Does social–behavioral adjustment mediate the relation between executive function and academic readiness?

Caregivers’ Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: Associations with Preschoolers’ Executive Functioning

There is a lack of knowledge regarding the connection between parental emotional responsiveness and children’s executive functioning (EF). This study aimed to explore the relations between caregivers’ reactions to their children’s distress and children’s EF. Mothers of 136 preschoolers reported their reactions to their children’s negative emotions using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale. Children’s EF was assessed through the mothers and teachers’ reports using the Behavioral Inventory of Executive Functioning for Preschool Children. Results showed that the mothers’ perceived use of negative emotional regulation responses (i.e., punitive and minimizing reactions) was associated with lower levels of EF in children, as reported by both mothers and teachers. The association between the mothers’ use of positive emotional regulation responses (i.e., problem-focused, emotion-focused, and expressive encouragement reactions) and children’s EF was not significant. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the mothers’ use of negative emotional regulation responses accounted for significant proportions of variance in EF indexes. These findings suggest that parental socialization of emotion could be important for children’s EF. Specifically, caregivers’ negative emotional regulation responses to children’s distress may serve as a risk factor for poorer EF in children. Efforts to improve children’s EF may be more effective when parental emotional responsiveness to their distress is considered.

Executive function training for kindergarteners after the Great East Japan Earthquake: intervention effects

Japan’s Social Thinking and Academic Readiness Training (START) program Academic Readiness (AR) lesson aims to improve self-regulation, executive function, and behavior problems in kindergarten children, but the effects of the START program AR lessons in unfavorable circumstances are unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of the START program AR lesson in affected areas after the Great East Japan Earthquake. A cluster randomized trial was conducted with 111 5-year-old children in two kindergartens in Miyagi Prefecture to evaluate the effectiveness of the six-week AR lesson. One kindergarten was randomly chosen to implement the AR lesson, and the other maintained standard education. In the intervention group, trained classroom teachers provided the children with a 20-min AR lesson once a week. Executive function, behavioral self-regulation, and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors were measured before and after the six-week intervention. The intervention group showed improved inhibitory control and enhanced behavioral self-regulation compared with the standard practice group. In addition, teachers’ evaluations showed that children’s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors improved significantly. The results indicate that the START program AR lesson was effective in enabling teachers to help students improve executive function, self-regulation, and problematic behaviors. Therefore, educators and policy-makers should consider implementing the START program AR lesson in kindergartens after a disaster.

Development of metacognitive competencies of students in the process of constructing mathematical problems for younger students

The article presents a description of the study of the effectiveness of methodological tools aimed at developing metacognitive competence in future elementary school teachers in the classroom on the methodology of teaching mathematics to younger students.

The aim of the study is to empirically test the effectiveness of a set of methodological techniques used in the classroom on the methodology of teaching mathematics to future elementary school teachers as a means of developing their metacognitive competencies. The hypothesis of the study is the assumption that one of the effective means of developing metacognitive competencies in future elementary school teachers is special classes for compiling original scenarios of verbal mathematical problems for younger students. A professionally developed verbal composition of a mathematical problem sets the vector of mental activity for the younger student. It requires the developer to build a forecast of the child’s mental actions, determine algorithms and levels of difficulty in obtaining the right solution. The study used methods for testing students’ cognitive characteristics (intelligence) and peer review of their “metacognitive knowledge”, “metacognitive skills”, “metacognitive experience” and “metacognitive strategies”. The methodological solutions implemented in the classroom have shown their effectiveness. For the practice of preparing future primary school teachers, it is important that the well-organized development of compositions of textual mathematical problems for younger students is an effective means of developing their metacognitive competencies.

Executive Functions in Social Context: Implications for Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Supporting Developmental Trajectories

Success in life is linked to executive functions, a collection of cognitive processes that support goal-directed behaviors. Executive functions is an umbrella term related to cognitive control, self-control, and more. Variations in executive functioning predict concurrent success in schooling, relationships, and behavior, as well as important life outcomes years later. Such findings may suggest that certain individuals are destined for good executive functioning and success. However, environmental influences on executive function and development have long been recognized. Recent research in this tradition demonstrates the power of social contextual influences on children's engagement of executive functions. Such findings suggest new interpretations of why individuals differ in executive functioning and associated life outcomes, including across cultures and socioeconomic statuses. These findings raise fundamental questions about how best to conceptualize, measure, and support executive functioning across diverse contexts. Future research addressing real-world dynamics and computational mechanisms will elucidate how executive functioning emerges in the world.

Individual differences in executive function and learning: The role of knowledge type and conflict with prior knowledge

Executive function (EF) predicts children's academic achievement; however, less is known about the relation between EF and the actual learning process. The current study examined how aspects of the material to be learned-the type of information and the amount of conflict between the content to be learned and children's prior knowledge-influence the relation between individual differences in EF and learning. Typically developing 4-year-olds (N = 61) completed a battery of EF tasks and several animal learning tasks that varied on the type of information being learned (factual vs. conceptual) and the amount of conflict with the learners' prior knowledge (no prior knowledge vs. no conflicting prior knowledge vs. conflicting prior knowledge). Individual differences in EF predicted children's overall learning, controlling for age, verbal IQ, and prior knowledge. Children's working memory and cognitive flexibility skills predicted their conceptual learning, whereas children's inhibitory control skills predicted their factual learning. In addition, individual differences in EF mattered more for children's learning of information that conflicted with their prior knowledge. These findings suggest that there may be differential relations between EF and learning depending on whether factual or conceptual information is being taught and the degree of conceptual change that is required. A better understanding of these different relations serves as an essential foundation for future research designed to create more effective academic interventions to optimize children's learning.

Sources of individual differences in young Chinese children's reading and mathematics skill: A longitudinal study

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between four key elements of school readiness-receptive vocabulary, socioemotional behavior, behavioral self-regulation, and approaches to learning-and individual differences in young children's reading and mathematics trajectories. Chinese children (N = 588) were tested three times between the ages of five and six on their Chinese reading and mathematics skills, and their receptive vocabulary, problem behavior, behavioral self-regulation, and approaches to learning (competence motivation, learning strategy, and attention/persistence) were assessed at five years of age. Latent growth modeling revealed that receptive vocabulary and behavioral self-regulation played unique roles in predicting the levels of Chinese reading (vocabulary: β = 0.15, p = .023; self-regulation: β = 0.16, p = .001) and mathematics skills (vocabulary: β = 0.25, p < .001; self-regulation: β = 0.36, p < .001). Problem behavior and competence motivation were associated with the levels of mathematics skills (problem behavior: β = -0.06, p = .046; competence motivation: β = 0.16, p < .001) but not those of reading skills. Moreover, competence motivation predicted the growth rate of Chinese reading skills (β = 0.18, p = .015). The findings extend the current literature by explicating the independent contributions made by early school readiness skills to individual differences in young Chinese children's acquisition of reading and mathematics skills.

From Early Relationships to Preacademic Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Developmental Cascade to School Readiness

This study aimed to test a four-wave sequential mediation model linking mother-child attachment to children's school readiness through child executive functioning (EF) and prosociality in toddlerhood and the preschool years. Mother-child attachment security was assessed when children (N = 255) were aged 15 months and 2 years, child EF at age 2, prosocial behavior at age 4, and finally cognitive school readiness in kindergarten (age 6). The results revealed three indirect pathways linking attachment to school readiness: one through EF only, one through prosocial behavior only, and a last pathway involving both EF and prosocial behavior serially. These findings suggest that secure attachment may equip children with both cognitive and social skills that are instrumental to their preparedness for school.

Pathways to Kindergarten Readiness: The Roles of Second Step Early Learning Curriculum and Social Emotional, Executive Functioning, Preschool Academic and Task Behavior Skills

Efforts to improve the achievement gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers has led to the development of classroom interventions and curricula to increase executive functioning (EF) and social-emotional skills (SE), thought to be foundational for learning. The Second Step Early Learning (SSEL) curriculum is a commercially available curriculum designed to improve school readiness by building EF and SE skills. However, although widely used, it has not been widely studied. Modeling SSEL's underlying theory of change, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to longitudinally examine the effects of the curriculum on low-income preschool children's kindergarten school readiness through the hypothesized mediating role of EF and SE skills in improving pre-academic skills and task behavior in preschool. In a cluster randomized trial, 972 children attending 63 preschool classrooms within 13 low-income Head Start or community preschools were individually tested at the beginning (T1) and end of preschool (T2, n = 836) and followed into kindergarten. Children's average age at T1 was 53 months, with 51% male, 42% Anglo-American, 26% African-American, and 40% Hispanic-American. Children's EF, social skills, pre-literacy/language, and pre-math skills were assessed by trained child assessors blind to study conditions at T1 and T2. Assessors also rated children's task behavior in the testing situation at T1 and T2. School records of children's kindergarten screening scores were obtained on 345 children at T3. It was expected that SSEL would have both direct and indirect effects on kindergarten readiness through improvements in children's SE and EF skills preschool academic skills and on-task behavior. We found no direct effects of SSEL on either pre-academic or on-task behavior outcomes in preschool, nor on later kindergarten readiness. However, SSEL significantly increased EF, and as expected by SSEL's theory of change, growth in EF predicted gains in both pre-academics (particularly pre-math), and on-task behavior in preschool. End-of-year pre-academic skills and on task behavior in turn predicted better kindergarten readiness. Further, SE (although not impacted by SSEL) had direct and indirect effects on kindergarten readiness. Thus, overall, our findings largely support SSEL's theory of change, particularly in relation to EF.

Socioeconomic Risk and School Readiness: Longitudinal Mediation Through Children's Social Competence and Executive Function

The association of socioeconomic status with academic readiness and school achievement is well established. However, the specific contributions of cognitive and social aspects of self-regulation, and potential reciprocal relations between them in the prediction of school readiness and early school achievement have not previously been examined. This study examined mediational processes involving children's executive function (EF) skills at 58 months and Grade 1 (G1) and social competence in Kindergarten (K) and G1, as potential pathways by which early-life poverty-related risks influence Grade 2 (G2) math and reading achievement. Data came from the Family Life Project, which is a prospective longitudinal study of 1,292 children and families followed from birth in primarily low-income, non-urban counties in Pennsylvania (PA) and North Carolina (NC). Autoregressive cross-lagged mediation analyses indicated that EF at 58 months through EF at G1 mediated negative associations between cumulative risk exposure and academic skills, with this pathway mediating 36% of the total effect. Furthermore, social competence at K through EF at G1 mediated negative associations between early-life cumulative socioeconomic risk and academic skills, mediating 16% of the total effect. These findings provide evidence that poverty-related risks can influence school readiness and academic achievement via EF. Additionally, these results provide preliminary support for the premise that social competence through EF is a pathway by which cumulative poverty-related risk predicts early academic competence. Our findings are consistent with studies demonstrating developmental associations between EF and social competence. Furthermore, our findings are consistent with prekindergarten programs for children in poverty that emphasize both cognitive and social aspects of self-regulation.

Kindergarten Children's Executive Functions Predict Their Second-Grade Academic Achievement and Behavior

Whether and to what extent kindergarten children's executive functions (EF) constitute promising targets of early intervention is currently unclear. This study examined whether kindergarten children's EF predicted their second-grade academic achievement and behavior. This was done using (a) a longitudinal and nationally representative sample (N = 8,920, M_age  = 97.6 months), (b) multiple measures of EF, academic achievement, and behavior, and (c) extensive statistical control including for domain-specific and domain-general lagged dependent variables. All three measures of EF-working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control-positively and significantly predicted reading, mathematics, and science achievement. In addition, inhibitory control negatively predicted both externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. Children's EF constitute promising targets of experimentally evaluated interventions for increasing academic and behavioral functioning.

Single-trial EEG-informed fMRI analysis of emotional decision problems in hot executive function

BACKGROUND

Executive function refers to conscious control in psychological process which relates to thinking and action. Emotional decision is a part of hot executive function and contains emotion and logic elements. As a kind of important social adaptation ability, more and more attention has been paid in recent years.

OBJECTIVE

Gambling task can be well performed in the study of emotional decision. As fMRI researches focused on gambling task show not completely consistent brain activation regions, this study adopted EEG-fMRI fusion technology to reveal brain neural activity related with feedback stimuli.

METHODS

In this study, an EEG-informed fMRI analysis was applied to process simultaneous EEG-fMRI data. First, relative power-spectrum analysis and K-means clustering method were performed separately to extract EEG-fMRI features. Then, Generalized linear models were structured using fMRI data and using different EEG features as regressors.

RESULTS

The results showed that in the win versus loss stimuli, the activated regions almost covered the caudate, the ventral striatum (VS), the orbital frontal cortex (OFC), and the cingulate. Wide activation areas associated with reward and punishment were revealed by the EEG-fMRI integration analysis than the conventional fMRI results, such as the posterior cingulate and the OFC. The VS and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) were found when EEG power features were performed as regressors of GLM compared with results entering the amplitudes of feedback-related negativity (FRN) as regressors. Furthermore, the brain region activation intensity was the strongest when theta-band power was used as a regressor compared with the other two fusion results.

CONCLUSIONS

The EEG-based fMRI analysis can more accurately depict the whole-brain activation map and analyze emotional decision problems.