Cognitive control training with domain-general response inhibition does not change children's brains or behavior.

Cognitive control is required to organize thoughts and actions and is critical for the pursuit of long-term goals. Childhood cognitive control relates to other domains of cognitive functioning and predicts later-life success and well-being. In this study, we used a randomized controlled trial to test whether cognitive control can be improved through a pre-registered 8-week intervention in 235 children aged 6-13 years targeting response inhibition and whether this leads to changes in multiple behavioral and neural outcomes compared to a response speed training. We show long-lasting improvements of closely related measures of cognitive control at the 1-year follow-up; however, training had no impact on any behavioral outcomes (decision-making, academic achievement, mental health, fluid reasoning and creativity) or neural outcomes (task-dependent and intrinsic brain function and gray and white matter structure). Bayesian analyses provide strong evidence of absent training effects. We conclude that targeted training of response inhibition does little to change children's brains or their behavior.

EXAMINING MECHANISMS OF CHILDHOOD COGNITIVE CONTROL.

Childhood cognitive control is an important predictor for positive development, yet interventions seeking to improve it have provided mixed results. This is partly due to lack of clarity surrounding mechanisms of cognitive control, notably the role of inhibition and context monitoring. Here we use a randomized controlled trial to causally test the contributions of inhibition and context monitoring to cognitive control in childhood. Sixty children aged 6 to 9-years were assigned to three groups training either inhibition, context monitoring group or response speed using a gamified, highly variable and maximally adaptive training protocol. Whereas all children improved in the targeted cognitive functions over the course of training, pre-post data show that only the inhibition group improved on cognitive control. These findings serve as a first step in demonstrating the promise inhibition-based cognitive control interventions may hold.

Intra-individual variability adaptively increases following inhibition training during middle childhood.

There is ongoing debate on the relationship between intra-individual variability (IIV) of cognitive processes and task performance. While psychological research has traditionally assumed that lower intra-individual variability (IIV) aids consistent task performance, some studies suggest that greater IIV can also be adaptive, especially when flexible responding is required. Here we selectively manipulate inhibitory control (Stopping) and response speed (Going) by means of a training paradigm to 1) assess how this manipulation impacts Stopping IIV and its relationship to task performance, and 2) replicate previous findings showing that reductions in Going IIV are adaptive. A group of 208 6-13-year-old children were randomly allocated to an 8-week training targeting Stopping (experimental group) or Going (control group). The stop signal task was administered before and after training. Training Stopping led to adaptive increases in Stopping IIV, where greater flexibility in cognitive processing may be required to meet higher task demands. In line with previous studies, training Going led to adaptive reductions in Going IIV, which allows more consistent and efficient Going performance. These findings provide systematic and causal evidence of the process-dependent relationship of IIV and task performance in the context of Stopping and Going, suggesting a more nuanced perspective on IIV with implications for developmental, ageing and intervention studies.

Development and plasticity of executive functions: A value-based account.

Executive functions are core to multiple aspects of daily cognitive, social and affective functioning. An extensive body of work has charted developmental trajectories and neural substrates of executive functions through the lifespan. Robust associations between executive functions early in life, and later, wellbeing and success has led to considerable efforts to improve executive functions through bespoke interventions. Here, we discuss recent findings on the role of cost-benefit computations in how executive functions are deployed in development. We propose leveraging these insights to design more effective interventions for improving executive functions.

Effort-related decision-making and its underlying processes during childhood.

Humans tend to avoid cognitive effort. Whereas evidence of this abounds in adults, little is known about its emergence and development in childhood. The few existing studies in children use different experimental paradigms and report contradictory developmental patterns. We examined effort-related decision-making in a sample of 79 five- to 11-year-olds using a parametric induction of cognitive effort and three paradigms that each involved decision-making between low- and high-effort options but varied in how explicit effort was made. This included a demand avoidance and an effort discounting paradigm. We also probed cognitive processes linked to effort-related decisions, including task performance, metacognitive accuracy, effort perception, and mental demand. We found that children of all ages were sensitive to parametric modulations of cognitive effort as indicated by self-report. In terms of effort-related decision-making we found that overall children demonstrated no implicit behavioral preference for low effort tasks, that older children stated a preference for low effort tasks, and that all children discounted effort. Further, implicit preference in the demand avoidance paradigm was linked to children's metacognitive insight into how well they could perform effortful tasks. These findings strongly suggest that although children are clearly sensitive to manipulations of cognitive effort, whether and when they use this information to guide their decisions to engage in effortful tasks depends strongly on the extent to which effortful features are made salient to them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Bullying behaviours and other conduct problems: longitudinal investigation of their independent associations with risk factors and later outcomes.

PURPOSE: Bullying behaviours and other conduct problems often co-occur. However, we do not yet know whether bullying behaviours are associated with early factors and later poor outcomes independently of conduct problems. While there are differing, specific interventions for bullying behaviours and for conduct problems, it is unclear if such specificity is justified given parallels between both behaviours. METHODS: We used prospective data from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative sample of 2232 children. Mothers and teachers reported on children's bullying behaviours and conduct problems at ages 7 and 10. We collected measures of risk factors, including temperament and family factors, when children were age 5. We assessed behavioural, emotional, educational and social problems when participants reached the ages of 12 and 18. RESULTS: Bullying behaviours and conduct problems co-occurred in childhood. Our findings indicated that bullying behaviours and other conduct problems were independently associated with the same risk factors. Furthermore, they were associated with the same poor outcomes at both ages 12 and 18. Despite this, bullying behaviours were uniquely associated with behavioural, emotional, educational and social problems at age 18. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that anti-bullying programmes and interventions aimed at reducing conduct problems could benefit from greater integration. Furthermore, our study highlights the mental health problems children who bully may face in later years and the need to consider those in intervention plans.