23 research outputs found
The opposites task: Using general rules to test cognitive flexibility in preschoolers
A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. Executive functions play an important role in cognitive development, and during the preschool years especially, children's performance is limited in tasks that demand flexibility in their behavior. We asked whether preschoolers would exhibit limitations when they are required to apply a general rule in the context of novel stimuli on every trial (the "opposites" task). Two types of inhibitory processing were measured: response interference (resistance to interference from a competing response) and proactive interference (resistance to interference from a previously relevant rule). Group data show 3-year-olds have difficulty inhibiting prepotent tendencies under these conditions, whereas 5-year-olds' accuracy is near ceiling in the task. (Contains 4 footnotes and 1 table.
Executive functions in preschool children with aggressive behavior: impairments in inhibitory control
The question whether executive function (EF)
deficits in children are associated with conduct problems
remains controversial. Although the origins of aggressive
behavior are to be found in early childhood, findings from
EF studies in preschool children with aggressive behavior
are inconsistent. The current study aimed to investigate
whether preschool children with aggressive behavior show
impairments in EF. From a population-based sample, 82
preschool children who were showing aggressive behavior
as indicated by scores at or above the 93rd percentile on the
Aggressive Behavior Scale of the CBCL 1 1/2-5 were
selected. These children with aggressive behavior were
matched on IQ to a group of typically developing control
children (N=99). Six neuropsychological tasks were administered
to assess set shifting, inhibition, working memory
and verbal fluency. A factor analysis was conducted which
yielded one clear factor: inhibition. Aggressive preschool children showed poorer performance on this inhibition
factor than control children and boys performed worse on
this factor than girls. This association between aggressive
behavior and inhibition deficits was maintained after controlling
for attention problems. In addition, gender differences
in all EFs measured were found with boys exhibiting
more impairment in EF than girls. These findings demonstrate
that preschool children with aggressive behavior show
impairments in inhibition, irrespective of attention problems
Executive Function in Very Preterm Children at Early School Age
We examined whether very preterm (≤30 weeks gestation) children at early school age have impairments in executive function (EF) independent of IQ and processing speed, and whether demographic and neonatal risk factors were associated with EF impairments. A consecutive sample of 50 children (27 boys and 23 girls) born very preterm (mean age = 5.9 years, SD = 0.4, mean gestational age = 28.0 weeks, SD = 1.4) was compared to a sample of 50 age-matched full-term controls (23 girls and 27 boys, mean age = 6.0 years, SD = 0.6) with respect to performance on a comprehensive EF battery, assessing the domains of inhibition, working memory, switching, verbal fluency, and concept generation. The very preterm group demonstrated poor performance compared to the controls on all EF domains, even after partialing out the effects of IQ. Processing speed was marginally related to EF. Analyses with demographic and neonatal risk factors showed maternal education and gestational age to be related to EF. This study adds to the emerging body of literature showing that very preterm birth is associated with EF impairments