The contribution of cool and hot executive function to academic achievement, learning-related behaviours, and classroom behaviour

The primary aim of this study was to examine whether individual differences in cool and hot executive functions (EF) were associated with children’s transition to school, in terms of both academic performance and classroom behaviour. Children between 5- and 7-years-of-age (N = 90) completed performance based assessments of cool and hot EF as well as verbal ability. Teachers reported on children’s reading and numeracy performance, learning-related behaviours, hyperactivity, and aggression. Results revealed that EF, in particular working memory, was associated with reading and numeracy performance and that this relation was mediated by learning-related behaviours. EF was not associated with hyperactive or aggressive behaviour. The findings strengthen the evidence base for the importance of EF in early academic performance and underscore its potential to be a beneficial part of early education curriculum and a target for early intervention for successful transition to school

The influence of gender and resource holding potential on aggressive and prosocial resource control strategy choice in early childhood

Through the lens of resource control and resource holding potential theory, an investigation was conducted into the effect of resource opponent characteristics on frequency of aggressive and prosocial resource control strategy selection in 4-5-year-old boys and girls. Children (N = 92; 4-5 years old) were asked how they would respond to 12 hypothetical resource holding potential (RHP) vignettes, in which resource control opponents varied in ‘toughness’, ‘physical size’ and whether or not they were accompanied by friends. Girls gave significantly more prosocial responses to the vignettes than boys, and boys provided significantly more coercive responses compared to girls with some differences with age. Prosocial vignette responses were given significantly more frequently when the opponent was ‘not very tough’ as opposed to when they were ‘very tough’. Findings suggest that both boys and girls utilise some form of discrimination when deciding on how to respond to resource competition scenarios and that there are some age and gender differences in their reported response strategies. Findings are discussed in terms of resource control and RHP theory. Future study should investigate whether such differences translate into real-world observed resource control behaviour

Theory of Mind and Young Children's Behaviour: Aggressive, Victimised, Prosocial, and Solitary.

Theory of mind (ToM) undergoes significant developments during childhood, particularly between the ages of four and seven years. A growing body of research has indicated that children's social understanding may be related to their social behaviour with peers, in line with Theory Theory which proposes that children's social cognition is influenced by and influences their peer interactions. The current study examined the relationship between ToM and behaviour among 193 children aged 4-7 years. Children carried out a battery of ToM tasks, and teaching staff reported on children's aggressive, prosocial, and solitary behaviour and victimisation experiences. Aggression was not directly related to ToM; prosocial behaviour was positively associated with ToM for girls but not boys. Solitary behaviour and victimisation were negatively related to ToM. When this was broken down by gender, there was only a significant association between solitary behaviour and ToM for boys. When controlling for the relationship between behaviours, the only significant predictor of ToM was solitary behaviour for boys. ToM was also a significant predictor of solitary behaviour for boys, demonstrating that there is a bidirectional relationship at play. The findings highlight the importance of looking across these four behaviour types and understanding the relationship between behaviour profiles and ToM for boys and girls separately

Hot and cool executive function in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: Cross-sectional developmental trajectories

The development of executive function (EF) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has only been investigated using “cool”-cognitive- EF tasks. Little is known about the development of “hot”-affective- EF and whether it follows a similar developmental pathway. This study employed a cross-sectional developmental trajectories approach to examine the developmental changes in cool (working memory, inhibition, planning) and hot EF (delay discounting, affective decision making) of ASD participants (n=79) and controls (n=91) relative to age and IQ, shedding more light on the hot-cool EF organisation. The developmental trajectories of some aspects of cool EF (working memory, planning) differed significantly as a function of age in ASD participants relative to controls. For both hot EFs no significant age-related changes were found in either group. These findings extend our understanding regarding the maturation of EF from childhood through adolescence in ASD

Peer victimisation in early childhood; observations of participant roles and sex differences

During middle childhood and adolescence, victimisation appears to be a group process involving different participant roles. However, peer reports with younger children (four to six years old) have failed to identify the participant roles of assistant (to the bully) reinforcers or defenders with much reliability. This may be because peer victimisation is a more dyadic process among younger children (behavioural reality), or because of limitations in young children’s cognitive capacity to identify these behaviours (cognitive limitations). The findings of an observational study which examined the group nature of peer victimisation among young children are presented. Observations were made of 56 children aged four and five years using time sampling during free play at school (totalling 43.5 h of observation). Records were made of their behaviour when an onlooker witnessed aggression by others, and also of others’ behaviour when they were being aggressive or being victimised. Although children other than the aggressor and target were present in nearly two thirds of the episodes of peer victimisation observed, few exhibited behavioural responses in line with the assistant, reinforcer or defender roles. This supports the behavioural reality rather than the cognitive limitations explanation. Sex differences were observed in types of aggression displayed by children, with boys more likely than girls to be physically aggressive. Children were less likely to be aggressive to other-sex peers and were most likely to be victimised by children of the same sex as them. There were also sex differences in children’s onlooker behaviour. The implications for our understanding of the development of peer victimisation and bullying in children are discussed

Moral reasoning about aggressive behavior in relation to type of aggression, age, and gender in South Korean pupils

Studies of moral reasoning in relation to aggressive behaviors have paid limited attention to dif-ferent types of aggression, and have mainly been in western societies. We describe findings from a study of 157 children, aged 6 or 11 years, from two schools in South Korea. Using a cartoon sce-nario methodology, we assessed moral reasoning about eight types of aggression: verbal, physi-cal individual, physical group, social exclusion, rumor spreading, breaking one’s belongings, sending a nasty text via mobile phone and a nasty message/email via computer. Four aspects of moral reasoning were assessed: moral judgment, harmfulness, reason for judgment, and causal responsibility. Many significant differences by type of aggression were found, especially for so-cial exclusion (seen as less wrong and harmful, and more the victim’s responsibility), physical group aggression (seen as more wrong or harmful, and a matter of fairness especially in older children and boys), and cyber aggression (seen more as the aggressor’s responsibility). Older children gave more reasons based on welfare, and fewer ‘don’t know’ responses for reasons and attributions. Gender differences were relatively few, but girls did make more use of welfare in the moral reasoning domain. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research and the cultural context in South Korea

Developmental trends of hot and cool executive function in school aged children with and without autism spectrum disorder: links with theory of mind

The development of executive function (EF) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been investigated using only “cool”-cognitive- EF tasks while there is limited knowledge regarding the development of “hot”-affective- EF. Although cool EF development and its links to theory of mind (ToM) have been widely examined, understanding of the influence of hot EF to ToM mechanisms is minimal. The present study introduced a longitudinal design to examine the developmental changes in cool and hot EF of children with ASD (n=45) and matched (to age and IQ) controls (n=37) as well as the impact of EF on ToM development over a school year. For children with ASD, although selective cool (working memory, inhibition) and hot (affective decision making) EF domains presented age-related improvements, they never reached the performance level of the control group. Early cool working memory predicted later ToM in both groups but early hot delay discounting predicted later ToM only in the ASD group. No evidence was found for the reverse pattern (early ToM predicting later EF). These findings suggest that improvements in some EF aspects are evident in school age in ASD and highlight the crucial role both cool and hot EF play in ToM development

Hot and cool executive function and its relation to theory of mind in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

Previous research has clearly demonstrated that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) involves deficits in multiple neuropsychological functions, such as Executive Function (EF) and Theory of Mind (ToM). A conceptual distinction is commonly made between cool and hot EF. In ASD, continued attention has been paid to the cool areas of executive dysfunction. Cool EF has been strongly related to ToM but research has not taken into account the association between hot EF and ToM in ASD. The present study investigates the associations between hot and cool EF and ToM in 56 school-aged children with ASD and 69 controls on tasks tapping cool EF (i.e. working memory, inhibition, planning), hot EF (i.e. affective decision making, delay discounting), and ToM (i.e. mental state/ emotion recognition and false belief). Significant group differences in each EF measure support an executive dysfunction in both domains in ASD. Strong associations between delay discounting and ToM mental state/ emotion recognition are reported suggesting that hot EF makes a unique contribution to ToM above and beyond cool EF in typical development and ASD. This study improves understanding of the profile of higher-order cognitive deficits in children with ASD, which may inform diagnosis and intervention