Tone Kristine Hermansen

• Barresi, Giulia; Viana, Karine Porpino; Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Ragaglia, Beatrice & Bulgarelli, Daniela (2026). Peer Action Coordination in Middle Childhood: A Replication Null Finding on Emotion Understanding and Inhibitory Control. Behavioral Sciences. 16(3). doi: 10.3390/bs16030364. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Veraksa, Aleksander N.; Piulats, Francisco Maria Pons & Harris, Paul L. (2025). Children revise their emotion attributions in light of the broader temporal context. International Journal of Behavioral Development. ISSN 0165-0254. doi: 10.1177/01650254251337737. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Do children infer other’s emotions from situational information, and do they revise their inferences when provided with additional information about the broader temporal context? We invited 333 children (Mage = 72.67 months, range = 47–99 months, 56% girls, 44% boys) to look at pictures of a child protagonist seated next to a set of toys—first in the company of another child and then alone. The protagonist’s facial expression was never visible in either picture. Instead, for each picture, the experimenter provided children with an initial description of the immediate situation facing the protagonist before they asked children to (1) attribute an emotion to the protagonist; (2) express their confidence in this attribution; and (3) justify their attribution. The experimenter then claimed to remember more information about the context surrounding each situation before repeating the three questions. Irrespective of age, children shifted markedly in their attributions based on the additional information provided, although older children were more confident in their attributions than younger children and provided more contextual references when justifying their beliefs. Thus, from an early age, children realize that the emotional implications of a situation are not fixed but can shift and even reverse depending on the broader temporal context.

• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Mathisen, Kamilla & Ronfard, Samuel (2024). When children can explain why they believe a claim, they suggest a better empirical test for that claim. Royal Society Open Science. doi: 10.1098/rsos.241875. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  We tested the hypothesis that children’s ability to reflect on the causes of their uncertainty about a surprising claim allows them to better target their empirical investigation of that claim—and that this ability increases with age. We assigned 4–7-year-old children (n=174, Mage = 68.77 months, 52.87% girls) to either a prompted or an unprompted condition. In each condition, children witnessed a series of vignettes where an adult presented a surprising claim about an object. Children were then asked whether they thought the claim was true or not, how certain or uncertain they were, and how they would test that claim. In the prompted condition, children were also asked why they were certain or uncertain. As predicted, older children were more likely to justify their beliefs and to suggest targeted empirical tests, compared with younger children. Being prompted to reflect on their uncertainty did not increase children’s ability to generate an efficient test for those claims. However, exploratory analyses revealed that children’s ability to provide a plausible reason for their beliefs did, controlling for their ability to select an efficient test for a claim. This suggests that developments in children’s reasoning about their beliefs allow them to more effectively assess those beliefs empirically.

• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Viana, Karine Maria Porpino; Harris, Paul L.; Engel, Susan; Zambrana, Imac Maria & Ronfard, Samuel (2024). Checking Out the Unexplained: With Age, Children Become Increasingly Skeptical of Surprising Claims. Developmental Psychology. ISSN 0012-1649. doi: 10.1037/dev0001532. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  When presented with surprising claims, older children investigate such claims more often than younger children. The present study tests whether older children (6–7-year-olds) are more skeptical than younger children (4–5-year-olds) about surprising claims that lack supporting evidence because they expect informants to provide evidence for them. To test this hypothesis, we presented 140 4–7-year-old children (47–96 months, 46.4% girls, 53.6% boys, 86.4% with at least one parent who completed a BA degree, 50% parents with income above median) with a series of vignettes. In each vignette, the protagonist wanted to accomplish a task and needed to select the most appropriate object for that task. Before deciding which object to use, the protagonist heard a surprising claim about one of the object’s properties, presented with or without supporting evidence. For example, in the supporting explanation condition, the informant stated that the smallest object was the heaviest and that they knew because they had lifted the objects. Children were then asked whether the protagonist knew which object to use and why. Contrary to expectation, children across all ages typically indicated that the protagonist had sufficient knowledge, regardless of whether an informant provided supporting evidence or not. However, with increasing age, children became more skeptical of both supported and unsupported surprising claims and increasingly stated that the protagonist should not select the object suggested by the informant. Finally, when asked to justify this judgment, older children were more likely than younger to express skepticism toward the claims, especially when presented without supporting evidence.

• Steffan, Adrian; Zimmer, Lucie; Arias-Trejo, Natalia; Bohn, Manuel; Ben, Rodrigo Dal & Flores-Coronado, Marco A. [Vis alle 33 forfattere av denne artikkelen] (2023). Validation of an open source, remote web-based eye-tracking method (WebGazer) for research in early childhood. Infancy. ISSN 1525-0008. doi: 10.1111/infa.12564. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Syrstad, Kari Enger; Røysamb, Espen & Melinder, Annika Maria Désirée (2022). Child internalizing and externalizing behaviors: Interplay between maternal depressive symptoms and child inhibitory control. JCPP Advances. 2(4). doi: 10.1002/jcv2.12107. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Maternal depression is a risk factor for child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Aiming to investigate the moderating role of child inhibitory control on this relationship, we invited a sub-sample of dyads from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort study (MoBa) for a lab-based assessment (N = 92, Mage = 68 months, Range = 59–80, 50% girls). Maternal depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), while child behaviors were measured using the Child Behavior Check List, and inhibitory control using a child friendly version of the Flanker-task. As expected, higher levels of concurrent maternal depressive symptoms predicted higher levels of child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Importantly, and in line with our predictions, child inhibitory control moderated the association. Lower levels of inhibitory control predicted a stronger association between concurrent maternal depressive symptoms and child behavioral outcomes. The results support prior research suggesting that concurrent maternal depression poses a risk for child development, and highlight that children with lower levels of inhibitory control are more vulnerable to negative environmental influences. These findings contribute to our understanding of the complexity of parental mental health issues on child development and suggest avenues for personalized treatment programs for families and children at risk.

• Hermansen, Tone Kristine & Augusti, Else-Marie (2021). Samspill mellom emosjoner og kognisjon i barns utvikling. I Tamnes, Christian Krog (Red.), Nevrokognitiv utviklingspsykologi. Gyldendal Akademisk. ISSN 9788205533387. s. 172–192. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone K.; Ronfard, Samuel; Harris, Paul L. & Zambrana, Imac M. (2021). Preschool Children Rarely Seek Empirical Data That Could Help Them Complete a Task When Observation and Testimony Conflict. Child Development. ISSN 0009-3920. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13612. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Children (N = 278, 34–71 months, 54% girls) were told which of two figurines turned on a music box and also observed empirical evidence either confirming or conflicting with that testimony. Children were then asked to sort novel figurines according to whether they could make the music box work or not. To see whether children would explore which figurine turned on the music box, especially when the observed and testimonial evidence conflicted, children were given access to the music box during their sorting. However, children rarely explored. Indeed, they struggled to disregard the misleading testimony both when sorting the figurines and when asked about a future attempt. In contrast, children who explored the effectiveness of the figurines dismissed the misleading testimony.

• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Ronfard, Samuel; Harris, Paul L.; Pons, Francisco & Zambrana, Imac Maria (2021). Young children update their trust in an informant’s claim when experience tells them otherwise. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. ISSN 0022-0965. 205, s. 105063–105063. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.105063. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Across two experiments, an adult informant presented 220 preschoolers (34–71 months of age) with either a correct claim or an incorrect claim about how to activate a music box by using one of two toy figures. Children were then prompted to explore the figures and to discover whether the informant’s claim was correct or incorrect. Children who discovered the claim to be incorrect no longer endorsed it. Moreover, their predictions regarding a new figure’s ability to activate the music box were clearly affected by the reliability of the informant’s prior claim. Thus, children reassess an informant’s incorrect claim about an object in light of later empirical evidence and transfer their conclusions regarding the validity of that claim to subsequent objects.

• Zambrana, Imac Maria; Hermansen, Tone Kristine & Rowe, Meredith (2020). Mothers' use of questions and children's learning and language development. I Butler, Lucas; Ronfard, Samuel & Corriveau, Kathleen (Red.), The questioning child: Insights from psychology and education. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781108428910. s. 212–231. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Ronfard, Samuel; Zambrana, Imac Maria; Hermansen, Tone Kristine & Kelemen, Deborah (2018). Question-asking in childhood: A review of the literature and a framework for understanding its development. Developmental Review. ISSN 0273-2297. 49, s. 101–120. doi: 10.1016/j.dr.2018.05.002. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Kenward, Ben; Koch, Felix-Sebastian; Forssman, Linda; Brehm, Julia; Tidemann, Ida Therese & Sundqvist, Annette [Vis alle 10 forfattere av denne artikkelen] (2017). Saccadic reaction times in infants and adults: Spatiotemporal factors, gender, and interlaboratory variation. Developmental Psychology. ISSN 0012-1649. 53(9), s. 1750–1764. doi: 10.1037/dev0000338. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Yrttiaho, Santeri; Røysamb, Espen & Melinder, Annika Maria D (2017). Perceptual interference processing in preschool children, with and without prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Psychopharmacology. ISSN 0033-3158. 234(3), s. 339–351. doi: 10.1007/s00213-016-4467-7. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Røysamb, Espen; Augusti, Else-Marie & Melinder, Annika Maria D (2016). Behavior and inhibitory control in children with prenatal exposure to antidepressants and medically untreated depression. Psychopharmacology. ISSN 0033-3158. 233(8), s. 1523–1535. doi: 10.1007/s00213-016-4248-3. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine & Melinder, Annika Maria D (2015). Prenatal SSRI exposure: Effects on later child development. Child Neuropsychology: A Journal of Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence. ISSN 0929-7049. 21(5), s. 543–569. doi: 10.1080/09297049.2014.942727. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Melinder, Annika Maria D; Konijnenberg, Carolien; Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Daum, Moritz & Gredebäck, Gustaf (2014). The developmental trajectory of pointing perception in the first year of life. Experimental Brain Research. ISSN 0014-4819. 233(2), s. 641–647. doi: 10.1007/s00221-014-4143-2. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

Se alle arbeider i NVA

• Hermansen, Tone Kristine (2025). How reflecting on their own uncertainty shapes children's investigation of surprising claims. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Prendergast, Claire; Kollstrøm, Selma; Breitholtz, Ellen & Howes, Christine (2025). Explaining developments in figurative language comprehension through abstract thought processes. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Stavsholt, Mari; Viana, Karine Porpino & Hermansen, Tone Kristine (2024). A qualitative study on parent’s perception of their child’s developing critical thinking skills and their own role in this development. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Stavsholt, Mari; Viana, Karine Maria Porpino & Hermansen, Tone Kristine (2024). A qualitative study on parent’s perception of their child’s developing critical thinking skills and their own role in this development. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Mathisen, Kamilla & Ronfard, Samuel (2024). Children who can explain why they are skeptical about a claim can devise an efficient empirical test for that claim. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Viana, Karine Maria Porpino; Harris, Paul L.; Engel, Susan; Zambrana, Imac Maria & Ronfard, Samuel (2023). Investigating unexplained phenomena: Are children more likely to question surprising claims that are presented without supporting explanations? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Mathisen, Kamilla; Ronfard, Samuel & Hermansen, Tone Kristine (2023). Exploring links between children’s ability to reflect on their uncertainty about a claim and their suggestions for how to explore that claim. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Viana, Karine Porpino; Harris, Paul. L.; Engel, Susan & Zambrana, Imac Maria (2023). Investigating unexplained phenomena: Are children more likely to question surprising claims that are presented without supporting explanations? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Ronfard, Samuel; Harris, Paul L.; Pons, Francisco & Zambrana, Imac Maria (2020). Epistemic uncertainty: Implicit encoding and information seeking from infancy to preschool. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Ronfard, Samuel; Harris, Paul L.; Pons, Francisco & Zambrana, Imac Maria (2019). Young children revise their trust in an informant’s claim once they gather counter-evidence, and transfer their revised judgement across tasks. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Ronfard, Samuel; Harris, Paul L.; Pons, Francisco & Zambrana, Imac Maria (2019). Children reassess an informant’s misleading claim in the light of later empirical evidence. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Ronfard, Samuel; Harris, Paul L.; Pons, Francisco & Zambrana, Imac Maria (2017). Are preschoolers’ questions impacted by prior inconsistent experiences during first-hand exploration? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Hermansen, Tone Kristine; Yrttiaho, Santeri; Leppänen, J.-M.; Røysamb, Espen & Melinder, Annika Maria D (2015). The depth of conflict: ERP amplitude at N2 is associated with variation in reaction time in a perceptual interference task. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

Se alle arbeider i NVA