Age differences in foraging and executive functions: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Visual foraging tasks require participants to search for multiple targets among numerous distractors. Foraging paradigms enable insights into the function of visual attention above what has been learned from traditional single target search paradigms. These include attentional orienting over time and search strategies involving target selection from different target types. To date, only a handful of studies have been conducted on the development of foraging abilities. Here, the foraging of five age groups, children aged six, nine, twelve, and fifteen, and adults, was measured, as well as their performance on various tasks assessing four subdomains of executive functions; inhibition, attentional flexibility, working memory, and problem solving. Executive functions consist of a complex network of independent but

Development of Perceptual Inhibition in Adolescents—A Critical Period?

“…In addition, young adults in this study (20 to 25 years) show better performance than adolescent participants, especially in the condition of greater interference. In this line of argumentation, we mainly discuss the important changes that can be observed in relation to the nonlinear trajectory of development; this would show the PI during adolescence, challenging (a) the idea that executive functioning culminates its development during adolescence and (b) that the youth stage is a period without significant observed changes [28,40,57,96].…”

“…For some authors, this clear and rapid increase reflects a brain reorganization, described as a wave of synaptic proliferation [52][53][54][55] which is reflected in the increase in the number of synaptic connections. However, after puberty and while adolescence, a rapid but constant decrease in synaptic density is observed thanks to the intervention of the synaptic pruning mechanism [47,56,57]. Synaptic pruning allows the elimination of excessive "noisy" synapses that have not been strengthened through experience [55,56].…”

“…Depending on the brain and executive changes described above, we wonder if some executive processes such as inhibition [57] could present a non-linear pattern of development in adolescence. In this regard, the study by McGivern et al [38] through a task with high demand for working memory, shows a pattern of such development type.…”

Development of Perceptual Inhibition in Adolescents, a Critical Period?

“…In addition, young adults in this study-20 to 25 years-show better performance than adolescent participants, especially in the condition of greater interference. In this line of argumentation, we mainly discuss the important changes that can be observed in relation to the nonlinear trajectory of development that would show the PI during adolescence that might challenges the idea that executive functioning culminates its development during adolescence and that the youth stage is a period without significant observed changes [28,40,57,96].…”

“…For some authors, this clear and rapid increase reflects a brain reorganization, described as a wave of synaptic proliferation [52,53] which is reflected in the increase in the number of synaptic connections. However, after puberty and while adolescence, a rapid but constant decrease in synaptic density is observed thanks to the intervention of the synaptic pruning mechanism [47,56,57]. Synaptic pruning allows the elimination of excessive "noisy" synapses that have not been strengthened through experience [55,56].…”