Are facet-specific task trainings efficient in improving children's executive functions and why (they might not be)? A multi-facet latent change score approach.

It currently remains unclear how facet-specific trainings of three core modules of executive function (EF; updating, switching, and inhibition) directly compare regarding efficacy, whether improvements on trained tasks transfer to nontrained EF tasks, and which factors predict children's improvements. The current study systematically investigated three separate EF trainings in 6- to 11-year-old children (N = 229) using EF-specific trainings that were similar in structure, design, and intensity. Children participated in pre- and posttest assessments of the three EFs and were randomly allocated to one of three EF trainings or to an active or passive control group. Multivariate latent change score models revealed that only the updating group showed training-specific improvements in task performance that were larger compared with active controls as well as passive controls. In contrast, there were no training-specific benefits of training switching or inhibition. Latent changes in the three EF tasks were largely independent, and there was no evidence of transfer effects to nontrained EF tasks. Lower baseline performance and older age predicted larger changes in EF performance. These seemingly opposing effects support compensation accounts as well as developmental theories of EF, and they highlight the importance of simultaneously accounting for multiple predictors within one model. In line with recent theoretical proposals of EF development, we provide new systematic evidence that questions whether modular task trainings represent an efficient approach to improve performance in narrow or in broader indicators of EF. Thereby, this evidence ultimately highlights the need for more comprehensive assessments of EF and, subsequently, the development of new training approaches.

"I'll remember everything no matter what!": The role of metacognitive abilities in the development of young children's prospective memory.

Prospective memory (PM), the ability to remember to carry out future intentions, is a critical skill for children's daily activities. Despite this, little is known about young children's awareness of their PM ability (metamemory), how metamemory is affected by PM task difficulty, and how metacognitive abilities might be related to metamemory. The current study examined the effect of task difficulty on children's PM predictions, actual performance, and postdictions and relations among episodic memory metamemory, metacognitive control, and executive functioning. Children aged 4 to 6 years (N = 131) made PM predictions, completed an easy or difficult PM task, and then made PM postdictions. Children also made predictions and postdictions for their performance on an episodic recall task and then completed an independent measure of metacognitive control and two measures of executive function (working memory and inhibition). Results showed that (a) children's PM increased with age and was worse in the difficult PM task condition, (b) PM predictions and postdictions did not increase with age and only PM postdictions were affected by PM task difficulty; (c) children's PM and episodic recall predictions and postdictions were more accurate with age, (d) children's PM postdictions best predicted PM performance, whereas predictions best predicted episodic recall task performance, and (e) children with better metacognitive control had better PM and more accurate PM predictions. These results are discussed in terms of young children's optimism surrounding their memory performance and the emergence of early metacognitive abilities.

Young children's future-oriented reasoning for self and other: Effects of conflict and perspective.

Young children reason more adaptively about the future (e.g., predicting preferences and delaying gratification) when they are asked to think about another person's perspective versus their own perspective. An explanation for this "other-over-self" advantage is that in contexts where current (e.g., small reward now) and future (e.g., larger reward later) desires conflict, adopting the perspective of another person provides psychological distance and hence more adaptive decision making by reducing conflict. We tested this hypothesis in 158 preschoolers using a battery of representative future-oriented reasoning tasks (Preferences, Delay of Gratification, Picture Book, and "Spoon") in which we varied the perspective children adopted (self or other) and the level of conflict between current and future desires (high or low). We predicted that perspective and conflict would interact such that children would benefit most from taking the perspective of "other" when conflict was high. Although results did not support this hypothesis, we found significant effects of conflict; children reasoned more optimally on our low-conflict task condition than on our high-conflict task condition, and these differences did not appear to be related to inhibitory control. The effect of conflict was most marked in younger preschoolers, resulting in Age × Conflict interactions on two of our four tasks. An other-over-self advantage (i.e., perspective effect) was detected on the Preferences task only. These results add to the growing body of literature on children's future thinking by showing the important role of conflict (and its interaction with age) in the accuracy with which children reason about the future.

Adults' perceptions of forgetful children: the impact of child age, domain, and memory type.

Prospective memory (PM) tasks have been described as social in nature because carrying out one's intentions often has an impact on others. Despite the claim that PM errors [compared to retrospective memory (RM) errors] are perceived as character flaws, little empirical work has tested this assertion. In particular, no study has examined how adults perceive children's PM errors. Thus, the aim of the current studies was to examine adults' perceptions of children's forgetfulness depending on child age (4 vs. 10-year-olds), domain of the memory error (academic vs. social), and memory type (PM vs. RM). In Study 1, adult participants rated children's PM errors on seven traits. Findings showed that social errors were rated more negatively than academic errors, and age and domain interacted such that 10-year-olds were rated more negatively than 4-year-olds for making social errors but not academic errors. Study 2 examined the impact of child age, domain, and memory type on perceptions of forgetful children to specifically test differences between PM and RM errors. Results showed a larger difference between ratings of 10-year-olds for their academic and social memory errors compared to 4-year-olds, but only for RM errors.

The roles of perspective and language in children's ability to delay gratification.

Increasing psychological distance is an established method for improving children's performance in a number of self-regulation tasks. For example, using a delay of gratification (DoG) task, Prencipe and Zelazo (Psychological Science, 2005, Vol. 16, pp. 501-505) showed that 3-year-olds delay more for "other" than they do for "self," whereas 4-year-olds make similar choices for self and other. However, to our knowledge, no work has manipulated language to increase psychological distance in children. In two experiments, we sought to manipulate psychological distance by replicating Prencipe and Zelazo's age-related findings and extending them to older children (Experiment 1) and also sought to manipulate psychological distance using the auxiliary verbs "want" and "should" to prime more impulsive preference-based decisions or more normative optimal decisions (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, 96 3- to 7-year-olds showed age-related improvements and interactive effects between age and perspective on DoG performance. In Experiment 2, 132 3- to 7-year-olds showed age-related improvements and a marginal interaction between age and perspective on DoG performance, but no effect of auxiliary verbs was detected. Results are discussed in terms of differing developmental trajectories of DoG for self and other due to psychological distancing, and how taking another's perspective may boost DoG in younger children but not older children.

The effect of episodic future simulation and motivation on young children's induced-state episodic foresight.

Future simulation and motivation are two strategies that might help children improve their induced-state episodic foresight. In Study 1, 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 96) consumed pretzels (to induce thirst) and were asked what they would prefer the next day, pretzels or water. Children were randomly assigned to an experimental condition: (1) a standard thirsty condition, (2) an episodic simulation condition where they imagined being hungry the next day, (3) a motivation condition where children chose between a cupcake and water, or (4) a control condition (thirst was not induced). Future preferences did not differ by age and children were less likely to choose water (vs. a cupcake) in the motivation condition compared to the standard thirsty condition. Study 2 found that 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 22) were also less likely to choose water for right now versus a cupcake when thirst was induced.

Thinking about the future: Comparing children's forced-choice versus "generative" responses in the "spoon test".

One of the most popular methods to assess children's foresight is to present children with a problem (e.g., locked box with no key) in one room and then later, in another room, give them the opportunity to select the item (e.g., key) that will solve it. Whether or not children choose the correct item to bring back to the first room is the dependent measure of interest in this "spoon test." Although children as young as 3 or 4 years typically succeed on this test, whether they would pass a more stringent version in which they must verbally generate (vs. select) the correct item in the absence of any cues is unknown. This is an important point given that humans must often make decisions about the future without being explicitly "prompted" by the future-oriented option. In Experiment 1, using an adapted version of the spoon test, we show that as the "generative" requirements of the task increase, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds' (N = 99) performance significantly decreases. We replicate this effect in Experiment 2 (N = 48 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) and also provide preliminary evidence that the capacity to verbally generate the correct item in a spoon test may draw more heavily on children's category fluency skills than does their capacity to select this item among a set of distracters. Our findings underscore the importance of examining more generative forms of future thought in young children.

The delay period as an opportunity to think about future intentions: Effects of delay length and delay task difficulty on young adult's prospective memory performance.

The current study examined the impact of length and difficulty of the delay task on young adult's event-based prospective memory (PM). Participants engaged in either a short (2.5 min) or a long (15 min) delay that was filled with either a simple item categorization task or a difficult cognitive task. They also completed a questionnaire on whether they thought about the PM intention during the delay period and how often they thought about it. Results revealed that participants' PM was better after a difficult delay task compared to an easy delay task. Participants thought about the PM intention more often during the difficult delay task than during the easy delay task. PM performance was positively related to participants' reports of how many times they thought about their intentions. The important role of delay task difficulty in allowing or preventing individuals from refreshing their future intentions is discussed.

Testing the validity of a continuous false belief task in 3- to 7-year-old children.

In two studies, we examined young children's performance on the paper-and-pencil version of the Sandbox task, a continuous measure of false belief, and its relations with other false belief and inhibition tasks. In Study 1, 96 children aged 3 to 7years completed three false belief tasks (Sandbox, Unexpected Contents, and Appearance/Reality) and two inhibition tasks (Head-Shoulders-Knees-Toes and Grass/Snow). Results revealed that false belief bias-a measure of egocentrism-on the Sandbox task correlated with age but not with the Unexpected Contents or Appearance/Reality task or with measures of inhibition after controlling for age. In Study 2, 90 3- to 7-year-olds completed five false belief tasks (Sandbox, Unexpected Contents, Appearance/Reality, Change of Location, and a second-order false belief task), two inhibition tasks (Simon Says and Grass/Snow), and a receptive vocabulary task (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test). Results showed that false belief bias on the Sandbox task correlated negatively with age and with the Change of Location task but not with the other false belief or inhibition tasks after controlling for age and receptive vocabulary. The Sandbox task shows promise as an age-sensitive measure of false belief performance during early childhood and shows convergent and discriminant validity.

Neural systems for reflected and direct self-appraisals in Chinese young adults: Exploring the role of the temporal-parietal junction.

OBJECTIVES: Although cortical midline structures (CMS) are the most commonly identified neural foundations of self-appraisals, research is beginning to implicate the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) in more interdependent self-construals. The goal of this study was to extend this research in an understudied population by (a) examining both direct (first-person) and reflected (third-person) self-appraisals across 2 domains (social and academics), and (b) exploring individual differences in recruitment of the TPJ during reflected self-appraisals. METHOD: The neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in social and academic domains were examined in 16 Chinese young adults (8 males, 8 females; aged 18-23 years) using functional MRI. RESULTS: As expected, when making reflected self-appraisals (i.e., reporting what they believed others thought about them, regardless of domain), Chinese participants recruited both CMSs and the TPJ. Similar to previous research in East Asian and interdependent samples, CMSs and the TPJ were relatively more active during direct self-appraisals in the social than in the academic domain. We additionally found that, to the extent participants reported that reflected academic self-appraisals differed from direct academic self-appraisals, they demonstrated greater engagement of the TPJ during reflected academic self-appraisals. Exploratory cross-national comparisons with previously published data from American participants revealed that Chinese young adults engaged the TPJ relatively more during reflected self-appraisals made from peer perspectives. CONCLUSIONS: In combination with previous research, these findings increase support for a role of the TPJ in self-appraisal processes, particularly when Chinese young adults consider peer perspectives. The possible functional contributions provided by the TPJ are explored and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The impact of age, ongoing task difficulty, and cue salience on preschoolers' prospective memory performance: the role of executive function.

The current study examined the impact of age, ongoing task (OT) difficulty, and cue salience on 4- and 5-year-old children's prospective memory (PM) and also explored the relation between individual differences in executive function (working memory, inhibition, and shifting) and PM. OT difficulty and cue salience are predicted to affect the detection of PM cues based on the multiprocess framework, yet neither has been thoroughly investigated in young children. OT difficulty was manipulated by requiring children to sort cards according to the size of pictured items (easy) or by opposite size (difficult), and cue salience was manipulated by placing a red border around half of the target cues (salient) and no border around the other cues (non-salient). The 5-year-olds outperformed the 4-year-olds on the PM task, and salient PM cues resulted in better PM cues compared with non-salient cues. There was no main effect of OT difficulty, and the interaction between cue salience and OT difficulty was not significant. However, a planned comparison revealed that the combination of non-salient cues and a difficult OT resulted in significantly worse PM performance than that in all of the other conditions. Inhibition accounted for significant variance in PM performance for non-salient cues and for marginally significant variance for salient cues. Furthermore, individual differences in inhibition fully mediated the effect of age on PM performance. Results are discussed in the context of the multiprocess framework and with reference to preschoolers' difficulty with the executive demands of dividing attention between the OT and PM task.

The development of prospective memory in young schoolchildren: the impact of ongoing task absorption, cue salience, and cue centrality.

This study presents evidence that 9- and 10-year-old children outperform 6- and 7-year-old children on a measure of event-based prospective memory and that retrieval-based factors systematically influence performance and age differences. All experiments revealed significant age effects in prospective memory even after controlling for ongoing task performance. In addition, the provision of a less absorbing ongoing task (Experiment 1), higher cue salience (Experiment 2), and cues appearing in the center of attention (Experiment 3) were each associated with better performance. Of particular developmental importance was an age by cue centrality (in or outside of the center of attention) interaction that emerged in Experiment 3. Thus, age effects were restricted to prospective memory cues appearing outside of the center of attention, suggesting that the development of prospective memory across early school years may be modulated by whether a cue requires overt monitoring beyond the immediate attentional context. Because whether a cue is in or outside of the center of attention might determine the amount of executive control needed in a prospective memory task, findings suggest that developing executive control resources may drive prospective memory development across primary school age.

The emergence of procrastination in early childhood: Relations with executive control and future-oriented cognition.

Little is known about the development of procrastination, the tendency to postpone undesirable but necessary tasks, during early childhood. Only one study has measured procrastination behavior in preschool children using a single behavioral task (Sutter et al., 2018). Thus, the present study investigated the emergence and development of everyday procrastination behavior in preschool children and to explore its relations with executive function and future thinking using an adapted version of Lay's (1986) General Procrastination Scale for use with parents of preschool children. Parents (81% White, 82% with an annual household income of over $40,000, and 92% had a postsecondary education) of 3- to 6-year-olds (N = 396; 175 girls) completed the Preschool Procrastination Scale, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (Gioia et al., 2003), and the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire (Mazachowsky & Mahy, 2020). Naturalistic examples of children's procrastination behavior were collected to better understand the domains in which preschool children procrastinated. Results revealed that: (a) procrastination emerges early in preschool, (b) procrastination became more characteristic with age, (c) executive function and future thinking were negatively related to procrastination tendencies, (d) different components of future thinking and executive function predicted younger and older children's procrastination, and (e) children procrastinated in different domains depending on their age and responsibilities. Our results suggest that children's procrastination tendencies increase with age and develop alongside self-regulatory and future-oriented cognitive abilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Younger and older adults' prospective memory: the role of delay task difficulty.

There is mixed evidence on the impact of delay task difficulty on prospective memory (PM) performance and little research has examined this among older adults. The present study examined younger (N = 60) and older (N = 57) adults' prospective memory (PM) performance after completing an easy or difficult Raven's matrices task. To assess whether delay difficulty impacted how often participants thought about their PM intention, participants were asked to report on what they thought about during the delay task itself and retrospectively after all tasks were completed. Younger adults outperformed older adults on the PM task; however, delay task difficulty had no impact PM for either age group. Reports of thinking about the intention during the delay task differed by age group depending whether they were online or retrospective, however, overall greater reports of thinking about the intention was positively associated with PM performance.

"These pretzels are making me thirsty" so I'll have water tomorrow: A partial replication and extension of adults' induced-state episodic foresight.

The ability to consider the future under the influence of an induced current state is known as induced-state episodic foresight. One study to date has examined adults' induced episodic foresight and found that adults' (like children's) preferences for the future are related to their current state such that they predicted wanting water (vs. pretzels) in the future when experiencing a current state of thirst [1]. We attempted to replicate these findings in adults. In Study 1, adults (N = 198) in a laboratory selected pretzels for tomorrow at the same rate (around 20%) in an experimental condition (thirst induced) and a control condition (thirst not induced). In a lecture, 32% of adults preferred pretzels for tomorrow without thirst induction (Study 2, N = 63). Partially replicating Kramer et al. [1], we found that a minority of adults preferred pretzels (vs. water) when experiencing a current state of thirst. However, in contrast to their findings, our results showed that when thirst was not induced, a minority of adults also preferred pretzels for tomorrow. Thus, adults' future preference was similar regardless of thirst induction. We also tested thirst as a mechanism for adults' preference for the future and found that across conditions adults' thirst predicted their choice of water (vs. pretzels) for the future. In sum, our results partially replicated Kramer et al. [1] by showing the current state, regardless of thirst induction, predicts adults' choices for the future.

Upper limb cerebellar motor function in children with spina bifida.

PURPOSE: To investigate upper limb cerebellar motor function in children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) and in typically developing controls. METHODS: Participants with SBM, who had either upper level spinal lesions (n = 23) or lower level spinal lesions (n = 65), and controls (n = 37) completed four upper limb motor function tasks (posture, rebound, limb dysmetria, and diadochokinesis) under four different physical and cognitive challenge conditions. Functional independence was assessed by parental questionnaire. RESULTS: Fewer SBM participants were able to complete the posture task, and they were less likely than controls to obtain a perfect rebound score. Participants with SBM showed impaired performance in either time, accuracy, or both, on the limb dysmetria and diadochokinesis tasks but responded like controls to physical and cognitive challenges. CONCLUSIONS: Because upper limb motor performance predicted aspects of functional independence, we conclude that upper limb impairments in children with SBM are significant and have direct implications for the level of independent functioning in children with SBM.

Constructing the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire: A reliable and valid measure of children's future-oriented cognition.

Future-oriented cognition (planning, prospective memory, episodic foresight, saving, and delay of gratification) involves a critical set of skills that children must develop for successful daily functioning. The current study developed the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire (CFTQ), a parent-report on 3- to 7-year-olds' future-oriented cognition. The CFTQ showed high internal consistency and detected development of future-oriented cognition (Study 1; N = 145). Study 2 (N = 255) showed high internal consistency reliability and preliminary validity of the CFTQ. Study 3 (N = 101) confirmed strong reliability and validity of the CFTQ. Study 4 (N = 105) revealed excellent test-retest reliability of the CFTQ. Thus, the CFTQ is the first reliable and valid parent-report measure of children's developing future-oriented cognitive abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing an understanding of others' emotional states: Relations among affective theory of mind and empathy measures in early childhood.

Theory of mind (ToM) consists of cognitive and affective components; however, few studies have evaluated the coherence of affective ToM measures and their associations with empathy. This research examined the relations among affective ToM tasks and assessments of empathy, measured directly and via parent reports in 4- to 6-year-olds. Children (N = 117) completed: an Appearance-Reality Emotion Task, an adapted Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, an Affective Stories Task, and an empathy task. Parents reported on children's ToM and empathy, and language was assessed using a Picture Vocabulary Test. Controlling for language, no relationships were found among affective ToM measures and children's age was only related to the Affective Stories Task. Further, controlling for age, only parent-reported empathy was associated with the Appearance-Reality Emotion Task. Once vocabulary and age were controlled, measures of affective ToM are unrelated and different developmental patterns emerged across measures. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject Affective theory of mind is a distinct subcomponent of theory of mind that corresponds to an independent developmental mechanism. However, little research has been conducted on affective ToM, its developmental trajectory during the preschool years, its assessment, and its relationship with related constructs, such as empathy. What the present study adds Children's performance on affective ToM tasks was unrelated once age and language abilities were accounted for. Thus, there is a need to examine affective ToM and its measurement more extensively to ensure we are effectively capturing this construct. This study was the first to establish a Preschool Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task that uses images of children and pictorial response options and an Affective Stories Task that captures age-related changes in affective ToM beyond language skills.

"What Should You Bring with You to This Place?": Examining Children's Episodic Foresight Using Open-Ended Questions.

Children's episodic foresight, the ability to mentally project oneself into the future to pre-experience an event (e.g., Atance & O'Neill, 2005), begins to emerge early in the preschool years. Results from the Picture-book task (Atance & Meltzoff, 2005) have shown that children are generally capable of selecting an item needed in the future (from provided options), but young preschoolers have difficulty justifying their choice with future-oriented explanations. Because episodic foresight has typically been measured using forced-choice questions (such as the Picture-book task) less is known about children's more naturalistic and "open-ended" future thinking (i.e., more spontaneous forms of episodic foresight). Forty-eight 3-to 5-year-olds completed a new, open-ended version of the Picture-book task. Using a descriptive approach, we found that children were able to generate an appropriate item to bring with them to a future location, and that this ability improved with age. Temporal focus as well as internal (episodic) and external (semantic) details were explored in the context of children's explanations. Children's explanations were mostly present-oriented and included episodic and semantic details equally. Our findings extend our knowledge of children's episodic foresight by highlighting children's ability to solve future-oriented problems in an open-ended manner.