Different Executive Functions Support Different Kinds of Cognitive Flexibility: Evidence From 2-, 3-, and 4-Year-Olds

Improvements in cognitive flexibility during the preschool years have been linked to developments in both working memory and inhibitory control, though the precise contribution of each remains unclear. In the current study, one hundred and twenty 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds completed two rule-switching tasks. In one version, children switched rules in the presence of conflicting information, and in the other version, children switched rules in the presence of distracting information. Switching in the presence of conflict improved rapidly between the ages of 3 and 3.5 years, and was associated with better working memory. Conversely, switching in the presence of distraction developed significantly between the ages of 2 and 3 years, and was associated with better inhibitory control

Primed to be inflexible: the influence of set size on cognitive flexibility during childhood

One of the hallmarks of human cognition is cognitive flexibility, the ability to adapt thoughts and behaviors according to changing task demands. Previous research has suggested that the number of different exemplars that must be processed within a task (the set size) can influence an individual’s ability to switch flexibly between different tasks. This paper provides evidence that when tasks have a small set size, children’s cognitive flexibility is impaired compared to when tasks have a large set size. This paper also offers insights into the mechanism by which this effect comes about. Understanding how set size interacts with task-switching informs the debate regarding the relative contributions of bottom-up priming and top-down control processes in the development of cognitive flexibility. We tested two accounts for the relationship between set size and cognitive flexibility: the (bottom-up) Stimulus-Task Priming account and the (top-down) Rule Representation account. Our findings offered support for the Stimulus-Task Priming account, but not for the Rule Representation account. They suggest that children are susceptible to bottom-up priming caused by stimulus repetition, and that this priming can impair their ability to switch between tasks. These findings make important theoretical and practical contributions to the executive function literature: Theoretically, they show that the basic features of a task exert a significant influence on children’s ability to flexibly shift between tasks through bottom-up priming effects. Practically, they suggest that children’s cognitive flexibility may have been underestimated relative to adults’, as paradigms used with children typically have a smaller set size than those used with adults. These findings also have applications in education, where they have the potential to inform teaching in key areas where cognitive flexibility is required, such as mathematics and literacy

Where does prepotency come from on developmental tests of inhibitory control?

Understanding the processes that make responses prepotent is central to understanding the role of inhibitory control in cognitive development. The question of what makes responses prepotent was investigated using the two most widely studied measures of preschoolers' inhibitory control. Across two experiments, 80 children were tested either on a series of stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) tasks or on a series of Go/No-go tasks. Results indicated that high levels of prepotency on SRC tasks (such as the Day/Night task) occur only under specific conditions; making a verbal response can be highly prepotent if the stimulus and response are associated with each other (e.g., saying "cup" to a cup) but is less prepotent when they are unassociated (e.g., saying "cup" to a doorstop). Action responses (e.g., lifting a cup to your mouth) show little prepotency irrespective of whether the stimulus and response are associated. In contrast, with Go/No-go tasks, a much wider variety of behaviors are highly prepotent regardless of whether the stimulus and response are associated. These data suggest that prepotency arises in very different ways, depending on the type of task used. Although both Go/No-go tasks and SRC tasks can make inhibitory demands, they do so for fundamentally different reasons

Can we boost preschoolers’ inhibitory performance just by changing the way they respond?

Changing the way children make their response appears to sometimes, but not always, boost their inhibitory control—though interpreting existing findings is hampered by inconsistent methods and results. This study investigated the effects of delaying, and changing, the means of responding. Ninety-six preschoolers (Mage 46 months) completed tasks assessing inhibitory control, counterfactual reasoning, strategic reasoning, and false belief understanding. Children responded either immediately or after a delay, and either by pointing with their finger, or with a hand-held arrow. Delaying boosted performance on all tasks except false belief understanding; arrow-pointing only improved strategic reasoning. It is suggested that delay helps children work out the correct response; it is unlikely to help on tasks where this requirement is absent

Thinking about growth : a cognitive mapping approach to understanding small business development

School of Managemen

The effect of social presence on mentalizing behavior

Our behavior is frequently influenced by those around us. However, the majority of social cognition research is conducted using socially isolated paradigms, without the presence of real people (i.e., without a “social presence”). The current study aimed to test the influence of social presence upon a measure of mentalizing behavior in adults. Study 1 used a first-order theory of mind task; and study 2 used a second-order theory of mind task. Both studies included two conditions: live, where the task protagonists were physically present acting out the task, or recorded, where the same task protagonists demonstrated the task in a video recording. In both experiments, participants were affected by the social presence and demonstrated significantly different patterns of behavior in response to the presence of real people. This study, therefore, highlights the critical importance of understanding the effect of a social presence in mentalizing research, and suggests that the inclusion of a social presence needs to be given strong consideration across social cognition paradigms

Integrability in SFT and new representation of KP tau-function

We are investigating the properties of vacuum and boundary states in the CFT of free bosons under the conformal transformation. We show that transformed vacuum (boundary state) is given in terms of tau-functions of dispersionless KP (Toda) hierarchies. Applications of this approach to string field theory is considered. We recognize in Neumann coefficients the matrix of second derivatives of tau-function of dispersionless KP and identify surface states with the conformally transformed vacuum of free field theory.Comment: 25 pp, LaTeX, reference added in the Section 3.

A quantum mechanical relation connecting time, temperature, and cosmological constant of the universe: Gamow's relation revisited as a special case

Considering our expanding universe as made up of gravitationally interacting particles which describe particles of luminous matter and dark matter and dark energy which is described by a repulsive harmonic potential among the points in the flat 3-space, we derive a quantum mechanical relation connecting, temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation, age, and cosmological constant of the universe. When the cosmological constant is zero, we get back the Gamow's relation with a much better coefficient. Otherwise, our theory predicts a value of the cosmological constant $2.0 10^{-56} {\rm {cm^{-2}}}$ when the present values of cosmic microwave background temperature of 2.728 K and age of the universe 14 billion years are taken as input.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Study of the Universe from a condensed matter point of view, section III corrected with a single body potentia

The Role of Executive Functions in Socioeconomic Attainment Gaps: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial

The socioeconomic attainment gap in mathematics starts early and increases over time. This study aimed to examine why this gap exists. Four‐year‐olds from diverse backgrounds were randomly allocated to a brief intervention designed to improve executive functions (N = 87) or to an active control group (N = 88). The study was preregistered and followed CONSORT guidelines. Executive functions and mathematical skills were measured at baseline, 1 week, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year posttraining. Executive functions mediated the relation between socioeconomic status and mathematical skills. Children improved over training, but this did not transfer to untrained executive functions or mathematics. Executive functions may explain socioeconomic attainment gaps, but cognitive training directly targeting executive functions is not an effective way to narrow this gap

Revisiting Cardassian Model and Cosmic Constraint

In this paper, we revisit the Cardassian model in which the radiation energy component is included. It is important for early epoch when the radiation cannot be neglected because the equation of state (EoS) of the effective dark energy becomes time variable. Therefore, it is not equivalent to the quintessence model with a constant EoS anymore. This situation was almost overlooked in the literature. By using the recent released Union2 557 of type Ia supernovae (SN Ia), the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) from Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the WiggleZ data points, the full information of cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurement given by the seven-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe observation, we constrain the Cardassian model via the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. A tight constraint is obtained: $n= -0.0479_{- 0.0732- 0.148}^{+ 0.0730+ 0.142}$ in $1,2\sigma$ regions. The deviation of Cardassian model from quintessence model is shown in CMB anisotropic power spectra at high l's parts due to the evolution of EoS. But it is about the order of 0.1% which cannot be discriminated by current data sets. The Cardassian model is consistent with current cosmic observational data sets.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, match the published versio