Cross-country (Brazil and Iran) invariance of fractionation of executive functions in early adolescence

Cultural background can influence cognition, including executive functions (EFs), abilities that encompass skills responsible for self-regulation of thoughts and behaviour. The seminal unity and diversity model of EFs proposes the existence, in adulthood, of three correlated but separable EF latent (shared variance in more than one task/indicator) domains: inhibition, updating and shifting. However, evidence of the cross-cultural generality of the development of this framework is lacking, especially regarding adolescence, an age during which these domains become more clearly separable. We tested whether EF unity/diversity could be observed in early adolescents (9 – 15-year-olds) from Brazil and Iran (total sample: 739; 407 Iranians; 358 girls). Participants carried out two open-access tasks that are representative of each EF domain and that were adapted to each cultural context. Seven latent model configurations were tested. The three-correlated latent factor structure had adequate fit and multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis invariance testing showed invariance for country at the level of the latent factor structure (configural invariance), factor loadings (metric invariance), and partial invariance at the intercept (scalar) level. Iranians had higher scores in all domains. Multiple indicators multiple causes invariance testing showed model invariance across age (except for one task) and parental education and that performance in all domains improved with age and only minimally with parental schooling. We conclude that EF fractionation into three domains is already present in the first half of adolescence in two samples from underrepresented populations in the literature, suggesting a potential generality of EF latent unity/diversity development at this age

Cross-Country (Brazil and Iran) Invariance of Fractionation of Executive Functions in Early Adolescence

Cultural background can influence cognition, including executive functions (EFs), abilities that encompass skills responsible for self-regulation of thoughts and behavior. The seminal unity and diversity model of EFs proposes the existence, in adulthood, of at least three correlated but separable EF latent (shared variance in more than one task/indicator) domains: inhibition, updating and shifting. However, evidence of the cross-cultural generality of this framework is lacking, especially in adolescence, an age during which these domains become more clearly separable. We tested whether this EF fractionation could be observed in early adolescents (9- to 15-year-olds) from metropolitan areas in Brazil (São Paulo) and Iran (Tehran) (total sample: 739; 407 Iranians; 358 girls). Participants carried out two open-access tasks that are representative of each EF domain and that were adapted to each cultural context. Seven latent model configurations were tested. The three-correlated latent factor structure had adequate fit, and multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis invariance testing showed invariance for country at the level of the latent factor structure (configural), factor loadings (metric), and partial invariance at the intercept (scalar) level. Iranians had higher scores in all domains. Multiple indicators multiple causes invariance testing showed model invariance across age (except for one task) and parental education. Performance in all domains improved with age and only minimally with parental schooling. We conclude that EF fractionation into three domains is present in the first half of adolescence in two samples from underrepresented populations in the literature, suggesting a potential generality of EF latent unity/diversity development at this age.</p

Fractionation of executive functions in adolescents from Iran: invariance across age and socioeconomic status

Executive functions (EFs) are cognitive skills that regulate thoughts and behavior. The seminal EF unity and diversity theoretical framework proposes the existence of three correlated EF latent domains (inhibition, updating, and switching) that become distinguishable from a certain moment during adolescence, but it is unclear how age and socioeconomic status (SES) afect these abilities. Here, we assessed 407 9-15-year-old Iranians of variable SES using an open-access battery of executive function tests that includes two tasks of each EF domain and allows for sociocultural adaptations regarding language and stimuli. Various EF model confgurations proposed in the literature were tested (one, two and three EF latent factor, nested and bifactor-S-1 models) using confrmatory factor analyses. In addition, to explore the unbiased efects of age and SES, we performed invariance testing (across age and SES) using multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model to the best ftting model solution. The three-correlated EF factor model had the best ft and was mostly invariant across age and SES, with all three EF latent traits improving with age, while SES exerted only minimal positive efects on shifting and updating. We concluded that the three separable EF domains, found in adults and adolescents of other ages from diferent populations, can already be detected from the beginning of adolescence when culturally and psychometrically appropriate EF tasks are used. Additionally, these abilities continue to improve with age and are little afected by SES, suggesting that the unity and diversity framework is useful to study the cross-country generality of EF development.publishedVersio

A bateria de testes de funções executivas adaptada para uso no Brasil (bateria FREE - Free Research Executive Evalution): Livro 1

A Free Research Executive Evaluation (FREE) é uma bateria de testes (ou tarefas) de acesso aberto (sem direitos autorais) desenvolvida para avaliar alguns tipos de funções executivas (FEs). Ela inclui testes que avaliam os domínios executivos de atualização, alternância e inibição com base no modelo teórico denominado “unidade e diversidade de FEs” proposto inicialmente por Miyake et al. (2000). A bateria é composta por seis subtestes, dois de cada um desses domínios. Esse volume (Livro 1) aborda as bases teóricas da Bateria FREE, contém a descrição detalhada dos testes e curvas de desempenho de jovens com desenvolvimento típico de 9 a 15 anos de idade. O Livro 2, em outro volume, descreve como aplicar e corrigir as duas tarefas de cada um dos domínios de inibição, alternância e atualização executiva.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

A bateria de testes de funções executivas adaptada para uso no Brasil (bateria FREE - Free Research Executive Evalution): Livro 2

A Free Research Executive Evaluation (FREE) é uma bateria de testes (ou tarefas) de acesso aberto (sem direitos autorais) desenvolvida para avaliar alguns tipos de funções executivas (FEs). Ela inclui testes que avaliam os domínios executivos de atualização, alternância e inibição com base no modelo teórico denominado “unidade e diversidade de FEs” proposto inicialmente por Miyake et al. (2000). A bateria é composta por seis subtestes, dois de cada um desses domínios. Este volume (Livro 2) descreve a aplicação e correção dos testes. Outro volume (Livro 1) aborda as bases teóricas da Bateria FREE, contém a descrição detalhada dos testes e curvas de desempenho de jovens com desenvolvimento típico de 9 a 15 anos de idade.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

Erratum to: Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition) (Autophagy, 12, 1, 1-222, 10.1080/15548627.2015.1100356

non present