Cooperation in primary school children: The role of cardiac vagal tone and cognitive control

Abstract Cooperation is crucial in classrooms for positive interactions among pupils, but the factors influencing children’s cooperative behaviors remain debated. This study explores the impact of cardiac vagal tone (CVT), a measure of physiological self-regulation, and cognitive control on cooperation among 109 primary school students. Heart rate variability was used to assess self-regulation, and cognitive control was evaluated through an AX-Continuous Performance Task. Cooperative behavior was measured with a child-friendly Stag Hunt game. Results showed that moderate CVT is related to increased cooperative actions, but no direct relationship between cognitive control types and cooperation was found. However, an interaction effect indicated that moderate CVT particularly boosts cooperation in children who employ proactive cognitive control. These findings emphasize the need to develop physiological self-regulation skills to enhance cooperative behavior in educational settings, supporting better social, and emotional well-being, and learning outcomes.

• Publication year

  2024

• Venue

  The Journal of Educational Research

• Publication date

  2024-07-03

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1080/00220671.2024.2366347
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Moderate cardiac vagal tone is associated with more cooperation in children.

  2024influential reference
• Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety

  2022influential reference
• The development of prosocial behavior-from sympathy to strategy.

  2021cited by this paper
• The role of prefrontal cortex in cognitive control and executive function

  2021cited by this paper
• The development of cooperation and self-control in middle childhood: Associations with earlier maternal and paternal parenting.

  2021cited by this paper
• Slingshot Challenge and Star Mines: Two digital games as a prisoner’s dilemma to assess cooperation in children

  2021cited by this paper
• Self-control and cooperation in childhood as antecedents of less moral disengagement in adolescence

  2021cited by this paper
• How Children Solve the Two Challenges of Cooperation

  2018cited by this paper
• Supporting cognitive control through competition and cooperation in childhood.

  2018influential reference
• Profiles of vagal withdrawal to challenging interactions: Links with preschoolers’ conceptual shifting ability

  2018cited by this paper
• Physiological mechanisms of prosociality.

  2018cited by this paper
• Moderate Baseline Vagal Tone Predicts Greater Prosociality in Children

  2017influential reference
• Inducing Proactive Control Shifts in the AX-CPT

  2016influential reference
• Predicting Children's Prosocial and Co‐operative Behavior from Their Temperamental Profiles: A Person‐centered Approach

  2014cited by this paper
• From the heart to the mind: cardiac vagal tone modulates top-down and bottom-up visual perception and attention to emotional stimuli

  2014cited by this paper
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Vagal Activity Is Quadratically Related to Prosocial Traits , Prosocial Emotions , and Observer Perceptions of Prosociality

  2014influential reference
• Cooperative Learning: Developments in Research

  2014cited by this paper
• Costs and benefits linked to developments in cognitive control.

  2014cited by this paper
• The variable nature of cognitive control: a dual mechanisms framework.

  2012influential reference
• Differences in Cognitive Processes Underlying the Collaborative Activities of Children and Chimpanzees.

  2012cited by this paper
• The Role of Emotional Reactivity, Self-regulation, and Puberty in Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors.

  2012cited by this paper
• OpenSesame: An open-source, graphical experiment builder for the social sciences

  2011influential reference
• The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation

  2011influential reference
• A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety

  2011cited by this paper
• Emotion regulation and executive functioning in early development: Integrated mechanisms of control supporting adaptive functioning.

  2010cited by this paper
• Young children selectively avoid helping people with harmful intentions.

  2010cited by this paper
• Flexible neural mechanisms of cognitive control within human prefrontal cortex

  2009influential reference
• Claude Bernard and the heart-brain connection: further elaboration of a model of neurovisceral integration.

  2009cited by this paper
• Neural correlates of heart rate variability during emotion

  2009cited by this paper
• Pupillometric and behavioral markers of a developmental shift in the temporal dynamics of cognitive control

  2009influential reference
• The roots of human altruism.

  2009cited by this paper
• The polyvagal theory: New insights into adaptive reactions of the autonomic nervous system

  2009cited by this paper
• Heart Rate Variability, Prefrontal Neural Function, and Cognitive Performance: The Neurovisceral Integration Perspective on Self-regulation, Adaptation, and Health

  2009cited by this paper
• The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure

  2007cited by this paper
• The polyvagal perspective.

  2007influential reference
• Helping and Cooperation at 14 Months of Age.

  2007cited by this paper
• Becoming a social partner with peers: cooperation and social understanding in one- and two-year-olds.

  2006cited by this paper
• Cardiac vagal regulation across the preschool period: stability, continuity, and implications for childhood adjustment.

  2004cited by this paper
• The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure

  2003cited by this paper
• The Polyvagal Theory: phylogenetic contributions to social behavior.

  2003cited by this paper
• The polyvagal theory: phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system.

  2001cited by this paper
• A model of neurovisceral integration in emotion regulation and dysregulation.

  2000cited by this paper
• Emotion, regulation, and moral development.

  2000cited by this paper
• Context-processing deficits in schizophrenia: converging evidence from three theoretically motivated cognitive tasks.

  1999cited by this paper
• Schizophrenic Deficits in the Processing of Context

  1998cited by this paper
• Heart rate variability: origins, methods, and interpretive caveats.

  1997cited by this paper
• Orienting in a defensive world: mammalian modifications of our evolutionary heritage. A Polyvagal Theory.

  1995influential reference
• Mechanisms of Self-Regulation: A Systems View

  1993cited by this paper
• The social contract.

  1993cited by this paper
• Shared Cooperative Activity

  1991cited by this paper
• The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors.

  1987cited by this paper
• Mathematical Models in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.

  1986cited by this paper
• Estimating the Dimension of a Model

  1978cited by this paper
• Escape From Paradox

  1967cited by this paper
• Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization Prosocial Norms in the Classroom: the Role of Self-regulation in following Norms of Giving

  year unknowncited by this paper
• Science Current Directions in Psychological Developing Cognitive Control : Three Key Transitions on Behalf Of: Association for Psychological Science

  year unknowncited by this paper

• Building social-emotional skills: self-regulation and classroom climate in primary schools

  2025cites this paper
• Affect and conceptual learning in indoor and green outdoor school environments: Psychophysiological self-regulation matters.

  2025cites this paper
• STUDY ON THE INFLUENCING FACTORS OF EFFECTIVE GROUP COOPERATION MODE IN CHINESE UNIVERSITIES CLASSROOM

  2024cites this paper