Executive functioning has several definitions:
It typically involves working memory (1), inhibitory control (2) and mental flexibility (3). Planning (1), decision making (2), judgement (3) and self-perception (4) are results of executive functioning.
The prefrontal cortex is imperative for executive functioning. However, it is likely that mainly the interactions with the prefrontal cortex are essential for executive functioning. According to Luria, the prefrontal cortex consists of interactive functional systems and this involves the integration of subsystems. The subsystems have specific roles but cannot be considered outside of the larger systems. This means that executive function may be a function and not a mechanism or cognitive structure. Functions refer to behavioural constructs defined in terms of their outcome (i.e. what they accomplish).
Executive functions are conscious processes but can get better with practice. They are influenced by individual differences in intelligence (1), motivation (2) and education (3). Executive functioning changes over the life course. It improves radically over the first few years and continues to improve in adolescence. Moreover, executive functions can be trained.
There is a continuum between cool and hot executive functions. A task where no emotions are involved and which is purely cognitive is a cool executive function task. Cool executive function is elicited by abstract, decontextualized problems.
This is a requisition for how one performs on hot executive functions. Hot executive function is required for problems that are characterized by high affective involvement or demand flexible appraisals of the affective significance of stimuli. A task where social evaluation plays a role and a reward or something else is at stake is a hot executive function task. Hot executive functions are often reported and not tested directly whereas cool executive functions are tested in a lab environment.
Updating refers to updating and monitoring information. This is a task of working memory. Shifting (i.e. cognitive flexibility) refers to switching between tasks or mental sets. Rule use includes error detection and error correction. A mistake in rule use could reflect either and it is often difficult to distinguish from one another. Representational inflexibility refers to the inability to form a new plan. Lack of response control refers to the inability to carry out a new plan.
Inhibition refers to the suppression of responses and this is an active process. It consists of two parts:
It is hypothesized that executive function only reflects inhibition. However, this is problematic for several reasons:
It is more likely that inhibition is a necessary but not a sufficient aspect for executive functioning.
The delay of gratification test (i.e. marshmallow test) is intended to measure self-control and behavioural inhibition. This is believed to predict later life outcomes (e.g. academic outcomes). The longer a child can wait before receiving a reward, the better later life outcomes. However, this predictive value decreases when one controls for the child’s background (e.g. family income; mother’s education) and the child’s cognitive skills at preschool.
It is possible that this test does not only measure delay of gratification but also measures intelligence of cognitive skills and this may explain the limited replication of the results and the predictive value of the test. Intelligence and cognitive skills may explain both the preschool inhibition and the later life outcomes though the background factors could also explain both. It is also possible that the interaction between the background factors and the intelligence and cognitive skills explains the results.
Baddeley’s model on working memory states that there is a central executive which gives directions to the visuospatial sketchpad, the episodic buffer and the phonological loop. The visuospatial sketchpad is used to make meaning of visual information whereas the phonological loop is used for language. The episodic buffer regards the interaction between these two and is associated with long-term memory.
The phonological loop refers to the place where verbal information is stored. It has a limited capacity and depends on verbal rehearsal. The phonological similarity effect refers to an improved phonological memory for things that are more similar (e.g. words that sound more similar). The effect of word length refers to the fact that shorter words are easier to remember than longer words. The effect of prohibition of pronunciation (i.e. effect of impossibility of pronunciation) refers to the effect that information that can be verbalised is easier to remember.
The visuospatial sketchpad is the memory storage for visual information. It has limited capacity. Contrary to the phonological loop, there is simultaneous processing. The episodic buffer integrates multimodal information including information from long-term memory. Long-term memory contains more and more information with development, making working memory more and more effective with development because there is more long-term memory to fall back on.
The dimensional change card sorting (DCSS) task requires children to adapt to a changing environment and switch between rules. Children are told what to do at each trial and have to sort the card by feedback (e.g. after each card the instructor will tell them whether it is correct). After a number of correct trials, the sorting rule changes.
Perseveration refers to adhering to an old rule despite having knowledge of a new rule. Shifting (1), flexibility (2), inhibition (3), working memory (4), selective attention (5) and the degree to which complex rules can be followed have been used to explain preservation in the DCSS. However, it is difficult to separate components of executive functioning in a task because most are used simultaneously and are integrated.
Executive function development is associated with prefrontal cortex maturation. Damage to this brain area is characterized by problems with making decisions. However, the effect depends on the age at the time of the lesion. Moreover, damage to this brain area does not necessarily mean executive function impairment. Behavioural impairments as a result of prefrontal cortex lesions may occur later in development when late-developing functions would normally appear. The consequences of prefrontal cortex lesions are often less noticeable in children than in adults.
The prefrontal cortex is the youngest brain area and most vulnerable to the effects of ageing. There is a rapid development in this brain area between birth and about two years. The next growth spurt is between 4 and 7 years. It continues to develop into adulthood.
The lateral prefrontal cortex may play an important role in the integration of sensory and mnemonic information and the regulation of intellectual function and action. Dopamine may play an important role in this brain area. The ventral and medial prefrontal cortex consists of ventral and medial regions of the prefrontal cortex. It has strong connection to the amygdala and other parts of the limbic system. It is involved in the integration of affective and non-affective information and for the regulation of appetitive and motivated behaviour.
As working memory develops, capacity (1), duration (2), knowledge (3), processing speed (4) and strategies (5) develop. Working memory, shifting and inhibition often go together. This is because it is important to keep the goal in mind while attempting to inhibit a response. Shifting appears to develop up to 15 years and working memory develops until 21 years of age. Changes in working memory may be the result of increases in the capacity of the working memory. This may mean that the development of executive function is the result of increases in strength of active memory representations which allows children to override prepotent tendencies mediated by latent memory traces.
The cognitive complexity and control theory states that age-related changes in executive function are the result of children’s increasing ability to use more complex rule systems. To increase the complexity of the rule systems, reflection is necessary and this typically develops during the preschool years.
In the problem-solving framework, executive function is believed to proceed from problem representation (1) to planning (2) to execution (3) to evaluation (4). Inflexibility can occur at each of these stages:
Three-year-olds typically have difficulty regulating approach behaviour in motivationally significant situations but are capable of adaptive decision making. Self-regulation may be facilitated by adopting a third-person perspective of one’s behaviour. It is likely that the phases of the problem-solving framework develop together. Hot tasks of executive function may be more difficult than cool tasks if task difficulty is equal.
The structure of executive functioning can be studied using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). This means that each component of executive functioning is a latent variable that is measured with a manifest test. The relations between the functions reflect what tasks have in common. The interpretation of factors is not always easy as the factors could be separated but still correlated.
Different factor analytic studies have found different components of executive functioning while some studies did not find different components (e.g. inhibition not being internally consistent with the factor model) or found a single component of executive functioning (i.e. only one factor explaining all the results). These contradictory results may be explained by the age of people when they do different tasks (1), the way the tasks are scored (2) and because of the selected tasks (3). The selected tasks may rely on task-specific networks and not on general executive functioning factors. The tasks may not be pure measures of individual factors of executive functioning.
Executive function suffers from stress. In a classroom, executive function is addressed during cooperation (1), using scarce material (2), self-regulated learning (3) and pretend play (4). Extracurricular activities could promote executive function. For example, sports (e.g. martial arts) ask for selective attention but does this in a fun way.
By using children with the poorest executive functioning, training the most difficult tasks seems to have the greatest benefit on their EF. However, this may be regression to the mean. It is possible that children who participate in sports which promote executive functions have a higher SES or already have a greater executive function. It is thus not clear whether sports clearly influence executive function.
The home environment promotes executive function through maternal sensitivity (1), maternal mind-mindedness (2), maternal autonomy (3) and maternal scaffolding (4). These factors also promote child cognitive ability. There is a bidirectional relationship between executive functions and a child’s cognitive ability.
To promote executive function, it is good to provide opportunities to practice executive functions (1), talk about the mind (i.e. mind-mindedness) (2), use scaffolding (3), provide tools (4) and investigate whether social or emotional problems prevent the child from using executive functions (5).
Childhood: Developmental Psychology – Lecture 1 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)
It is possible that domain-specific mechanisms designed by natural selection to deal with specific aspects of the physical or social environment (e.g. face recognition) evolved, though domain-general mechanisms are also likely to exist as a result of evolution (e.g. executive function). Constraints limit the type of information that can be processed and the way this can be processed. There are three types of constraints on learning:
Evolved probabilistic cognitive mechanisms refer to information-processing mechanisms that have evolved to solve recurrent problems faced by ancestral populations. This will develop in a species-typical manner if the individual experiences a species-typical environment (e.g. innate readiness to be afraid of snakes but no innate fear of snakes).
Geary states that the mind is a set of hierarchically organized domain-specific modules that develop as children engage their physical and social worlds. Development finetunes these modules as these are very flexible and broad (i.e. adaptive). The long period of immaturity of humans may be necessary to master the complexities of human society and technology (i.e. cognition needs to be adapted to a wide range of environments).
There are biologically primary abilities (e.g. language):
There are also biologically secondary abilities (e.g. reading):
A dynamic system refers to describing how a state develops into another state over time (e.g. butterfly effect). A system (e.g. a child) refers to a collection of components that are connected. In a dynamic system, all these components are changing and influencing each other. Dynamic systems theories state that change is equal to development. According to these theories, variation in factors (e.g. childhood environment) leads to changes in development. This leaves space for individual differences.
The developmental systems approach states that development depends on the interaction at all levels between the environment and genes (i.e. epigenesis). New structures and functions emerge during development as a
.....read more Childhood: Developmental Psychology – Lecture 2 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)There are three definitions of emotion:
Cognition and motivation are two central components of emotions. Emotions can change the environment which alters the probability of experiencing a certain emotion. Emotions consist of three key features:
The James-Lange theory of emotion states that an environmental stimulus leads to a bodily response. This response leads to the experience of a bodily response and this experience of a bodily response is the same thing as experiencing an emotion. There are several issues with this theory:
The Schachter-Singer theory states that there is an environmental stimulus that triggers physiological arousal. The interpretation of this arousal is the emotion (e.g “I am afraid because I saw a bear and my heart is beating like crazy”). However, the attribution of arousal is not essential for the experience of emotion.
Appraisal theories of emotion hold that cognition does not need to be conscious in the appraisal of an emotion. According to these theories, there is a stimulus and this is appraised. This appraisal leads to an action tendency, which, in turn, leads to a physiological response. This leads to behaviour and the labelling of emotion. All these aspects contribute to the emotional experience, meaning that there is not necessarily a sequence in the experience of emotions as they can occur simultaneously. These theories state that the meaning and interpretation people give to a stimulus is crucial in the experience of emotion.
Reappraisal refers to changing a situation’s meaning in such a way that there is a change in the person’s emotional response to the situation. This typically leads to decreased negative emotion experience and expressive behaviour and does not interfere with other ongoing cognitive processes.
Emotions can be measured in several ways:
Childhood: Developmental Psychology – Lecture 3 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)Executive functioning has several definitions:
It typically involves working memory (1), inhibitory control (2) and mental flexibility (3). Planning (1), decision making (2), judgement (3) and self-perception (4) are results of executive functioning.
The prefrontal cortex is imperative for executive functioning. However, it is likely that mainly the interactions with the prefrontal cortex are essential for executive functioning. According to Luria, the prefrontal cortex consists of interactive functional systems and this involves the integration of subsystems. The subsystems have specific roles but cannot be considered outside of the larger systems. This means that executive function may be a function and not a mechanism or cognitive structure. Functions refer to behavioural constructs defined in terms of their outcome (i.e. what they accomplish).
Executive functions are conscious processes but can get better with practice. They are influenced by individual differences in intelligence (1), motivation (2) and education (3). Executive functioning changes over the life course. It improves radically over the first few years and continues to improve in adolescence. Moreover, executive functions can be trained.
There is a continuum between cool and hot executive functions. A task where no emotions are involved and which is purely cognitive is a cool executive function task. Cool executive function is elicited by abstract, decontextualized problems.
This is a requisition for how one performs on hot executive functions. Hot executive function is required for problems that are characterized by high affective involvement or demand flexible appraisals of the affective significance of stimuli. A task where social evaluation plays a role and a reward or something else is at stake is a hot executive function task. Hot executive functions are often reported and not tested directly whereas cool executive functions are tested in a lab environment.
Updating refers to updating and monitoring information. This is a task of working memory. Shifting (i.e. cognitive flexibility) refers to switching between tasks or mental sets. Rule use includes error detection and error correction. A mistake in rule use could reflect either and it is often difficult to distinguish from one another. Representational inflexibility refers to the inability to form a new plan. Lack of response control refers to the inability to carry out a new plan.
Inhibition refers to the suppression of responses and this is an active process. It consists of two parts:
It is hypothesized that executive function only reflects inhibition. However, this
.....read more Childhood: Developmental Psychology – Lecture 4 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)Socialization refers to the process of developing social and emotional skills across the lifespan and is a process through generations. In this process, people develop beliefs (1) behaviours (2), values (3) and norms (4) that are appropriate in society. It is essential for healthy social development (e.g. forming positive relationships).
Socialization has three functions:
Vygotsky states that the sociocultural context influences development. He emphasizes the importance of social interaction (i.e. all development goes through social interaction) and he states that the elementary mental functions (e.g. memory; sensation) become higher mental functions as a result of social interaction. This would mean that all cognitive skills have social origin.
The zone of proximal development focuses on the role of joint involvement episodes where the caregivers make use of scaffolding techniques. The social learning theory (i.e. Bandura) states that learning occurs through observation (i.e. social models). There are several factors influencing observation:
Bandura demonstrated that there is a strong person-environment interaction. This means that a child’s predisposition is strongly influenced by the environment. For example, a more aggressive child will become the most aggressive when that child is exposed to aggression but not when this child is exposed to positive models.
The social information processing theory states that there are different steps in social interaction:
Each stage of the theory can be a target for an intervention (e.g. treating interpretation bias). All stages are also influenced by one’s mental state. Joint attention (1), emotion regulation (2), inhibitory control (3), imitation (4), causal understanding (5) and language (6) are emotional, cognitive and behavioural skills involved in harmonious peer interactions. In preschool, there is consolidation of these social skills and they are applied in the context of a group. The capacity for prosocial behaviour increases in childhood.
Empathy refers to being able to understand other’s feelings and one’s own feeling in the same situation. It is age-related as it improves with development and is mostly a learned skill through modelling (1), affectively oriented discipline (2) and sensitive parenting (3). Empathy is
.....read more Childhood: Developmental Psychology – Lecture 5 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)The interaction between nature and nurture produces intelligent behaviour. The transactions are essential (i.e. parents change behaviour children and vice versa). The development of intelligence is continuous and there is a reciprocal interaction between the child with a biological disposition and the changing environment. This means that genes drive experience (i.e. genotype -> environment theory).
The individual multiplier effect states that there may be a small difference in nature (e.g. height) and the effect of this initial difference becomes bigger and bigger because it is multiplied by nurture (e.g. basketball analogy). This multiplier effect due to nurture can occur because of selecting environments that encourage innate differences and through additional practice.
The social multiplier effect states that a small difference between groups in nature can become greater due to the interaction between the initial difference and the environment of the group (e.g. people at a school liking chess, starting a chess club and this school subsequently becoming better at chess). Social multipliers can lead to differences between groups but also between generations. The cause for the differences is mainly nurture (i.e. practice) but the ones with talent (i.e. nature) still have the biggest chance of becoming the best (e.g. the smartest; the best athlete).
According to the social multiplier effect, if intelligence is promoted and admired in a group due to initial differences, then these differences between this group and other groups will become larger. The social multiplier effect is one of the explanations for the Flynn effect (i.e. generations valuing intelligence more and spend more time improving it). This effect may lead to more focus on cognitive development in certain groups which lead to greater intelligence.
The cumulative deficit effect refers to multiple risks persisting over many years adding up. This is comparable to the negative individual multiplier effect. This means that having more risk factors has an additive effect and the more risk factors one has, the greater the deficit. Risk factors often do not come in isolation. One risk factor is often followed by other risk factors leading to risk factors adding up (e.g. cascade effect).
The positive manifold refers to the fact that individual differences in intelligence are general and not specific (e.g. people who are ‘more intelligent’ score better on all the metrics of an IQ test and not just on some). One explanation for the positive manifold is the g-factor (i.e. general intelligence factor). However, this is atheoretical (1), there is no developmental model for this (2), it is unclear ‘where’ in the brain it is (3) and it is unclear what it is (4).
Mutualism states that there is a positive influence of cognitive modules on each other and this is another explanation for the positive manifold. For example, having better memory strategies leads to better reading comprehension and this makes it easier to gain more knowledge, which, in turn, makes it easier to remember things. Without some form of intervention, individuals
.....read more Childhood: Developmental Psychology – Lecture 6 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)Plato’s paradox refers to children acquiring language without appearing to be taught it. This raises the question of how children actually learn a language.
Word segmentation is one of the challenges of learning a language (i.e. where does one word start and where does it end in a stream of sounds). One proposed mechanism of learning is statistical learning. This holds that children learn from the regularities in language (e.g. picking up on strong vs. weak words). Children at 7.5 months of age are capable of word segmentation of 2-syllable words.
Chomsky states that children have an innate deep structure. This is an underlying understanding of language which enables the child to learn language. The specific language a child learns is the surface structure. Thus, according to Chomsky, people have a language acquisition device (LAD).
Phonology refers to the sounds of a language. Phonemic awareness (i.e. phonological awareness) refers to the knowledge that words consist of separable sounds and phonological recoding refers to understanding the sounds of phonemes. There are several stages of phonological development:
Morphology refers to the structure of words and to a system of rules for combining units of meaning into words (e.g. adding ‘ed’ to a word makes it past tense). A morpheme refers to the smallest unit of meaning in a language. Free morphemes can stand alone as words (e.g. fire; run) and bound morphemes cannot stand alone and are attached to free morphemes (e.g. the letter ‘s’). The mean length of utterance refers to the average number of morphemes a child uses in a sentence and is indicative of children’s linguistic development. Overregularization refers to overusing a rule (e.g. using ‘ed’ for everything that is past tense).
Syntax refers to a system of rules for creating phrases and sentences out of words. Holophrases refer to one-word sentences (i.e. single words with different intonations to convey different meanings). Telegraphic speech refers to using meaningful words and omitting words that make language easier to understand (e.g. daddy give milk).
Semantics refers to the meaning of language terms. Vocabulary is one indication of children’s semantic development. Children speak their first words at about 10 to 12 months of age and there typically is a word spurt at 18 months of age. Fast mapping refers to the ability to learn new words based on very little input and this may underlie the word spurt. Overextensions refer to stretching a familiar word beyond its correct meaning (e.g. ‘bird’ for everything that flies). This may lead adults to provide them with the correct word. Underextension refers to using a too strict category for a word (e.g. only one cat is a cat).
Word learning is
.....read more Childhood: Developmental Psychology – Lecture 7 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)The self-concept is something unique to a person. It consists of self-compassion (1), mindset (2), self-efficacy (3) and self-esteem (4). Children first view the self as something that is distinct from the body and children have some intuitive theories about the self. Eventually, the self-concept becomes stable with some fluctuations. It is influenced by culture and the developmental stage of a person.
There are age-related changes in the self-concept. The early self-concept depends on the feedback one receives (e.g. “the teacher tells me you are great!”). Later, the self-concept also depends on social comparison. This comparison is influenced by cognitive ability and self-evaluative tasks (e.g. how good one is at reading and the opportunities one has to compare oneself with others on tasks such as exams). This demonstrates that social relationships are central to the development of the self-concept (i.e. Vygotsky). The interactions and feedback in those interactions with parents (1), peers (2) and teachers (3) shape the self-concept.
Self-perceived ability consists of domain-general ability (i.e. general ability) and domain-specific ability (i.e. specific ability). It can be measured in different contexts (e.g. school context; sports context). Academic achievement is closely and regularly monitored in the school environment and children tend to develop their self-perceived ability based on this regular assessment. One’s self-perceived ability influences one’s effort and one’s subsequent achievement which, in turn, influences self-perceived ability again. This leads to a feedback loop where achievement and self-perceived ability influence each other through effort:
The positive perception of skill could be increased by peer comparison and positive feedback. This means that self-concept of ability plays an important role in motivating achievement over time and across achievement levels.
Early math achievement predicts later math achievement even when controlling for a lot of characteristics (e.g. SES; demographics). The same pattern exists for early reading achievement. One’s self-concept in math and reading predict achievement in this domain at a later age and this pattern holds across the achievement spectrum (i.e. low- and high achievement).
at a later age in each domain and this holds across levels of achievement (i.e. low- and high achievement). However, the relationship is smaller when achievement is high compared to when it is lower.
Self-esteem refers to a global evaluation of oneself as a person. It has three characteristics:
The sociometer theory states that self-esteem is an internal monitor of how much one is valued by others. A child which has relational value has a higher self-esteem. The social comparison theory states that a child compares oneself with others to evaluate ability and this leads
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