Executive functions (EFs) are cognitive skills that regulate thoughts and behavior. The seminal EF unity and diversity theoretical framework proposes the existence of three correlated EF latent domains (inhibition, updating, and switching) that become distinguishable from a certain moment during adolescence, but it is unclear how age and socioeconomic status (SES) affect these abilities. Here, we assessed 407 9-15-year-old Iranians of variable SES using an open-access battery of executive function tests that includes two tasks of each EF domain and allows for sociocultural adaptations regarding language and stimuli. Various EF model configurations proposed in the literature were tested (one, two and three EF latent factor, nested and bifactor-S-1 models) using confirmatory factor analyses. In addition, to explore the unbiased effects of age and SES, we performed invariance testing (across age and SES) using multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model to the best fitting model solution. The three-correlated EF factor model had the best fit and was mostly invariant across age and SES, with all three EF latent traits improving with age, while SES exerted only minimal positive effects on shifting and updating. We concluded that the three separable EF domains, found in adults and adolescents of other ages from different populations, can already be detected from the beginning of adolescence when culturally and psychometrically appropriate EF tasks are used. Additionally, these abilities continue to improve with age and are little affected by SES, suggesting that the unity and diversity framework is useful to study the cross-country generality of EF development.
Lockdowns and other preventive measures taken to curb the spread of diseases such as COVID-19 have restricted the use of face-to-face cognitive assessment. Remote testing may be an alternative, but it should first be shown to be comparable to in-person assessment before being used more widely, during and after the pandemic. Our aim was to evaluate the suitability of online, examiner-mediated administration of an open-access battery of executive function tests (the Free Research Executive Evaluation battery, or FREE) that can be adapted considering various characteristics of diverse populations and therefore used worldwide. A total of 96 9–15-year olds (42 girls) were tested, half of whom online through video calls mediated by an examiner. Their performance was compared to that of the other 48 individuals tested face-to-face, who were matched against the online-tested participants for age, pubertal status, sex, and parental schooling. The battery consists of two tests of the following executive domains: Updating (2-Back and Number Memory tests), Inhibition (Stroop Victoria and Stroop Happy-Sad), and Switching (Color Shape and Category Switch). Answers were vocal and self-paced, and the examiner recorded accuracy and time taken to complete in-person and online tasks. Only free software is needed for the assessment. Executive measures obtained from the tasks did not differ statistically between online and in-person tested participants and effects sizes of group effects were small, thus showing that the FREE test battery holds promise for online cognitive assessment, pending confirmation in different samples and further validation studies.
Objective: Acute administration of benzodiazepines is considered a pharmacological model of general organic anterograde amnesias (OAA). We sought to determine which type of amnesia these drugs best model by comparing the effects of diazepam with those reported in amnesiacs regarding working memory capacity (WMC), susceptibility to retroactive interference (RI), and accelerated forgetting. Methods:In this double-blind, parallel-group design study, 30 undergraduates were randomly allocated to acute oral treatments with 15 mg diazepam or placebo. WMC and story recall were assessed pre-and post-treatment. Story presentation was succeeded by 10 min of RI (spotting differences in pictures) or minimal RI (doing nothing in a darkened room). Delayed story recall was assessed under diazepam and 7 days later in a drug-free session to assess accelerated forgetting.Results: Recall of stories encoded under diazepam, whether reactivated or not, was severely impaired (anterograde amnesia). However, diazepam did not impair WMC, increase susceptibility to RI, or accelerate forgetting.Conclusions: Diazepam's amnestic effects mirror those in patients with probable severe medial temporal damage, mostly restricted to initial consolidation and differ from other OAA (Korsakoff syndrome, frontal, transient epileptic, posttraumatic amnesia, and most progressive amnesias) in terms of WMC, susceptibility to RI and accelerated forgetting.
Executive functions (EFs) are cognitive skills that regulate thoughts and behavior. The unity and diversity model of EF, one of the most prominent frameworks in this field, proposes the existence of three correlated but separable EF domains (inhibition, updating and switching). This fractionation of EF has been shown from adolescence on in some, but not all studies, which usually only reported a few of many possible factor structures. Additionally, age and socioeconomic status (SES) effects in these studies were unreliable due to lack of invariance testing, necessary to ensure that participants of different ages/SES perform tasks similarly so that these effects can be estimated. Hence, we tested this framework in 407 9-15-year-old Iranians of variable SES using a test battery that includes two tasks for each EF domain and allows cultural adaptations regarding language and stimuli. We tested various alternative model configurations (one, two and three factor, nested and bifactor-S-1 models) using Confirmatory Factor Analyses and, for the selected best fitting model, performed invariance testing (across age and SES) with Multiple Indicators, Multiple Causes model. The best fitting model solution (three-correlated factors) replicated prior results in early adolescent samples from different countries, speaking to the universality of the separability of the three EF domains at this age. Furthermore, this model exhibited differential item functioning for only one of 7 indicators (for age and SES) allowing us to reliably show that all three EF latent traits improve with age, while SES exerts only minimal positive effects on shifting and updating.
Executive functions (EFs) are cognitive skills that regulate thoughts and behavior. The unity and diversity model of EF, one of the most prominent frameworks in this field, proposes the existence of three correlated but separable EF domains (inhibition, updating and switching). This fractionation of EF has been shown from adolescence on in some, but not all studies, which usually only reported a few of many possible factor structures. Additionally, age and socioeconomic status (SES) effects in these studies were unreliable due to lack of invariance testing, necessary to ensure that participants of different ages/SES perform tasks similarly so that these effects can be estimated. Hence, we tested this framework in 407 9-15-year-old Iranians of variable SES using a test battery that includes two tasks for each EF domain and allows cultural adaptations regarding language and stimuli. We tested various alternative model configurations (one, two and three factor, nested and bifactor-S-1 models) using Confirmatory Factor Analyses and, for the selected best fitting model, performed invariance testing (across age and SES) with Multiple Indicators, Multiple Causes model. The best fitting model solution (three-correlated factors) replicated prior results in early adolescent samples from different countries, speaking to the universality of the separability of the three EF domains at this age. Furthermore, this model exhibited differential item functioning for only one of 7 indicators (for age and SES) allowing us to reliably show that all three EF latent traits improve with age, while SES exerts only minimal positive effects on shifting and updating.
Cultural background can influence cognition, including executive functions (EFs), abilities that encompass skills responsible for self-regulation of thoughts and behaviour. The seminal unity and diversity model of EFs proposes the existence, in adulthood, of three correlated but separable EF latent (shared variance in more than one task/indicator) domains: inhibition, updating and shifting. However, evidence of the cross-cultural generality of the development of this framework is lacking, especially regarding adolescence, an age during which these domains become more clearly separable. We tested whether EF unity/diversity could be observed in early adolescents (9 – 15-year-olds) from Brazil and Iran (total sample: 739; 407 Iranians; 358 girls). Participants carried out two open-access tasks that are representative of each EF domain and that were adapted to each cultural context. Seven latent model configurations were tested. The three-correlated latent factor structure had adequate fit and multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis invariance testing showed invariance for country at the level of the latent factor structure (configural invariance), factor loadings (metric invariance), and partial invariance at the intercept (scalar) level. Iranians had higher scores in all domains. Multiple indicators multiple causes invariance testing showed model invariance across age (except for one task) and parental education and that performance in all domains improved with age and only minimally with parental schooling. We conclude that EF fractionation into three domains is already present in the first half of adolescence in two samples from underrepresented populations in the literature, suggesting a potential generality of EF latent unity/diversity development at this age.
Behavioral self-regulation (BSR) refers to a set of abilities such as cool and hot executive functions, that enable flexible, adaptive, and goal-directed regulation of behavior. During adolescence, BSR improves as individuals age and learn from their experiences. Crucially, BSR is also influenced by maturational changes related to pubertal development. However, the contribution of pubertal status to BSR development beyond age-related effects is unclear. Here, we performed a systematic review of the literature to investigate effects of pubertal status that can be separated from age effects. We identified 113 studies reporting results on the relationship between pubertal status and BSR measures, but most of them were not informative for our review question because they did not properly adjust for age effects, or manipulated pubertal data in ways that no longer reflected the participants’ pubertal status. The 26 remaining eligible studies used a heterogeneous set of tasks and questionnaires to assess BSR-related capacities. More than a third of these studies found no pubertal effects, while the remainder reported a mix of positive and negative effects, with few clear patterns. Additionally, there were common methodological shortcomings in this literature that significantly limited the strength of the evidence. So, despite indirect evidence for pubertal effects on BSR, our review showed a lack of strong direct evidence for substantial effects. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for current theories of BSR development during adolescence, and present suggestions for dealing with the current methodological shortcomings in future studies.
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