Foraging Behavior in children: A new way to understand attentional development

Project Information

FORAGEKID

Grant agreement ID: 793268

DOI

10.3030/793268

Project closed

EC signature date 15 March 2018

Start date 1 August 2018

End date 6 September 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 257 191,20

EU contribution

€ 257 191,20

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FORAGEKID (Foraging Behavior in children: A new way to understand attentional development)

Reporting period: 2020-08-01 to 2021-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The understanding of human brain development is a crucial challenge for the future of our society: our children. Executive Functions (EF) involve essential processes in our daily life related to selective attention, control, information processing, working memory, and decision-making. The study of visual search and, particularly recently, visual foraging has revealed essential knowledge about EF in adults but has never been applied in children. We have used search foraging tasks in children as a new way to understand cognitive development. At the VAL (BWH-Harvard Med), during the outgoing phase, we have developed a task where a complete set of EF can be assessed within a children-based and enjoyable video game-like task. The innovative and multidisciplinary study is based on theoretical models, behavioral data, and eye-movement recordings. Our first study with a large sample of almost 300 participants from 4 years to young adults using visual search tasks and foraging tasks has shown how we can study different EF processes within visual search in foraging paradigms. Remarkably those related to decision processes of search quitting rules in foraging seem to mature early in development. Also, the results in more real-world environments have shown that optimality for those decisions is roughly similar across the lifespan. Finally, although we could not record neurofunctional measures using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in children because of Covid-19 restrictions in the returning phase, we have been able to develop our foraging games using improved online versions. We have designed new online foraging video games during this last period, and after contacting industry-startup options, our next step is the commercialization of an App-foraging game version to potentially use it in educational and clinical settings. We have started applying them not only in typically developing children but also in children with ADHD.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

We implemented Experimental Series A-C during the outgoing phase at the BWH-Harvard Med., developing two foraging video game-like tasks: Simple basic colored shapes foraging (Appendix, Figure 1), and a more realistic environment foraging with familiar toys (Fig. 2).

For series A, we run about 300 participants of 4-25 years old. We knew from preliminary work in VS (Gil-Gómez de Liaño et al., 2020) that these tasks essentially overlapped general EF. But the foraging tasks could help to understand cognitive flexibility and decision-making EF processes not yet unraveled in VS. We disseminated the results in several conferences (2019-2021), in a symposium I organized in 2019, and in several Schools in Cambridge, MA, and Madrid, Spain. We are still waiting for the final publication of this work (delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic).

In series B & C, we applied foraging using a more realistic environment. The results were sent to another scientific journal, which we are still waiting for. Another part of series B & C extended the sample to older adults within a lifespan study collaboration with another MSCA. We are finishing this work (extended again because of Covid-19 restrictions with older adults) and will soon send it for publication.

Finally, experimental series D in the returning phase in Europe must be changed because of Covid-19 regulations in Spain. We could not test children in person using the MEG during 2020-2021 for research purposes. So, we developed new online foraging versions (see Figures 3 and 4 in appendix) and develop an App we are currently working on with a Startup collaboration in the industry. This work has also been disseminated in several conferences (see Progress in the following section), leading to several conference proceedings publications in Open Access scientific journals. Though not initially considered, we have also performed several improvements applying our tasks with ADHD children during this last period of the action. After reviewing different animal and human foraging theories, we are also developing a mathematical model of foraging in humans.

Finally, the training aspects of the MSCA action have been an important piece developed during the project. I have taken several courses in scientific studies with children. I have learned about eye movement studies and analyses. I have also taken several courses in pupil dilation in cognitive psychology, and I have learned magnetoencephalography (MEG) techniques in cognitive neuroscience during the returning phase at the CTB-UCM lab in Spain. Notably, during this last year in the host institution (UCM), I have taught in Attention and Executive Functions grades in the Psychology degree and attended several ERC and Horizon Europe courses within the FECYT (Ministry of Science in Spain) program for future grant applications. A more detailed explanation of these training activities can be seen in the final technical report reference document.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We have developed a new hybrid foraging video game-like task to study executive functions in children. The results were disseminated in conferences in the field: VSS 2019, V-VSS-2020, V-VSS-2021, PS 2019-2020, FANPSE-2021 in neuropsychology, and V-CNP-2021 in Public Health Psychology. I also organized a VSS-2019 symposium with speakers from Germany, England, Spain, and the US. Part of this work was published as conference proceedings in Open Access Scientific Journals.

We also disseminated the results in schools in Cambridge, MA (USA) and Madrid, Spain, both for teachers and families. Notably, we implemented an educational/social activity, The ForageKid Club at the Cambridge Community Schools, as a pilot to train EF. Supporting teachers in schools using playful video game-like tests is one of the projected benefits to society. It was also outlined as a way of assisting parents in understanding cognition in their children. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic stopped it in early March 2020 and was not resumed anymore, making it impossible to evaluate the impact. But, during the returning phase in Spain, we could at least spread the results in Schools in Madrid developing Virtual Workshops: Women in Science (Feb. 2021) and European Research Night 2020, both posted on YouTube. We also spread results in other academic environments (e.g. RCC-Harvard), giving visibility in a broader academic field.

Besides the conference proceedings, we have published in the Psych Bull & Review 2020, and also sent two more papers delayed from the Covid-19 situation. We expect to have both works published soon. We have also published related works as part of our collaborations in Psych Science and PsychResearch.

We have spread the results on Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube; and developed our own website.

Although not expected in the proposal, we have collaborated with ADHD organizations in Spain.

I supervise a new industrial doctorate from 2020 applying our foraging task to cheating processes. I am also supervising another Ph.D. candidate developing mathematical models in foraging, and another one developing hybrid visual search in the development of executive functions. We have also applied to new grants: the ERC CoG 2021, an NSF project with our US & UK collaborators, another MSCA making use of our foraging tasks, and other grant applications we are working on.

All information confirming the progress can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/bgilgomezdelianno/foragekid-project

Images of the different versions of the Foraging tasks