Effects of emotional response on the Stroop‐like task in preschool children and young adults

This study investigated the effects of emotional response on an inhibitory task, the Stroop‐like day‐night task, in which participants are presented with two pictures. They are then requested to inhibit naming what the card shown to them represents and instead state what the other card represents. Specifically, 35 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children and 15 young adults were administered the emotion‐related happy‐sad task and the emotion‐unrelated up‐down task using the same stimulus set (happy and sad cartoon faces). The results suggested that vulnerability to errors in the happy‐sad task was not derived from increased inhibitory demand. The results also suggested that the happy‐sad task is more inhibitory‐demanding in terms of response time. These results suggested that the happy‐sad task elicits interference more than other variants of this task, not because the task involves emotional stimuli per se but because the task involves both emotional stimuli and emotional responses.     

Executive functioning by 18‐24‐month‐old children: effects of inhibition,working memory demands and narrative in a novel detour‐reaching task

Infants can inhibit a prepotent but wrong action towards a goal in order to perform a causal means‐action. It is not clear, however, whether infants can perform an arbitrary means‐action while inhibiting a prepotent response. In four experiments, we explore this executive functioning in 18–24‐month‐old children. The working memory and inhibition demands in a novel means‐end problem were systematically varied in terms of the type and combination of means‐action(s) (causal or arbitrary) contained within the task, the number of means‐actions (1 or 2), the goal visual availability and whether the task was accompanied by a narrative. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that children performed tasks that contained causal as opposed to arbitrary information more accurately; accuracy was also higher in tasks containing only one step. Experiment 2 also demonstrated that performance in the arbitrary task improved significantly when all sources of prepotency were removed. In Experiment 3, task performance improved when the two means‐actions were intelligibly linked to the task goal. Experiment 4 demonstrated that the use of a narrative that provided a meaningful (non‐causal) link between the two means‐actions also improved children's performance by assisting their working memory in the generation of a rationale. Findings provide an initial account of executive functioning in the months that bring the end of infancy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of navigational working memory: Evidence from 6‐ to 10‐year‐old children

The ability to learn complex environments may require the contribution of different types of working memory. Therefore, we investigated the development of different types of working memory (navigational, reaching, and verbal) in 129 typically developing children. We aimed to determine whether navigational working memory develops at the same rate as other types of working memory and whether the gender differences reported in adults are already present during development. We found that navigational working memory is less developed than both verbal and reaching working memory and that gender predicts performance only for navigational working memory. Our results are in line with reports that children made significantly more errors in far space than adults, showing that near space representation develops before far space representation.     

Neurocognitive development and externalizing problems: the role of inhibitory control deficits from 4 to 6 years

Executive processes have been posited as important regulators of externalizing problems (EP), but there has been little research on the relation between executive dysfunction and EP in early childhood. During the preschool period, maturation of the prefrontostriatal circuitry parallels increases in inhibitory control (IC). Poor IC development could result in elevated levels of aggressive, disruptive, and impulsive behavior. In this investigation, the development of the relation between IC and EP was examined in preschool and early elementary school children using the Day/Night and Tapping tasks. Children with more EP made more incorrect responses on both IC tasks, consistently across age and sex. The associations between EP and response latencies differed across children, however, with longer latencies on the Tapping task being most characteristic for boys with high levels of EP. This association was not apparent for girls. Two prominent aspects of early EP, aggressive and inattentive behavior, showed only weak unique associations with IC performance. These findings imply that diminished IC accompanies elevated EP as early as the preschool years, and that this decrement persists into the elementary school-age years for both girls and boys, and that accuracy and response latency may confer different information about the development of IC.     

不同维度的执行功能与早期心理理论的关系

采用意外地点任务、意外内容任务和三种不同类型的执行功能任务来探究执行功能与心理理论之间的关系。共60名被试,3岁和4岁被试各30名,男女各半。区分自己心理状态和他人心理状态能力与执行功能的关系主要体现在混合成分执行功能与这一能力的密切联系上;在错误信念发展的早期,执行功能与错误信念理解能力的关系主要集中在“混合成分的执行功能与对自己错误信念理解能力,工作记忆的执行功能与对他人错误信念理解能力”这两对联系上     

Improving executive functions in 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds: Evaluation of a small group intervention in prekindergarten and kindergarten children

Research suggests a central role of executive functions for children's cognitive and social development during preschool years, especially in promoting school readiness. Interventions aiming to improve executive functions are therefore being called for. The present study examined the effect of a small group intervention implemented in kindergarten settings focusing on basic components of executive functions, i.e., working memory, interference control and cognitive flexibility. A total of 135 children enrolled in Swiss prekindergarten (5‐year‐olds) and kindergarten (6‐year‐olds) were involved. Results revealed that the small group intervention promoted gains in all three included components of executive functions: prekindergarten children substantially improved their working memory and cognitive flexibility processes, whereas significant training effects were found for the kindergarten children in interference control. Implications of these findings for early intervention programs and for tailoring preschool curricula are discussed, particularly with respect to children's school readiness. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Processing of facial and non‐facial visual stimuli in 2–5‐year‐old children

The present experiments examined the degree to which analytic and holistic modes of processing play a role in the way 2–5‐year‐old children process facial and non‐facial visual stimuli. Children between 2 and 5 years of age were instructed to categorize faces (in Experiment 1) and non‐facial visual stimuli, such as birds and planes (in Experiment 2), into two categories. The categories were so constructed as to allow the children to categorize the facial and non‐facial stimuli either analytically (by focusing on a single attribute) or holistically (in terms of overall similarity). The results demonstrated that the previous conclusions concerning older children's (from 6 years onwards) holistic mode of facial processing could not be generalized to younger children because most of the 2–5‐year olds processed the faces by taking single facial attributes into account. A similar pattern of results emerged for the processing of objects, showing that the majority of the children focused on single attributes. Thus, for both visual domains, holistic processing was the exception rather than the rule. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family income,parental education and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology among 2–3‐year‐old Chinese children: The mediator effect of parent–child conflict

Using a sample of 156 Chinese children aged 2–3 years and their parents, this study examined the effects of socio‐economic status, specifically family income and parental education, on the children's internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and whether these effects were mediated by mother–child and father–child conflict. Results indicated that family income, maternal education and paternal education all negatively predicted externalizing symptoms. Income also negatively predicted internalizing symptoms among boys but not girls. Maternal education negatively predicted internalizing symptoms among girls but not boys. The effects of income on psychopathology were fully mediated by mother–child and father–child conflict. In contrast, the effects of education were not mediated or only partially mediated by conflict. Findings are discussed in the framework of the family stress model.     

Anxiety disorders in 8–11‐year‐old children: Motor skill performance and self‐perception of competence

Ekornås, B., Lundervold, A. J., Tjus, T. & Heimann, M. (2010). Anxiety disorders in 8–11‐year‐old children: Motor skill performance and self‐perception of competence. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 271–277. This study investigates motor skill performance and self‐perceived competence in children with anxiety disorders compared with children without psychiatric disorders. Motor skills and self‐perception were assessed in 329 children aged 8 to 11 years, from the Bergen Child Study. The Kiddie‐SADS PL diagnostic interview was employed to define a group of children with an anxiety disorder without comorbid diagnosis, and a control group (no diagnosis) matched according to gender, age, and full‐scale IQ. Children in the anxiety disorder group displayed impaired motor skills and poor self‐perceived peer acceptance and physical competence compared with the control group. Two‐thirds of the anxious boys scored on the Motor Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) as having motor problems. The present study demonstrated impaired motor skills in boys with “pure” anxiety disorders. Anxious children also perceived themselves as being less accepted by peers and less competent in physical activities compared with children in the control group.     

The co‐construction of joint action between mothers and 2–4‐month‐old infants: the mother's role

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to describe object‐centred interactions between mothers and their 2–4‐month‐old infants, before and during the emergence of reaching and grasping movements. We hypothesized that when reaching movements emerge at around 3 months, mothers alternate between attention stimulation and reaching stimulation, before joint actions between mother and infant develop around objects. Twelve dyads were recorded when infants were 2 months, 3 months and 4 months. The interactive sessions lasted 5 min. Three age‐appropriate toys the infant could handle were available to the mother. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on verbal and non‐verbal maternal behaviours, motor infant behaviours and co‐occurrences of those behaviours. The developmental course of prehension in infants when playing with their mother follows similar pathways, as was described when they are observed alone. Mothers appeared to early scaffold prehension skills by verbal and non‐verbal means. Moreover, maternal behaviours change according to the infant's behaviour, and conversely, infant's behaviours influence maternal behaviours: mother plays first an active part in joint action, while later on, the infant achieves joint action when motor skills develop. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differential effects of happy,neutral, and sad still‐faces on 2‐, 4‐ and 6‐month‐old infants

The role of facial expression in the determination of infants' reaction to the sudden still‐face of a social partner was investigated. In a within subject design, 2, 4 and 6‐month‐old infants were tested in periods of normal interaction interspersed with periods of prolonged still‐face episodes in which the female adult social partner adopted either a happy, neutral, or sad static facial expression while maintaining eye contact with the infant. Proportion of infants' smiling and gazing at the social partner as indices of reaction from the various still‐face episodes reveal that, in comparison with same age control groups, four and six‐month‐old infants did not demonstrate any differential responses depending on either happy, neutral, and sad still‐faced expression. In contrast, two‐month olds demonstrated some evidence of a reduced still‐face effect in the happy still‐face condition. These results point to early developmental changes in the mechanisms underlying the still‐face phenomenon. We propose that by 4 months, and not prior, the reaction to still‐face episodes are essentially based on the detection of social contingencies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.