Young children’s reasoning about the effects of emotional and physiological states on academic performance

This study assessed young children’s understanding of the effects of emotional and physiological states on cognitive performance. Five, 6-, 7-year-olds, and adults (N 5 96) predicted and explained how children experiencing a variety of physiological and emotional states would perform on academic tasks. Scenarios included: (a) negative and positive emotions, (b) negative and positive physiological states, and (c) control conditions. All age groups understood the impairing effects of negative emotions and physiological states. Only 7-year-olds, however, showed adult-like reasoning about the potential enhancing effects of positive internal states and routinely cited cognitive mechanisms to explain how internal states affect performance. These results shed light on theory-of-mind development and also have significance for children’s everyday school success. High-stakes standardized tests are becoming the norm in the American educational system, even in elementary school (e.g., Goertz & Duffy, 2003). In preparation for these tests, teachers and parents often advise children to make sure they ‘‘get a lot of rest’’ and ‘‘eat a good breakfast’ ’ to optimize their perfor-mance on test day. Such everyday advice is backed b