Executive Function

Carlson, Stephanie M.; Zelazo, Philip David; Faja, Susan

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199958450.013.0025

Cited by 189 publications

(216 citation statements)

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“…Analysis of IQ as a Covariate. It was important to consider general cognitive ability as a covariate because measures of intelligence are consistently correlated with EF, especially in early childhood (e.g., [36][37][38], although less so in adulthood, consistent with increasing differentiation of cognitive function in development (e.g., 39). We first examined whether the groups differed on IQ.…”

Section: Aims Of Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between early life adversity and executive function in children adopted internationally from orphanages

Hostinar

Stellern

Schaefer

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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199

138

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Executive function (EF) abilities are increasingly recognized as an important protective factor for children experiencing adversity, promoting better stress and emotion regulation as well as social and academic adjustment. We provide evidence that early life adversity is associated with significant reductions in EF performance on a developmentally sensitive battery of laboratory EF tasks that measured cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control. Animal models also suggest that early adversity has a negative impact on the development of prefrontal cortex-based cognitive functions. In this study, we report EF performance 1 y after adoption in 2.5-to 4-y-old children who had experienced institutional care in orphanages overseas compared with a group of age-matched nonadopted children. To our knowledge, this is the youngest age and the soonest after adoption that reduced EF performance has been shown using laboratory measures in this population. EF reductions in performance were significant above and beyond differences in intelligence quotient. Within the adopted sample, current EF was associated with measures of early deprivation after controlling for intelligence quotient, with less time spent in the birth family before placement in an institution and lower quality of physical/social care in institutions predicting poorer performance on the EF battery.I t has been argued that early experiences have an impact on neurobehavioral development, for good or ill, and thus influence lifelong health and disease (1). The search for protective processes in the individual that may reduce the impact of early adversity has begun to identify executive functions (EFs) as one candidate domain for intervention (2). EFs are a set of higher order cognitive processes that allow individuals to engage in planning and conscious, goal-directed problem solving (3). In children, EF is related to emotion regulation (4), conscience and moral development (5, 6), and math and literacy ability in kindergarten (7), and it is also predictive of later social and academic competence (8, 9). It is believed that EF may play an especially important role in adverse circumstances because of its role in balancing emotional arousal and cognitive processing (10). Thus, understanding the development of EF in children who experience early adversity may provide avenues for promoting their resilience.Unfortunately, this factor that could help buffer children living in adverse rearing environments has also been shown to be impaired in these children. For instance, there is accumulating evidence that psychosocial deprivation in the form of being raised in an institution is associated with reduced performance in a variety of EF domains assessed years after adoption into an enriched family environment (11-15). Studies of children experiencing early adversity cannot definitively attribute reduced EF performance to their early experiences because of their frequent coexposure to multiple other prenatal and postnatal risk factors that stunt physical g...

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Section: Aims Of Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between early life adversity and executive function in children adopted internationally from orphanages

Hostinar

Stellern

Schaefer

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

199

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…As these neurocognitive processes develop with age, children become increasingly competent in approaching problems, planning and organizing thoughts and behaviour, maintaining goals in mind and acting on them, and self-evaluation (Jurado & Rosselli, 2007;Zelazo, Craik, & Booth, 2004). The exact neurocognitive processes underlying EF are diverse and remain under investigation (Carlson, Zelazo, & Faja, 2012). The dimensional structure of EF processes underlying performance on functional tasks, however, has received considerable attention in young adult and adult samples and more recently in children, with a focus on inhibition, updating, and set shifting (Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, Witzki, & Howerter, 2000) Inhibition or inhibitory control refers to the ability to control attention, thought, and behaviour in the presence of interfering internal or external stimuli, to overcome automatic impulses and respond appropriately so that with increasing inhibitory control, one is able to better restrict and regulate impulsive behaviours (Diamond, 2013;Miyake et al, 2000).…”

Section: Executive Functions and Intelligence: Function And Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the three main EF processes have slightly different developmental trajectories across childhood and adolescence, where inhibition seems to be the first to develop, followed by updating and lastly by set shifting, so far the research literature supports the age-related improvements in all EFs during those periods (Anderson, 2002;Zelazo, 2013;Zelazo et al, 2004;Zelazo & Müller, 2002). Age-related changes are noticed in the increasing complexity of the rules and plans children and adolescents can keep in memory and utilize when needed for problem solving and their increasing ability to later reflect on them .…”

Section: Development Of Efmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing relations among cognitive abilities across development: implications for measurement and research

Rizeq

Flora

Toplak

2017

The Clinical Neuropsychologist

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The constructs of intelligence and executive function are critical concepts of ability in neuropsychological research, cognitive research, developmental research, and clinical assessment. Yet, we have limited understanding of the changing age-related associations among these cognitive constructs. To better understand the development of these abilities, we compared a child sample and a young-adult sample on several measures of intelligence and executive functions. We used confirmatory factor analysis to estimate models for each developmental period. In addition, the association with ratings of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, a dispositional measure of cognitive and behavioural regulation, was examined. The results indicated that cognitive abilities are more dependent on age in children than in young adults and that these abilities are more highly associated with ratings of cognitive and behavioural regulation in children than in young adults. The results support the integral relationship between intelligence and executive function throughout development, but especially in children.iii

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“…Defined broadly, term "executive functions" (EFs -executive functions) means a range of functions that enable an individual to self-regulate and engage in goaldirected behaviour (Best & Miller, 2010;Carlson, Zelazo & Faja, 2013;Diamond, 2013;Lyon & Krasnegor, 1996;Müller & Kerns, 2015). Precisely defining the concept of "executive functions" is not a simple task.…”

Section: Reading Abilities Executive Functions and Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Working memory and reading ability in children - a psycholinguistic perspective

Wiejak¹,

Kaczan²,

Krasowicz-Kupis³

et al. 2017

L1 Educational Studies in Language and Literature

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The aim of this paper is to give an insight into the reading process and working memory as factor that affects this process at early stages of its development. The basic assumption of the psycholinguistic view is that reading is a linguistic, metalinguistic and metacognitive activity that requires conscious control of cognitive processes involved. The study covered 1138 children from reception class as well as the 1 st grade. The subjects were examined using the Reading Tests Battery that offers a comprehensive evaluation of various aspects of reading: letter recognition and naming, isolated words decoding and pseudowords decoding. Executive functions were measured with the use of the Working Memory Test. Each task of the test corresponds to one of the working memory functions highlighted by Klaus Oberauer: simultaneous storage and processing, supervision and coordination. The main results confirm a significant relationship between general indicators of working memory and the results of reading tests. The highest correlations were obtained for the Letter Naming and Letter Recognition tests as well as all three working memory test measures. Monitoring function did not correlate with the reading measures, and the function of coordination featured a very low level of covariance.

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Executive Function

Cited by 189 publications

References 0 publications

Associations between early life adversity and executive function in children adopted internationally from orphanages

Associations between early life adversity and executive function in children adopted internationally from orphanages

Changing relations among cognitive abilities across development: implications for measurement and research

Working memory and reading ability in children - a psycholinguistic perspective

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