Individual Differences in Early Executive Functions: A Longitudinal Study from 12 to 36 Months

It has been proposed that executive functions develop in a hierarchical fashion, such that early, simple abilities seen already during the first year of life become increasingly coordinated with development, thereby enabling the emergence of more complex abilities. Although this hierarchical model has received support from empirical studies comparing executive function task performance across age groups, necessary support from longitudinal studies taking an individual differences perspective on development is missing. In addition, the model stresses the importance of attention in executive function development, but we do not know in what way attention contributes to the continued development once the earliest forms of simple functions have emerged. Using a longitudinal design, the present study investigated the relations between individual differences in simpler forms of executive functions as well as sustained attention at age 12 months and more complex executive functions at 24 and 36 months. The results indicated partial support for the hierarchical model, with infant inhibition being predictive of working memory in toddlerhood. In addition, at 12 months, sustained attention contributed to the development of toddler executive functions via the simple executive functions. This suggests that by this age, sustained attention has become an integrated part of early, simple executive functions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Elusive Nature of Executive Functions: A Review of our Current Understanding

Executive functions include abilities of goal formation, planning, carrying out goal-directed plans, and effective performance. This article aims at reviewing some of the current knowledge surrounding executive functioning and presenting the contrasting views regarding this concept. The neural substrates of the executive system are examined as well as the evolution of executive functioning, from development to decline. There is clear evidence of the vulnerability of executive functions to the effects of age over lifespan. The first executive function to emerge in children is the ability to inhibit overlearned behavior and the last to appear is verbal fluency. Inhibition of irrelevant information seems to decline earlier than set shifting and verbal fluency during senescence. The sequential progression and decline of these functions has been paralleled with the anatomical changes of the frontal lobe and its connections with other brain areas. Generalization of the results presented here are limited due to methodological differences across studies. Analysis of these differences is presented and suggestions for future research are offered.     

学前儿童执行功能与问题行为的关系:情境和性别的特异性

运用追踪设计检验了学前儿童执行功能特定成分和问题行为跨情境和性别的关系。选取101名学前儿童（48名男孩）为研究对象,采用实验任务测量儿童的执行功能,一年后采用母亲和教师报告分别收集儿童在家庭和学校情境的问题行为。结果发现,控制儿童年龄后：（1）在男孩中,抑制控制、认知灵活性和工作记忆负向预测一年后家庭情境的外化问题,认知灵活性负向预测一年后学校情境的外化问题,抑制控制正向预测一年后学校情境的内化问题;（2）在女孩中,执行功能三个成分均不能显著预测家庭情境的问题行为,认知灵活性正向预测一年后学校情境的外化问题。执行功能三个成分与问题行为间存在不同效应模式,且存在跨情境和性别的特异性。     

Nature, Nurture, and Individual Differences in Early Understanding of Mind

The ability to understand other minds is a dramatic development that enables children to adapt to their social worlds. In this first genetic analysis of the phenomenon, using 119 same-sex 3-year-old twin pairs, evidence for substantial genetic influence was found. Intraclass correlations for identical and fraternal twins were .66 and .32, respectively; the maximum-likelihoodmodel-fitting estimate of heritability was 67%. Bivariate model-fitting analyses showed that most (66%) of this genetic influence on understanding of mind was independent of verbal ability. Environmental influences on understanding of mind were attributed to child-specific factors,rather than those shared by children in the same family.     

The Executive Functions and Self-Regulation: An Evolutionary Neuropsychological Perspective

Neuropsychology Review - Neuropsychology has customarily taken a molecular and myopic view of executive functioning, concentrating largely on those proximal processes of which it may be comprised....     

Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity: More Evidence for a General Capacity Theory

The causes of the positive relationship between comprehension and measures of working memory capacity remain unclear. This study tests three hypotheses for the relationship by equating the difficulty, for 48 individual subjects, of processing demands in complex working memory tasks. Even with difficulty of processing equated, the relationship between number of words recalled in the working memory measure and comprehension remained high and significant. The results favour a general capacity view. We suggest that high working memory span subjects have more limited-capacity attentional resources available to them than low span subjects and that individual differences in working memory capacity will have implications for any task that requires controlled effortful processing.     

Executive Attention: An Alternative Perspective on General Mental Ability,Performance, and Subgroup Differences

The validity‐adverse impact tradeoff associated with the relationships among general mental ability (GMA), ethnicity, and employee performance represents one of the most pressing concerns in organizational staffing. We conducted 4 studies with 273 bank employees and 197 university students designed to assess the extent to which executive attention (EA) and GMA predict simulation performance and supervisory ratings of performance. We also assess the extent to which measures of EA and GMA are associated with subgroup differences. Results indicate that, like GMA, EA positively predicts managerial simulation and supervisory ratings of performance. In addition, although reaching statistical significance in only 1 of our 4 studies, EA was generally associated with smaller subgroup differences than GMA, and meta‐analysis across our samples supports this reduced subgroup difference. Moreover, advantages of EA tend to increase as studies move from the laboratory with undergraduate students to a concurrent validation organizational setting with employees. We discuss implications for a theory‐based view of cognitive ability in employee selection and implications for managerial practice.     

The Crafting of Jobs and Individual Differences

This paper examines the concept of spontaneous, unsupervised changes in jobs (job crafting), in general, and the relationship of the qualities and magnitude of the changes to the individual characteristics of: cognitive ability, self-image, perceived control, and readiness to change. This study adds to what is known about individuals at work, in any level of an organization, who knowingly make unsupervised changes in their jobs. This study adds to the research base of what is called job crafting as examined in the seminal work of Wrzesniewski and Dutton (Acad Manag Rev 26(2):179–201, 2001). In this study of 107 outside salespersons we find that more than 75% report engaging in job crafting in various forms. Positive, significant correlations are found between episodes of work modification and the variables of self-image, perceived control, and readiness to change.     

Reaction Time‐based Detection of Concealed Information in Relation to Individual Differences in Executive Functioning

Executive functioning has been shown to play an essential role in a person's ability to accurately and efficiently execute deceptive responses. The present study relates individual differences in executive functions and anxiety to the accuracy and latency of deceptive responses in a reaction time (RT)‐based Concealed Information Test with pictorial stimuli extracted from a mock crime scenario. Results indicated that the pictorial RT‐based Concealed Information Test successfully differentiated between guilty and innocent participants. In terms of executive functions, set‐shifting and inhibition were directly related to deception accuracy and speed, respectively. However, enhanced underlying working memory skills (both verbal and spatial) were associated with longer RTs for item classification. No strong associations were noted with anxiety dimensions. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to neurocognitive models of deception and to the process of deception detection. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

决策中个体差异研究现状述评

决策中个体差异的研究有助于进一步检验和深化传统决策理论。文章回顾了近十年决策个体差异研究的主要变量（人格、认知能力、认知风格和年龄）和研究结果,并简要总结了该类研究的背景、研究范式和理论意义。这些研究一致发现个体差异变量对决策过程、决策表现等具有影响作用,说明个体差异与决策加工中复杂的人-情境间联系有关。文章提出,未来研究应该综合考虑决策情境、情绪和决策主体的理论模型,以期对个体差异在决策中的作用做出更好解释     

Predicting Individual Score Elevation in an Applicant Setting: The Influence of Individual Differences and Situational Perceptions

Previous research has indicated that applicants can increase their scores on non‐cognitive measures by half of 1 standard deviation (e.g., Rosse, Stecher, Miller, & Levin, 1998 ; Viswesvaran & Ones, 1999 ). Two influential factors have been proposed to influence this elevation: individual differences and situational influences (e.g., Douglas, McDaniel, & Snell, 1996 ). The current study examined how individual differences and motivation (expectancy theory) predicted individual response elevation from a general to a job applicant context using a conscientiousness measure. Results indicated that elevation was primarily predicted by emotional stability, instrumentality, and the interaction between expectancy and instrumentality. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.     

执行功能与儿童流行性肥胖的关系

流行性肥胖被认为是由于能量摄入和能量消耗间长期的不平衡导致的一种反常的、脂肪堆积过多的状态, 近期研究发现执行功能与儿童流行性肥胖关系密切。与正常体重儿童相比, 肥胖儿童执行功能差主要体现在抑制控制上, 他们难以抑制对食物线索的注意, 并且更容易对其做出冲动反应, 表明他们干扰抑制中的注意抑制以及反应抑制存在不足。脑机制研究发现, 前额皮质(PFC)与肥胖关系密切, 肥胖被试对食物线索表现出较低的眼窝前额皮质(OFC)激活水平与较高的背外侧前额皮质(DLPFC)激活水平; 奖励回路也与肥胖密切相关, 肥胖或许是由PFC与奖励回路间复杂的相互作用引起的。执行功能与流行性肥胖之间可能是双向作用关系, 执行功能差可能是个体BMI增加的潜在因素, 而肥胖个体的体重减少在一定程度上则有助于其执行功能改善。少量对儿童肥胖的干预研究表明执行功能训练或许在减肥效果保持上有一定优势, 未来研究应当关注对执行功能, 尤其是抑制控制进行有效训练的方法, 并将其与其他干预方式结合, 更好地解决儿童流行性肥胖问题。     

Feedback Inquiry: The Effect of Source Attributes and Individual Differences

Sixty-four undergraduate students were presented with 32 scenarios and asked to indicate the likelihood that they would ask for feedback in each situation. Source expertise, accessibility, relationship quality, and reward power varied across the scenarios, and all four had significant effects. Except in the case of accessibility, there were systematic differences in effect sizes across participants. For expertise and relationship quality, these differences were related to need for achievement. For reward power, differences were related to performance expectations. The results demonstrate that there are distinct source attributes underlying feedback seekers′ preferences for certain sources over others and that the impact of these attributes varies as a function of performance and individual differences.     

Individual Differences in Attitude-Behavior Consistency: The Prediction of Contraceptive Behavior

A model of individual differences that moderate attitude-behavior consistency was developed and tested in the context of predicting use consistency of the diaphragm. Variables hypothesized to moderate the attitude-behavior relationship included reactions to major life changes, the attitudes and opinions of others, sexual interest, locus of control, and the perceived susceptibility to pregnancy. Attitudes were conceptualized in terms of a Relative Contraceptive Utility (RCU), which was defined as the difference between the attitude toward the diaphragm and the attitude toward becoming pregnant. Women (N = 110) who attended family planning clinics in the New York Qty area and who used the diaphragm for an 8-month period were interviewed in the context of a 3-wave panel design. A threshold function between RCU and behavior was observed, such that when RCU was above an empirically derived cutoff, women tended to use the diaphragm consistently over an 8-month period. For women with RCUs below the cutoff, attitudes were unrelated to behavior. Inconsistency of diaphragm use for these latter women was best predicted by negative reactions to close friends' experiences with the diaphragm, low levels of perceived susceptibility to pregnancy, alcohol consumption, concern about becoming too old to have children, a preference for nonromantic sex, and the partner's unwillingness to refrain from sex if the women was not prepared.     

Confidence in Dyadic Decision Making: The Role of Individual Differences

Groups typically express more confidence than individuals, yet how individual‐level confidence combines during collaborative decision tasks is not well understood. We prescreened 686 community members using a novel confidence measure (a true/false trivia test) intentionally designed to be difficult (accuracy rates were not significantly better than chance) and randomly assigned 72 individuals to collaborate on a matched version of the same test in dyads composed of two low‐confidence individuals, two high‐confidence individuals, or one of each (“mixed”). Consistent with past research, we found that the confidence expressed by dyads was higher than the confidence expressed by individuals; importantly, however, this pattern varied markedly by dyad type, with low‐confidence dyads showing the largest increase, mixed dyads showing a moderate increase, and high‐confidence dyads showing no increase—despite the fact that all dyads showed similarly low accuracy (about 55%). These results highlight the conditions under which groups express greater confidence than individuals and offer insights for the composition of collaborative decision‐making teams. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

繁殖感的个体差异及其影响因素

繁殖感是成年中期心理社会发展的主要任务,表现在生产能力、养育后代、人际和社会关怀以及领导能力等方面,包含关注、承诺、行动等维度,并以多种形式存在于生命周期的多个阶段。近来研究表明,繁殖感强调个体积极的存在和发展模式,对人际关系与社会和谐也具有促进作用。繁殖感的个体差异可表现在状态水平、年龄、性别角色等方面,主要受社会文化、个体内在期望以及父母教养方式等因素的影响。未来研究将从测量方法的整合,繁殖感与主观幸福感的关系等方面展开。