Longitudinal Associations Between Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and Academic Achievement in Adolescents: A Mediated Moderation Model.

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) was initially studied in the context of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but is now recognized as a distinct disorder. Despite the growing recognition of SCT, its impact on academic achievement among adolescents remains controversial, even when controlling for the level of ADHD. This may be due to the influence of other factors such as learning engagement and emotional distress. To address this gap, we conducted a longitudinal study with a sample of 782 Chinese senior high school students, measuring their SCT, learning engagement, and emotional distress at Grade 10 (Time1, T1) to predict their academic achievement evaluated based on final exams scores five months later (Time2, T2). Results showed that learning engagement mediated the negative relationship between SCT and later academic achievement. Additionally, individuals with high SCT showed less impact by emotional distress on learning engagement. These findings may shed light on the complex interplay between SCT, emotional distress and learning engagement in shaping academic achievement, underscoring the potential adaptive function of SCT as a coping strategy for managing emotional challenges.

Associations between capacity of cognitive control and sleep quality: a two-wave longitudinal study.

This longitudinal study explored the impact of the upper limit of cognitive control on the sleep quality of high school students. We collected data in two waves to examine four main variables: capacity of cognitive control (CCC), trait mindfulness, emotional distress and sleep quality. At the first time point (T1), trait mindfulness and emotional distress were measured by rating scales, and the CCC was evaluated by revised backward masking majority function task. Sleep quality was rated 5 months later (T2). The results indicated that: (1) the CCC was negatively correlated with trait mindfulness, and trait mindfulness was negatively correlated with emotional stress; (2) there was no simple mediation of either trait mindfulness or emotional distress in the relationship between CCC and sleep quality; (3) instead, the CCC was associated with poor sleep quality in a sequential mediation through trait mindfulness and then emotional stress. The research highlights the importance of trait mindfulness and emotional distress for addressing sleep problems in adolescents.

The Emotion Regulation Mechanism in Neurotic Individuals: The Potential Role of Mindfulness and Cognitive Bias.

Neuroticism is a personality trait that impacts daily life and raises the risk of mental problems and physical illnesses. To understand the emotion regulation mechanism of neurotic individuals, we developed two complementary studies to examine the effects of mindfulness and negative cognitive bias. In Study 1, four scales (EPQ-RSC, FFMQ, CERQ, NCPBQ) were used for assessment. Correlation analysis and structural comparison showed that: (1) the level of neuroticism was positively correlated with negative emotion regulation; (2) negative cognitive bias mediated the relationship between neuroticism and emotion regulation; (3) mindfulness and negative cognitive bias mediated the relationship in a chain. Study 1 showed that cognitive bias may play a key role in the emotion regulation mechanism. Study 2 further explored the cognitive bias of neurotic individuals using three behavioral experiments. A mixed-design ANOVA indicated that individuals with high neuroticism levels exhibited negative attention, memory, and interpretation biases. Our findings extend previous research on emotion regulation problems of neurotic individuals and broaden the field to personality-based emotion disorders. In particular, a theoretical rationale is provided for the application of cognitive behavioral therapy, such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), to the emotion regulation of neurotic individuals.

Cognitive Control Deficits in Children With Subthreshold Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Subthreshold Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is defined as a neurobiological condition with some core inattentive or hyperactive/impulsive symptoms of ADHD which do not meet the full diagnosis clinically. Although it has been well documented that deficits in cognitive control, a high-level cognitive construct closely related to attention, are frequently found among children with ADHD, whether subthreshold ADHD is also associated with similar deficits remains unclear. In this study, we examined the attention functions and the cognitive control capacity (CCC) in children with ADHD (n = 39), those with subthreshold ADHD (n = 34), and typically developing peers (TD, n = 36). The results showed that the ADHD and subthreshold ADHD groups exhibited similar patterns of the impaired executive function of attention (revealed as an augment in flanker conflict effect) and reduced cognitive control capacity, and no significant difference was found between the two groups. These findings suggest that although children with subthreshold ADHD have not met the full criteria of ADHD, they showed reduced efficiency in cognitive control and attention function, similar to children with ADHD.

Stroop N450 reflects both stimulus conflict and response conflict.

N450 is described as a valid event-related potential indicator of Stroop interference, but the true specific psychological meaning of the Stroop N450 remains obscure. In the present research, we first used a Chinese character incongruent-eligible task and manipulated different types of conflict to investigate whether Stroop N450 reflects stimulus conflict, response conflict or both. The results showed that, only the N450 in the incongruent-eligible condition was more negative than that of the incongruent-ineligible and neutral conditions in the frontal-central area; simultaneously, there was a left parietal-occipital N450 that successively weakened in the incongruent-eligible, incongruent-ineligible and neutral conditions. These results indicate that Stroop N450 reflects both stimulus conflict and response conflict.

Accessing the development and heritability of the capacity of cognitive control.

Cognitive control serves as a core construct, with limited capacity, to support executive functions and other higher-level mental processes such as intellectual activity. Although previous studies have investigated the development of executive functions during specific age periods, the development of the capacity of cognitive control (CCC) from early childhood to late adolescence and the heritability of the CCC have yet to be delineated. In this study, we estimated the CCC based on the performance of a perceptual decision-making task in monozygotic (n = 95) and dizygotic (n = 81) twin pairs with an age range from 6 to 18 years and in a reference young adult group (n = 41, mean age = 26.15 years). In addition, the intelligence quotient (IQ) of these participants was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scales. We found an increase in the CCC from 1.55 bits per second (bps) at age 6 years to its 95% capacity of 3.87 bps at age 21 years, with a reduced growth rate as a function of age. The estimated heritability of the CCC was 0.66, and shared and non-shared environmental influences on the CCC were 0.18 and 0.16, respectively. The CCC was significantly correlated to IQ (r = 0.34). These findings indicate that the CCC is developed throughout the school years, is highly heritable, and is associated with higher-level cognition.

The functional anatomy of cognitive control: A domain-general brain network for uncertainty processing.

Cognitive control is the coordination of mental operations under conditions of uncertainty in accordance with goal-directed behaviors, and plays a key role in the domains of executive control, working memory, and decision-making. Although there is emerging evidence of common involvement of the cognitive control network (CCN) of the brain in these domains, this network has mostly been linked to the processing of conflict, which is just one case of an increase in uncertainty. Here, we conducted an activation-likelihood-estimation-based large-scale meta-analysis of 289 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in the three domains to examine the common involvement of the CCN in uncertainty processing by contrasting the high-uncertainty versus low-uncertainty conditions. We found a general association between increase in uncertainty and an activation increase in regions of the CCN, including the frontoparietal network (comprising the frontal eye fields, the areas near and along the intraparietal sulcus, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), the cingulo-opercular network (including the anterior cingulate cortex extending to the supplementary motor area, and the anterior insular cortex), and a subcortical structure (the striatum). These results demonstrate that the CCN is a domain-general construct underlying uncertainty processing to support goal-directed behaviors.

Testing a Cognitive Control Model of Human Intelligence.

The definition of human intelligence and its underlying psychological constructs have long been debated. Although previous studies have investigated the fundamental cognitive functions determining intellectual abilities, such as the broadly defined executive functions including working memory, the core process has yet to be identified. A potential candidate for such a role might be cognitive control, a psychological construct for the coordination of thoughts and actions under conditions of uncertainty. In this study, we tested a cognitive control model of intellectual ability by examining the association between cognitive control, measured by a perceptual decision-making task and by the attention network test, and general intelligence including components of fluid intelligence (Gf, concerning the ability to solve problems by abstraction) and crystalized intelligence (Gc, related to learning from prior knowledge and experience) measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. We also examined the potential role of cognitive control as a core process involved in another determinant of intellectual abilities, the working memory, measured by the N-back tasks and the working memory complex span tasks. The relationship among intelligence, cognitive control, and working memory was examined using structural equation modeling. Results showed that cognitive control shared a large amount of variance with working memory and both measures were strongly associated with Gf and Gc, with a stronger association with Gf than Gc. These findings suggest that cognitive control, serving as a core construct of executive functions, contributes substantially to general intellectual ability, especially fluid intelligence.