (exploit) in their current location, or "go" (explore) to a new location. At all points in the experiment, children enforced exploration significantly more often than adults. Early in the agent's search, children in the US enforced exploration more often than children in Turkey; later in the search, younger children (from both sociocultural contexts) were more likely to continue enforcing exploration compared to older children. These findings highlight that children are not only highly exploratory themselves, but also enforce exploration onto others-underscoring the central role that exploration plays in driving early cognitive development across diverse sociocultural contexts.Research Highlights The current study examined developmental and cross-cultural differences in children and adults' enforcement of explore-exploit search strategies. Children in the US and Turkey enforced exploration more than adults, who enforced exploitation more often; results were generally consistent across cultures with small differences. Mirroring developmental changes in children's own search behavior; the tendency to enforce exploration decreased between 3- to 6-years of age. Findings underscore the central role of an "exploration mindset" in children's early decision-making-even when exploration has no direct benefits to the child themselves.
Citation - WoS: 14
Citation - Scopus: 14
The Role of Theory of Mind, Emotion Knowledge and Empathy in Preschoolers’ Disruptive Behavior
(Springer, 2019) Ekerim-Akbulut, Müge; Selçuk, Bilge; Şen, Hilal H.; Beşiroğlu, Burcu
Objectives : Research examining disruptive behaviors in clinical groups of preschool and school-aged children has consistently revealed significant difficulties in their emotion knowledge and empathy but intact performance in their theory-of-mind (ToM). However, it is largely not known if these difficulties in emotion knowledge and empathy as opposed to ToM are specific to extreme forms of disruption in clinical groups or rather represent broad deficiencies related to disruptive behaviors in general, including the milder levels exhibited by typically developing children. Milder disruptive behaviors (e.g., whining, arguing, rule-breaking and fighting) in peer contexts might relate to normative variations in socio-cognitive and emotional skills like ToM, emotion knowledge and empathy. To illuminate whether the same pattern of relations observed in clinical samples would arise in typical development, this study aims to examine the role of ToM, emotion knowledge and empathy in typically developing preschoolers’ disruptive behaviors.
Citation - WoS: 21
Citation - Scopus: 22
Culturally Shared and Unique Meanings and Expressions of Maternal Control Across Four Cultures
(American Psychological Association, 2021) Selçuk, Bilge; Cheah, Charissa S L; Şen, Hilal H.; Park, Seong-Yeon; Vu, Kathy T T; Cho, Hyun Su; Yavuz, H Melis
Maternal control is a major dimension of parenting and has different meanings, practices, and potential consequences across cultures. The present study aimed to identify and compare mothers' conceptualizations of parenting control across four cultures to reveal a more nuanced understanding regarding the meaning and practices of control: European American, Chinese immigrant, Korean immigrant, and Turkish. Using a semistructured open-ended interview, 100 European American, 102 U.S. Chinese immigrant, 103 U.S. Korean immigrant, and 109 Turkish mothers of preschool-aged children reported the ratings of importance, specific reasons, and strategies for exerting control over their children in daily life. Results revealed both shared and unique conceptualizations of maternal control across four cultures. Specifically, all mothers reported that it is important to express maternal control over their children in order to set behavioral norms/standards, maintain child safety, support social relations and respect for others, provide guidance, and guide moral development. Moreover, mothers discussed utilizing nonphysical punishment, setting and maintaining rules, reasoning/negotiating, consistency, physical punishment and verbal control, showing parents' serious/stern attitude, correction, and psychological control forms of control. However, the levels at which mothers emphasize the different reasons and strategies varied across cultures, reflecting culturally emphasized values. The findings of the present study further enrich our understanding of the complexities of maternal control across cultures. (PsycInfo Database Record
Citation - WoS: 1
Citation - Scopus: 2
Peer Persuasion Strategies During Rule Following in 4-To 6-Year
(Wiley, 2021) Kumkale, Tarcan G.; Kuntay, Aylin C.; Şen, Hilal H.
Despite being a ubiquitous form of communication, persuasive communication between children received relatively scant research attention. We used a novel approach to study children's persuasive interactions in a semi-naturalistic paradigm where dyads of 4- to 6-year-old children were asked to follow a rule together. In this context, we observed (a) the frequency and types of strategies children spontaneously used to persuade their partners to abide by the rule, (b) compliance behavior following the persuasion attempt, and (c) strategy change following a failed attempt to persuade. We coded children's persuasive strategies as gentle control, negative control, and non-engagement. Children tended to use gentle control and negative control strategies to a greater extent than non-engagement strategies to prevent their partner's potential rule violation. However, after a violation occurred, children most frequently displayed non-engagement. Gentle control brought about more compliance than the other strategies. Children tended to maintain their persuasive strategy of negative control and non-engagement, even though these were mostly ineffective in achieving compliance. These results show that 4- to 6-year-old children spontaneously and flexibly utilized persuasive strategies with peers to abide by a rule.