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Children are full of optimism, but those rose-tinted glasses are fading-Reduced learning from negative outcomes drives hyperoptimism in children.

ABSTRACT: Believing that good things will happen in life is essential to maintain motivation and achieve highly ambitious goals. This optimism bias, the overestimation of positive outcomes, may be particularly important during childhood when motivation must be maintained in the face of negative outcomes. In a learning task, we have thus studied the mechanisms underlying the development of optimism bias. Investigating children (8 to 9 year-olds), early (12 to 13 year-olds), and late adolescents (16 to 17 year-olds), we find a consistent optimism bias across age groups. However, children were particularly hyperoptimistic, with the optimism bias decreasing with age. Using computational modeling, we show that this was driven by a reduced learning from worse-than-expected outcomes, and this reduced learning explains why children are hyperoptimistic. Our findings thus show that insensitivity to bad outcomes in childhood helps to prevent taking on an overly realistic perspective and maintain motivation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

SUBMITTER: Habicht J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7613292 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Children are full of optimism, but those rose-tinted glasses are fading-Reduced learning from negative outcomes drives hyperoptimism in children.

Habicht Johanna J Bowler Aislinn A Moses-Payne Madeleine E ME Hauser Tobias U TU

Journal of experimental psychology. General 20211230 8

Believing that good things will happen in life is essential to maintain motivation and achieve highly ambitious goals. This optimism bias, the overestimation of positive outcomes, may be particularly important during childhood when motivation must be maintained in the face of negative outcomes. In a learning task, we have thus studied the mechanisms underlying the development of optimism bias. Investigating children (8 to 9 year-olds), early (12 to 13 year-olds), and late adolescents (16 to 17 y ...[more]

PMID: 34968128

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Project description:PurposeThe relationship between refractive error at age 1 and the risk of developing amblyopia or accommodative esotropia, and the protection offered by early glasses, is unknown. These are determined in the Early Glasses Study, a prospective, population-based, longitudinal, randomized controlled study. We report baseline findings.MethodsHealthy children aged 12-18 months were recruited at Children's Healthcare Centres (CHCs) and received an entry orthoptic examination followed by cycloplegic retinoscopy. Children with amblyopia, strabismus, ophthalmic disease or very high refractive error were excluded. Those exceeding the AAPOS 2003 Criteria (> + 3.5D spherical equivalent (SE), > 1.5D astigmatism, > 1.5D anisometropia) were randomized into wearing glasses or not, and are followed-up by research orthoptists. Other children are followed-up by regular vision screening at CHCs and visual acuity is measured in all children at age 4.ResultsParents of 865 children were called, 123 were excluded. Of 742 children enrolled, 601 underwent the entry orthoptic examination at age 14.5 ± 1.7 months. Mean SE was + 1.73 ± 1.18D, astigmatism -0.70 ± 0.44D, anisometropia 0.21D (IQR: 0-0.25). Of 62 (10.3%) children exceeding the Criteria, 52 were randomized into wearing glasses or not. Of 539 other children, 522 are followed up at CHCs. In total, 31 were excluded: 2 had strabismus and amblyopia, 7 strabismus, 2 amblyopia suspect, 1 strabismus suspect, 1 squinting during sinusitis, 4 excessive refractive error, 9 myopia, 2 ptosis, 1 oculomotor apraxia, 1 Duane syndrome, 1 congenital nystagmus.ConclusionPrevalence of strabismus (10/601) was as expected, but prevalence of amblyopia (2/601) was low, suggesting that common amblyopia develops later than generally thought.Key messagesWhat is known High refractive errors cause amblyopia, but no study has determined the exact relationship between the kind and size of refractive error at age 1 and the risk to develop amblyopia, and assessed the protective effect of glasses in a controlled, population-based, longitudinal study. What is new At baseline, 601 children received a full orthoptic examination followed by retinoscopy in cycloplegia at the age of 14.5 ± 1.7 months; 10.3% had high refractive error exceeding spherical equivalent > + 3.5D, > 1.5D astigmatism, > 1D oblique astigmatism or > 1.5D anisometropia. The prevalence of amblyopia was lower (0.3%) than expected, suggesting that most amblyopia develops after the first year of life. The prevalence of anisometropia, associated with amblyopia in older children, was low (0.8%).

Dataset Information

Children are full of optimism, but those rose-tinted glasses are fading-Reduced learning from negative outcomes drives hyperoptimism in children.

Publications

Children are full of optimism, but those rose-tinted glasses are fading-Reduced learning from negative outcomes drives hyperoptimism in children.

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