Sustained attention and age predict inhibitory control during early childhood

Executive functioning skills develop rapidly during early childhood. Recent research has focused on specifying this development, particularly predictors of executive functioning skills. Here we focus on sustained attention as a predictor of inhibitory control, one key executive functioning component. Although sustained attention and inhibitory control have been linked in older children and adults, these links have not been well specified during early childhood. The current study examined both parent-rated and laboratory measures of sustained attention as predictors of both parent-rated and laboratory measures of inhibitory control among 3- to 6-year-olds. As expected, children with higher sustained attention abilities exhibited greater inhibitory control. Moreover, inhibitory control increased across age. These findings reveal important details about the development of sustained attention and inhibitory control during early childhood.     

A latent variables examination of processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory during typical development

This study addressed three related aims: (a) to replicate and extend previous work regarding the nonunitary nature of processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory during development; (b) to quantify the rate at which processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory develop and the extent to which the development of these latter abilities reflect general changes in processing speed; and (c) to evaluate whether commonly used tasks of processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory are valid and reliable when used with a developmentally diverse group. To address these aims, a latent variables approach was used to analyze data from 147 participants 6-24 years of age. Results showed that processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory were separable abilities and that the extent of this separability was stable across the age range of participants. All three constructs improved as a function of age; however, only the effect of age on working memory remained significant after processing speed was controlled. The psychometric properties of tasks used to assess the constructs were age invariant, thereby validating their use in studies of executive development.     

Exploring the developmental changes in automatic two-digit number processing

Even when two-digit numbers are irrelevant to the task at hand, adults process them. Do children process numbers automatically, and if so, what kind of information is activated? In a novel dot-number Stroop task, children (Grades 1-5) and adults were shown two different two-digit numbers made up of dots. Participants were asked to select the number that contained the larger dots. If numbers are processed automatically, reaction time for dot size judgment should be affected by numerical characteristics. The results suggest that, like adults, children process two-digit numbers automatically. Based on the current findings, we propose a developmental trend for automatic two-digit number processing that goes from decomposed sequential (activation of decade digit followed by that of unit digit) to decomposed parallel processing (simultaneous activation of decade and unit digits).     

Development of implicit and explicit category learning

We present two studies that examined developmental differences in the implicit and explicit acquisition of category knowledge. College-attending adults consistently outperformed school-age children on two separate information-integration paradigms due to children’s more frequent use of an explicit rule-based strategy. Accuracy rates were also higher for adults on a unidimensional rule-based task due to children’s more frequent use of the irrelevant dimension to guide their behavior. Results across these two studies suggest that the ability to learn categorization structures may be dependent on a child’s ability to inhibit output from the explicit system.     

Generating keywords improves metacomprehension and self-regulation in elementary and middle school children

The ability to monitor understanding of texts, usually referred to as metacomprehension accuracy, is typically quite poor in adult learners; however, recently interventions have been developed to improve accuracy. In two experiments, we evaluated whether generating delayed keywords prior to judging comprehension improved metacomprehension accuracy for children. For sixth and seventh graders, metacomprehension accuracy was greater when generating keywords. By contrast, for fourth graders, metacomprehension accuracy did not differ across conditions. Improved metacomprehension accuracy led to improved regulation of study. The delayed keyword effect in children reported here is discussed in terms of situation model activation.     

Child abuse and negative explicit and automatic self-associations: The cognitive scars of emotional maltreatment

Individuals reporting Childhood Abuse (CA) (i.e., emotional neglect, emotional-, physical- and sexual-abuse) are marked by increased explicit (i.e. self-reported) negative self-associations, and an increased risk to develop depression or anxiety disorders. Automatic self-associations might play an important role in the development and maintenance of affective disorders after exposure to CA, since automatic associations are assumed to be involved in uncontrolled (spontaneous) affective behavior. This study examined whether individuals reporting a history of CA show stronger automatic (and explicit) self-depression and/or self-anxiety associations than individuals who report no CA in a large cohort study (Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), n = 2981). The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was utilized to assess automatic self-depression and self-anxiety associations. We found that CA was associated with enhanced automatic (and explicit) self-depression and self-anxiety associations. Additionally, when compared to physical- and sexual-abuse, Childhood Emotional Maltreatment (CEM; emotional abuse and emotional neglect) had the strongest link with enhanced automatic (and explicit) self-depression and self-anxiety associations. In addition, automatic and explicit negative self-associations partially mediated the association between CEM and depressive or anxious symptomatology. Implications regarding the importance of CA, and CEM in particular will be discussed.     

Remuneration differences in the emerging economies of China and India

Emerging economies by definition tend to be less dependent on expatriate skills and labour than lower-income countries, yet remuneration (pay plus benefits) differences between expatriate and local workers persist in them to some degree. According to relative deprivation theory, economic development paradoxically elevates the salience of relatively small gaps in remuneration. We therefore expected workers to report injustice and demotivation regarding relative remuneration, despite the closing of remuneration gaps between expatriate and local workers due to the economic development of recent years. To explore that possibility, 482 skilled professionals from a variety of sectors and organizations in two emerging economies, India (n = 233, response rate = 54%) and China (n = 249, response rate = 58%), participated in the research. International salaries were greater than local salaries by a factor of 2.73:1 in India and 1.90:1 in China; these mean ratios bordered on intolerable in the India sample and were largely tolerable among the sample from China. In both countries, differently remunerated workers differed in their justice cognitions and their demotivation, with lowered motivation and fewer justice cognitions in the locally salaried, local workers. These differences were however more statistically significant between people working in India than in China. Insofar as the motivational and justice gaps persisted, the findings support relative deprivation theory. Insofar as the same gaps appear to be sharper in the country with the higher-not lower-mean remuneration differential, they do not. An in-country workshop with local experts who interpreted the findings (in India), and content analysis of the participants' recommendations (in China) jointly recommended linking remuneration to (i) workplace performance instead of (ii) economy-of-origin, to help promote (iii) fairness.     

Relationships between Machiavellianism, emotional intelligence and theory of mind in children

The current study investigates the associations of Machiavellianism (Mach) with trait and ability emotional intelligence (EI), and theory of mind (ToM) in 109 primary school children. Consistent with previous research with adults, negative associations were found between Mach and social and emotional understanding. Subsequent multiple regression analyses for girls showed that being more adept at emotional and social understanding does not lead them to manipulate others in social encounters. This was not the case for boys. These findings are discussed in relation to other social and individual difference variables that impact on Mach, particularly amongst boys.     

AEIM: A new measure and method of scoring abilities-based emotional intelligence

Two hundred and seventy-two undergraduates completed the new Ability Emotional Intelligence Measure (AEIM) (The AEIM is available upon request from the first author. Patent Reference No. SPEP-12359426.), based on Mayer and Salovey’s (1997) EI definition. To facilitate better application of ability EI, limitations with existing measures were addressed via alternative emotion perception and management items, and a new scoring approach combining consensus and confidence protocols. Analyses of overall consensus and confidence scores, and low and high EI groups were undertaken. Confidence scores produced a single general EI component that was reliable, converged with fluid ability, was distinct from personality domains and incrementally predicted stress. Consensus scores produced a general EI and two-component solution. Consensus results converged with fluid and crystallised ability and empathy; were distinct from the Big Five and incrementally predicted loneliness, and GPA. Implications for the application of EI were discussed.     

A computational account of the development of the generalization of shape information

Abecassis, Sera, Yonas, and Schwade (2001) showed that young children represent shapes more metrically, and perhaps more holistically, than do older children and adults. How does a child transition from representing objects and events as undifferentiated wholes to representing them explicitly in terms of their attributes? According to RBC (Recognition‐by‐Components theory; Biederman, 1987 ), objects are represented as collections of categorical geometric parts (“geons”) in particular categorical spatial relations. We propose that the transition from holistic to more categorical visual shape processing is a function of the development of geon‐like representations via a process of progressive intersection discovery. We present an account of this transition in terms of DORA ( Doumas, Hummel, & Sandhofer, 2008 ), a model of the discovery of relational concepts. We demonstrate that DORA can learn representations of single geons by comparing objects composed of multiple geons. In addition, as DORA is learning it follows the same performance trajectory as children, originally generalizing shape more metrically/holistically and eventually generalizing categorically.