Associations between touchscreen exposure and hot and cool inhibitory control in 10-month-old infants

Touchscreen use amongst young children has proliferated in recent years, yet little is known about the association between daily touchscreen exposure and inhibitory control in the first year of life. Previous research has found a negative association between the amount of television viewing and inhibitory control in early childhood, but it is unclear whether negative associations with screen use extend to touchscreens. The current study presents an exploratory analysis of the cross-sectional associations between inhibitory control and the amount of touchscreen use amongst 10-month-olds (n = 128–156). Touchscreen exposure was assessed via parent-report. In order to include a range of “hot” and “cool” aspects of inhibitory control, these skills were assessed using lab-based response inhibition and prohibition tasks as well as parent-reported observations of infants’ inhibitory control abilities and broader regulatory behaviors. A “Cognitive Executive Function (EEFQ-CEF)” score (encompassing Inhibitory Control, Flexibility, and Working Memory items) was included as a secondary broader executive function construct to examine whether effects showed specificity to inhibitory control rather than executive functions more generally. Correlation analyses indicated no association between touchscreen exposure and the four indices of IC. However, a positive association was found for the amount of touchscreen exposure and EEFQ-CEF once accounting for sociodemographic variables. The implications of these findings and future directions are discussed

Development of directed global inhibition, competitive inhibition and behavioural inhibition during the transition between infancy and toddlerhood.

Inhibitory control (IC) is a core executive function integral to self-regulation and cognitive control, yet is itself multi-componential. Directed global inhibition entails stopping an action on demand. Competitive inhibition is engaged when an alternative response must also be produced. Related, but not an executive function, is temperamentally-driven wariness of novelty, known as behavioural inhibition. Understanding early development of these components has been hampered by a shortage of suitable measures. We combine established and novel measures to capture directed global inhibition (Toy Prohibition, Touchscreen Prohibition), competitive inhibition (A-not-B, Early Childhood Inhibitory Touchscreen Task; ECITT) and behavioural inhibition (Touchscreen Approach) in 113 10- and 16-month-olds (73 seen longitudinally). ECITT performance shows good 1-week test-retest reliability at 10-months (r = 0.30-0.60) but little stability to 16-months. Directed global inhibition performance shows developmental progression but little stability of individual differences from 10 to 16 months. Performance on measures targeting similar IC components shows greater coherence at 16-months (r = 0.23-0.59) compared with 10-months (r = 0.09-0.35). Probing of ECITT condition effects indicates toddlers are more able, compared with infants, to override immediate prepotencies; indicative of increasingly flexible control over behaviour. However, exerting IC over cumulative prepotencies appears just as challenging for toddlers as infants. Exploratory analyses show little evidence for cross-sectional or longitudinal associations between behavioural, directed global and competitive inhibition. In combination, these findings indicate that IC is not yet a stable, unidimensional construct during the transition between infancy and toddlerhood, and highlight the need for careful selection of multiple measures for those interested in capturing early variation in IC

Supplemental materials for thesis: Inhibitory control development from infancy: identifying neural correlates and mapping behavioural trajectories into early childhood

Supplemental materials for thesi

Inhibitory control development from infancy: identifying neural correlates and mapping behavioural trajectories into early childhood

This thesis aims to investigate the behavioural development and neural correlates of inhibitory control across two key transitions in the early years of life. To do so, four experimental chapters are presented that report data from a longitudinal sample of participants at three age points: infancy (10-months), the transition to toddlerhood (16-months), and the start of early childhood (3½ years). A literature review is provided in the general introduction (Chapter 1), the methodological approaches taken to measure early inhibitory control development are described in Chapter 2, and an introduction to functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is presented in Chapter 3. The first three experimental chapters (Chapters 4 – 6) used fNIRS alongside an age-appropriate task to investigate the behavioural development and neural correlates of response inhibition across the first four years of life. Whilst there was no response inhibition improvement from 10- to 16-months, there was substantial change in the brain regions that were more active when inhibition was required at 16-months. By early childhood, response inhibition performance had significantly improved, yet there was some commonality in the brain regions recruited when inhibition was required at both 16-months and 3½ years. Chapter 7 presents a longitudinal examination of the development of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ inhibitory control and investigates predictive associations with pre-academic skills in early childhood. Whilst there was some consistency in inhibitory control performance between tasks in infancy and early childhood, there was no evidence of longitudinal stability across development. Significant associations were found between ‘hot’ inhibitory control and early academic skills at 3½ years, suggesting that early inhibitory control skills may have an important role in early numeracy and language skills in the preschool years. Finally, Chapter 8 includes a discussion of the contributions this thesis makes to the field and evaluates the strengths and limitations of this research

Maternal Depression and Early Childhood Temperament during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This project contains materials (supplementary materials, code and data) relating to the following preprint: https://psyarxiv.com/quket. Maternal depressive symptoms and early childhood temperament before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The materials in this project are under a CC-By Attribution 4.0 International license. Please cite the preprint if using any of these materials

Early executive function development: The first three years

Executive functions (EFs) relate to a range of important outcomes across the lifespan, yet relatively little is known about the earliest emergence of these skills in infancy and toddlerhood. This chapter provides an overview of the measurement, development, and neural correlates of Early EFs. First, we review current empirical and theoretical frameworks for understanding Early EFs. Then we review key studies to examine how Early EFs have been measured, and what these findings are beginning to reveal about the developmental trajectories of EFs. We then review the neural correlates of Early EFs, before offering some recommendations for how to continue to expand knowledge in this field, with an emphasis on task development

Maternal depressive symptoms and early childhood temperament before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unexpected and major global event, with the potential to have many and varied impacts on child development. However, the implications of the pandemic for maternal depressive symptoms, early childhood temperament dimensions, and their associations, remain largely unknown. To investigate this, questionnaires were completed by mothers (N = 175) before and during the pandemic when their child was 10- and 16-months (Study 1), and by an extended group of mothers with young children (6 – 48 months; 66 additional mothers) during the first and second national lockdowns in the United Kingdom in 2020 (Study 2). Results indicated that whilst maternal pandemic-related stress decreased over the pandemic, the proportion of mothers feeling some level of pandemic-specific depression increased. Despite this, we did not observe an increase in the severity of global maternal depressive symptoms, or any negative impact of the pandemic on the development of temperament in infancy and early childhood

Maternal depressive symptoms and early childhood temperament before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unexpected and major global event, with the potential to have many and varied impacts on child development. However, the implications of the pandemic for maternal depressive symptoms, early childhood temperament dimensions, and their associations, remain largely unknown. To investigate this, questionnaires were completed by mothers (N = 175) before and during the pandemic when their child was 10- and 16-months old (Study 1), and by an extended group of mothers with young children (6–48 months; 66 additional mothers) during the first and second national lockdowns in the United Kingdom in 2020 (Study 2). Results indicated that while maternal pandemic-related stress decreased over the first 6 months of the pandemic, there was an increase in mothers who reported feeling some level of pandemic-specific depression. Despite this, we did not observe an increase in the severity of global maternal depressive symptoms, or any negative impact of the pandemic on the development of temperament in infancy and early childhood

Associations between touchscreen exposure and hot and cool inhibitory control in 10-month-old infants

Touchscreen use amongst young children has proliferated in recent years, yet little is known about the association between daily touchscreen exposure and inhibitory control in the first year of life. Previous research has found a negative association between the amount of television viewing and inhibitory control in early childhood, but it is unclear whether negative associations with screen use extend to touchscreens. The current study presents an exploratory analysis of the cross-sectional associations between inhibitory control and the amount of touchscreen use amongst 10-month-olds (n = 128–156). Touchscreen exposure was assessed via parent-report. In order to include a range of “hot” and “cool” aspects of inhibitory control, these skills were assessed using lab-based response inhibition and prohibition tasks as well as parent-reported observations of infants’ inhibitory control abilities and broader regulatory behaviors. A “Cognitive Executive Function (EEFQ-CEF)” score (encompassing Inhibitory Control, Flexibility, and Working Memory items) was included as a secondary broader executive function construct to examine whether effects showed specificity to inhibitory control rather than executive functions more generally. Correlation analyses indicated no association between touchscreen exposure and the four indices of IC. However, a positive association was found for the amount of touchscreen exposure and EEFQ-CEF once accounting for sociodemographic variables. The implications of these findings and future directions are discussed