Relevance of a neurophysiological marker of attention allocation for children’s learning-related behaviors and academic performance.

Abstract

Learning-related behaviors are important for school success. Socioeconomic disadvantage confers risk for less adaptive learning-related behaviors at school entry, yet substantial variability in school readiness exists within socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Investigation of neurophysiological systems associated with learning-related behaviors in high-risk populations could illuminate resilience processes. This study examined the relevance of a neurophysiological measure of controlled attention allocation, amplitude of the P3b event-related potential, for learning-related behaviors and academic performance in a sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged kindergarteners. The sample consisted of 239 children from an urban, low-income community, approximately half of whom exhibited behavior problems at school entry (45% aggressive/oppositional; 64% male; 69% African American, 21% Hispanic). Results revealed that higher P3b amplitudes to target stimuli in a go/no-go task were associated with more adaptive learning-related behaviors in kindergarten. Furthermore, children's learning-related behaviors in kindergarten mediated a positive indirect effect of P3b amplitude on growth in academic performance from kindergarten to 1st grade. Given that P3b amplitude reflects attention allocation processes, these findings build on the scientific justification for interventions targeting young children's attention skills in order to promote effective learning-related behaviors and academic achievement within socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.

How does reactivity to frustrative non-reward increase risk for externalizing symptoms?

“…In our sample, mean P3b in the reward conditions is correlated with executive function and academic achievement, but is not associated with behavior problems (see Willner, Gatzke-Kopp, Bierman, Greenberg, & Segalowitz, in press). It is not clear whether the lack of findings in the reward condition reflects a failure to replicate previous studies, or is a function of the unique affective nature of the present task.…”

Cortical and affective regulation of autonomic coordination

“…Consistent with the community demographics, the majority of parents identified their children as African American (68%), with the remaining identifying their children as Latino (20%), Caucasian (11%), or other (1%). Although portions of these data have been examined in other ways (Gatzke‐Kopp et al, ; Willner, Gatzke‐Kopp, Bierman, Greenberg, & Segalowitz, ), the research questions and combination of data used here are fully unique.…”

“…Details regarding the quantification of the P3b in the present sample have been published previously (Gatzke‐Kopp et al, ; Willner et al, ). In brief, the P3b in response to go‐stimuli was examined because each Go trial presented an essentially novel stimulus.…”

How does mindfulness modulate self-regulation in pre-adolescent children? An integrative neurocognitive review

“…The P3b, a positive peak with a parietal distribution elicited between 300 and 500 ms after stimulus onset (Hajcak et al, 2010;Polich, 2007), can provide a measure of top-down attentional control abilities including the endogenous allocation of attention resources towards task relevant stimuli (Chennu et al, 2013;Linden, 2005;Moser et al, 2005), attention resource availability (Hajcak et al, 2010;Moser et al, 2005;Polich, 2007;Delplanque et al, 2005;Hillman et al, 2005;St-Louis-Deschênes et al, 2015;Willner et al, 2015) and context updating (Geng and Vossel, 2013;Polich, 2007). The P3b is often elicited in an oddball paradigm for infrequent target stimuli requiring a response (Kok, 1997;Polich, 2007).…”

“…The P3b is often elicited in an oddball paradigm for infrequent target stimuli requiring a response (Kok, 1997;Polich, 2007). A more positive P3b to task relevant stimuli has been linked with a greater availability of attention resources to allocate during a task (Hillman et al, 2005;Willner et al, 2015). The allocation of attention towards task relevant stimuli can be depleted by the presentation of distracting task irrelevant stimuli and this results in an attenuation of the P3b (Hajcak et al, 2010;Moser et al, 2005).…”