We investigated attention, encoding and processing of social aspects of complex photographic scenes. Twenty four high-functioning adolescents (aged 11-16) with ASD and 24 typically developing matched control participants viewed and then described a series of scenes, each containing a person. Analyses of eye movements and verbal descriptions provided converging evidence that both groups displayed general interest in the person in each scene but the salience of the person was reduced for the ASD participants. Nevertheless, the verbal descriptions revealed that participants with ASD frequently processed the observed person's emotion or mental state without prompting.They also often mentioned eye-gaze direction, and there was evidence from eye movements and verbal descriptions that gaze was followed accurately. The combination of evidence from eye movements and verbal descriptions provides a rich insight into the way stimuli are processed overall. The merits of using these methods within the same paradigm are discussed.

The current study examined the facial emotion recognition ability with a simultaneous assessment of behavioral and neurophysiological data in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) aged 7-17 years using a facial emotion matching task and event-related potential measurements (event-related potential components N170 and N250 at T5 and T6) in an emotional continuous performance task. Group differences and interaction effects of children's performance (both behavioral and neurophysiological) were evaluated between children with ADHD and children without ADHD as well as between younger and older children. No deficit in facial emotion recognition was found for children with ADHD compared with children without ADHD even with neurophysiological parameters. However, in terms of developmental differences, the younger children differentiated in their behavioral and neurophysiological performance from the older children. No interaction was detected between the experimental groups and the age groups, indicating that developmental progression in terms of emotional processes did not differ between children with and without ADHD. This study indicates that the facial emotion recognition is above all an age-dependent function with later processing of facial emotion expressions in younger compared with older children and suggests that a facial emotion recognition deficit is secondary in children with ADHD and might occur only with specific emotions or ADHD subtypes, but not in the whole ADHD population.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) occur frequently in childhood and entail broad cognitive deficits, particularly in the domain of executive functions (EF). Concerning mild TBI (mTBI), only little empirical evidence is available on acute and postacute performance in EF. Given that EF are linked to school adaptation and achievement, even subtle deficits in performance may affect children's academic careers. The present study assessed performance in the EF components of inhibition, working memory (WM), and switching in children after mTBI. Regarding both acute and postacute consequences, performance trajectories were measured in 13 patients aged between 5 and 10 years and 13 controls who were closely matched in terms of sex, age, and education. Performance in the EF components of inhibition, switching, and WM was assessed in a short-term longitudinal design at 2, 6, and 12 weeks after the mTBI. Results indicate subtle deficits after mTBI, which became apparent in the longitudinal trajectory in the EF components of switching and WM. Compared with controls, children who sustained mTBI displayed an inferior performance enhancement across testing sessions in the first 6 weeks after the injury in switching and WM, resulting in a delayed deficit in the EF component of WM 12 weeks after the injury. Results are interpreted as mTBI-related deficits that become evident in terms of an inability to profit from previous learning opportunities, a finding that is potentially important for children's mastery of their daily lives.

Everyday routine in general and school settings in particular make high demands on children's abilities to sustain their focus of attention over longer time periods. School tasks thus require the child to accomplish the task on an appropriate level of performance while maintaining the focus of attention even under repetitious or distracting conditions. However, sustained attention (SA) may be a more heterogeneous construct than commonly assumed as it requires the individual not only to sustain attentional capacities but also to store and maintain the task rule (working memory), to inhibit inappropriate responses (inhibition), and to switch according to requirements (switching). It might thus involve processes counted among executive functions (EF). In the present study, performance in EF tasks (covering the core components inhibition, switching, and working memory) and in a SA task was assessed in 118 children, aged between 5;0 and 8;11 years. Similar age-dependent performance trajectories were found in EF components and SA, indicating ongoing performance improvements between 5 until at least 8 years of age in SA and in EF. Interrelations between single EF components and SA showed to be small to moderate. Finally, different patterns of SA performance predictions were found in age-homogeneous subgroups with inhibition being crucial for SA performance in the youngest and switching in the oldest age group. Taken as a whole, even though similarities in assumed developmental trajectories and substantial interrelations point to common underlying processes in EF and SA, age-dependent patterns of explained variance indicate clear discriminability.

The present longitudinal study evaluates the effect of effortful control (EC) as a core dimension of temperament on early language competence. We assume that first and second language competence is influenced by EC, and that immigrant children with low EC are thus at risk of an unfavorable language development. The sample consisted of n = 351 dual language learners (DLLs) with an immigrant background and n = 78 monolingual children. Language competence was measured with a standardized language test at age 4.9 years and at age 6.3 years. EC was captured with the Child Behavior Questionnaire, completed by teachers. Results of regression analyses revealed a significant effect of EC on second language development. DLLs with lower EC were found to have not only lower language competence at the beginning and the end of kindergarten but also a less favorable language development. Comparisons between the effect of EC on first and second language provide evidence that EC plays a bigger role in subsequent second language competence compared to first language competence. Overall, the results emphasize the small yet significant role of EC in the second language development of DLLs.