Speed and accuracy on the Hearts and Flowers task interact to predict child outcomes

Monitoring and control processes within executive functions: Is post-error slowing related to pre-error speeding in children?

Both pre-error speeding and post-error slowing reflect monitoring and control strategies. Post-error slowing is relatively well-established in children, whereas pre-error speeding is much less studied. Here we investigated (a) whether kindergarten and first-grade children show pre-error speeding in a cognitive control task (Hearts and Flowers) and, if so, (b) whether post-error slowing is associated with pre-error speeding. We analyzed the data from 153 kindergartners and 468 first-graders. Both kindergartners and first-graders showed significant pre-error speeding and post-error slowing, with no differences between the two samples in the magnitude of each. The magnitude of pre-error speeding and post-error slowing was correlated within individuals in both samples and to a similar extent. That is, children who sped up more extremely toward an error also slowed down more extremely after an error. These findings provide evidence that pre-error speeding and post-error slowing are related in children as early as kindergarten age and may in concert reflect how optimal children's monitoring and control of their performance is in a cognitive control task.

Training kindergarten children on learning from their mistakes

This study investigated whether feedback on their errors and speed improves kindergarten children's performance in an executive function (EF) task. Children from Switzerland (N = 213, 49% female, Mage = 6.4 years) were tested in the Hearts and Flowers task pre- and post-training and trained either on a variant of this task with (n = 71) or without feedback (n = 72), or on a control learning task (n = 70). The feedback group performed more efficiently than the no-feedback group during the intervention and partially also in the post-test. Both EF training groups performed more efficiently than the control group in the post-test. These results suggest that kindergarten children detect and monitor their errors and even get better at it given the opportunity to practice. Moreover, they benefit additionally from external feedback. Integrating feedback into computerized cognitive training (and learning apps) could be a potential avenue for interventions in school settings.

Balancing accuracy and speed in the development of inhibitory control

Inhibitory control develops rapidly and nonlinearly, making its accurate assessment challenging. This research investigated the developmental dynamics of accuracy and response latency in inhibitory control assessment of 3- to 6-year-old children in a longitudinal study (N = 431; 212 girls; Mage = 4.86 years, SD = 0.99) and a cross-sectional study (N = 135; 71 girls; Mage = 4.24 years, SD = 0.61). We employed a computerized Stroop task to measure inhibitory control, with fluid intelligence serving as a covariate. A growth curve analysis revealed that children who reached an accuracy threshold of 80% earlier demonstrated faster improvements in response latency. Both the cross-sectional and longitudinal findings demonstrated a positive association between response latency in the inhibitory control task and fluid intelligence, but only when participants had achieved and maintained high accuracy. These results suggest that researchers should consider response latency as an indicator of inhibitory control only in children who manage to respond accurately in an inhibitory control task.

One Score to Rule Them All? Comparing the Predictive and Concurrent Validity of 30 Hearts and Flowers Scoring Approaches

The Hearts and Flowers (H&F) task is a computerized executive functioning (EF) assessment that has been used to measure EF from early childhood to adulthood. It provides data on accuracy and reaction time (RT) across three different task blocks (hearts, flowers, and mixed). However, there is a lack of consensus in the field on how to score the task that makes it difficult to interpret findings across studies. The current study, which includes a demographically diverse population of kindergarteners from Boston Public Schools (N = 946), compares the predictive and concurrent validity of 30 ways of scoring H&F, each with a different combination of accuracy, RT, and task block(s). Our exploratory results provide evidence supporting the use of a two-vector average score based on Zelazo et al.'s approach of adding accuracy and RT scores together only after individuals pass a certain accuracy threshold. Findings have implications for scoring future tablet-based developmental assessments.

Hearts, flowers, and fruits: All children need to reveal their post-error slowing

Slowing down responses after errors (i.e., post-error slowing [PES]) is an established finding in adults. Yet PES in young children is still not well understood. In this study, we investigated (a) whether young children show PES in tasks with different types of cognitive conflict and differing demands on executive functions, (b) whether PES is adaptive and efficient in the sense that it is associated with better task performance, and (c) whether PES correlates between tasks. We tested 4- to 6-year-old children on the Funny Fruits task (FF; n = 143), a Stroop-like task that incorporates semantic conflict and taxes children's inhibition skills, and the Hearts and Flowers task (HF; n = 170), which incorporates spatial conflict and taxes children's inhibition skills in its incongruent block and taxes both inhibition and cognitive flexibility (rule-switching) skills in its mixed block. A subgroup of children were tested on both FF and HF (n = 74). Results revealed that, first, children showed PES in FF and both blocks of HF, indicating that PES occurs in both types of conflict and under varying executive demands. Second, PES was associated with task accuracy, but only for FF and the mixed HF. Third, a between-task association in PES emerged only between FF and the mixed HF. Together, these findings indicate that PES is still a developing strategy in young children; it is present but only adaptive for, and correlates between, semantic inhibition and spatial flexibility.

Six- to eight-year-olds’ performance in the Heart and Flower task: Emerging proactive cognitive control

The Heart and Flower task is used worldwide to measure age-dependent and individual differences in executive functions and/or cognitive control. The task reliably maps age and individual differences and these have consistently been found to be predictive for different aspects of school readiness and academic achievement. The idea has been put forward that there is a developmental shift in how children approach such a task. While 6-year-olds’ tend to adapt their task strategy ad hoc and reactively, older children increasingly engage in proactive cognitive control. Proactive cognitive control entails finding the right response speed without risking errors, always dependent on the cognitive conflict. The main goal of the present contribution was to examine children’s adjustments of response speed as a function of age and cognitive conflict by addressing RTs surrounding errors (i.e., errors and post-error trials). Data from a large sample with three age groups was used (N = 106 6-year-olds’ with a mean age of 6 years; 3 months; N = 108 7-year-olds’ with a mean age of 7 years; 4 months; N = 78 8-year-olds’ with a mean age of 8 years; 1 month). Response speed adjustments and the development thereof were targeted both across the Flower and Mixed block, respectively, and within these blocks focusing on errors and post-error slowing. Results revealed evidence for a developmental shift toward more efficient proactive cognitive control between 6 and 8 years of age, with the older but not the younger children strategically slowing down in the Mixed block and smoother post-error slowing. At the same time, we found that even the youngest age group has emerging proactive cognitive control skills at their disposal when addressing post-error slowing in the Flower block. The present study thus tracks the early roots of later efficient executive functions and cognitive control, contributes to a better understanding of how developmental progression in cognitive control is achieved, and highlights new avenues for research in this domain.

Transactional longitudinal relations between accuracy and reaction time on a measure of cognitive flexibility at 5, 6, and 7 years of age

Whereas accuracy is used as an indicator of cognitive flexibility in preschool-age children, reaction time (RT), or a combination of accuracy and RT, provide better indices of performance as children transition to school. Theoretical models and cross-sectional studies suggest that a speed-accuracy tradeoff may be operating across this transition, but the lack of longitudinal studies makes this transition difficult to understand. The current study explored the longitudinal and bidirectional associations between accuracy and RT on the DCCS (mixed block) at 5, 6, and 7 years of age using cross-lagged panel analyses. The study also examined the roles of working memory and language, as potential longitudinal mediators between RT at Time X and accuracy at Time X + 1, and explored the role of inhibitory control. The sample consisted of 425 children from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Results show lagged associations from slower RT to greater improvements in accuracy between 5 and 6 years and between 6 and 7 years. Further, higher accuracy at 6 years predicted faster RT at 7 years. Only working memory acted as a partial mediator between RT at 5 years and accuracy at 6 years. These results provide needed longitudinal evidence to support theoretical claims that slower RT precedes improved accuracy in the development of cognitive flexibility, that working memory may be involved in the early stage of this process, and that accuracy and reaction time become more efficient in later stages of this process. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Partial agreement between task and BRIEF-P-based EF measures depends on school socioeconomic status

Executive functions (EF), either conceptualized as skills involved in regulation of cognition and emotion in service of goal oriented behavior, or reductively as working memory, flexibility and inhibitory control, are commonly invoked constructs in developmental science. Two main traditions on EFs measurement prevail, one consisting of ratings obtained through questionnaires that inquire on behavior in common situations, the other based on performance in laboratory tasks. Whether both types of assessment actually refer to the same constructs is not consensual. Further, the role of school context in the degree of correspondence between both types of measures remains largely unexplored. Here, we show in a sample of over 220 children (age M = 5.6, SD = 0.4 years), by means of multilevel models, that whether EF tasks can predict BRIEF-P ratings and vice-versa, depends on the process considered and on the school SES. Inhibitory control, planning, and global executive functioning are associated with BRIEF-P ratings in all schools. In contrast, we found no association among measures of flexibility independently of school SES. For working memory, we found that questionnaire rating predicts span only in high SES schools, but span predicts behaviors across schools. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature that proposes constructs assessed by questionnaires and tasks only partially overlap and suggests that school SES may be a relevant factor to consider when questionnaires are answered by teachers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The early childhood inhibitory touchscreen task: A new measure of response inhibition in toddlerhood and across the lifespan

Research into the earliest development of inhibitory control is limited by a lack of suitable tasks. In particular, commonly used inhibitory control tasks frequently have too high language and working memory demands for children under 3 years of age. Furthermore, researchers currently tend to shift to a new set of inhibitory control tasks between infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood, raising doubts about whether the same function is being measured. Tasks that are structurally equivalent across age could potentially help resolve this issue. In the current report, a new response inhibition task, the Early Childhood Inhibitory Touchscreen Task (ECITT), was developed. This task can be minimally modified to suit different ages, whilst remaining structurally equivalent. In the new task, participants have to overcome a tendency to respond to a frequently rewarded location on a touchscreen and instead make an alternative response. The ECITT was validated in three independent studies (with additional data, N = 166, reported in Supporting Information). In Study 1 (N = 81), cross-sectional data indicated that inhibitory performance on the task improved significantly between 24 and 30 months of age. In Study 2 (N = 38), longitudinal data indicated steady improvement in inhibitory control between 18, 21 and 24 months, with significant stability in individual performance differences between each consecutive age in terms of accuracy (but not in terms of reaction time). Finally, in Study 3 (N = 64), inhibitory performance on a faster-paced version of the same task showed a similar developmental course across the lifespan (4-84 years) to other response inhibition tasks and was significantly correlated with Stop-signal performance. The ECITT extends the assessment of response inhibition earlier than previous tasks-into early toddlerhood. Because the task is simple and structurally equivalent across age, future longitudinal studies should benefit from using the ECITT to investigate the development of inhibitory control in a consistent manner across the toddler years and beyond.

The Protective Effects of Maternal and Paternal Factors on Children's Social Development

The goal of this study is to examine associations among family and child protective factors, maternal and paternal levels of distress, and children's social competence in a sample of 156 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse first-time mothers, fathers, and their children, followed from 9 months to 30 months of age. Using multiple linear regression modeling, our results indicate that dyadic synchrony and children's positive temperament during infancy are significantly associated with fewer behavior problems and paternal optimism with high levels of social competence at 21 months (main effects). Father optimism and child positive temperament are only significantly related to higher levels of social competence and fewer behavioral problems, respectively, in the context of low levels of paternal distress (interaction effects). These results suggest that in our sample maternal dyadic synchrony operates in the same way across levels of maternal distress as it relates to children's behavior problems, with the exception of paternal optimism and children's positive temperament. Results also suggest that protective factors are different for mothers, fathers, and children.

Measurement models for studying child executive functioning: Questioning the status quo

Despite widespread interest in the construct of executive functioning (EF), we currently lack definitive evidence regarding the best measurement model for representing the construct in substantive analyses. The most common practice is to represent EF ability as a reflective latent variable, with child performance on individual EF tasks as observed indicators. The current article critically evaluates the dominant use of reflective latent variable models in the child EF literature and compares them to composite models, a reasonable alternative. We review the literature suggesting that reflective latent variable models may not be the most appropriate representation of the construct of EF. Using preschool (Mage = 48.3 months) and first grade (Mage = 83.5 months) data from the Family Life Project (N = 920), we also investigate the implications of measurement model specification for the interpretation of study findings. Children in this sample varied in terms of sex (49% male), race (43% black) and socioeconomic status (76% low-income). Our findings show that the conclusions we draw from 2 substantive analyses differ depending on whether EF is modeled as a reflective latent variable versus a composite variable. We describe the implications of these findings for research on child EF and offer practical recommendations for producers and consumers of developmental research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Time-Based Measures of Monitoring in Association With Executive Functions in Kindergarten Children

Abstract. Repeatedly, the notion has been put forward that metacognition (MC) and executive functions (EF) share common grounds, as both describe higher order cognitive processes and involve monitoring. However, only few studies addressed this issue empirically and so far their findings are rather inconsistent. Addressing the question whether measurement differences may in part be responsible for the mixed results, the current study included explicitly reported as well as time-based measures of metacognitive monitoring and related them to EF. A total of 202 children aged 4–6 years were assessed in terms of EF (inhibition, working memory, shifting) and monitoring. While there was no significant link between explicitly reported confidence and EF, latencies of monitoring judgments were significantly related to time- and accuracy-based measures of EF. Our findings support the association between EF and MC and the assumption that better inhibition abilities help children to engage in more thorough monitoring.

Leveraging item accuracy and reaction time to improve measurement of child executive function ability

Traditionally, executive function (EF) tasks have been scored using either accuracy or reaction time (RT) metrics. The current study, which includes 1,015 first-grade children from the Family Life Project, demonstrates a new scoring approach for the Hearts and Flowers (HF) task that uses both item-level accuracy and RT data to estimate latent EF ability. Our primary aim was to compare scores derived from this approach to standard scores often reported in the HF literature. A second aim was to test whether item-level accuracy and RT data were differentially related to latent EF ability, depending on children's overall level of task performance. Our results indicated that item-level accuracy and RT data both convey unique information related to latent EF ability but that the relative contributions of each source of data vary across children. Accuracy was comparatively more informative of latent ability in children with lower HF task performance, while RT was comparatively more informative of latent ability in children with higher overall performance. Moreover, item-level RT was differentially related to latent EF ability for children in lower versus higher performing groups. Whereas faster responding was associated with higher ability in the higher performing group, slower responding was associated with higher ability for the lower performing group. Latent EF ability was related to criterion measures in ways comparable to traditional scores. Results are discussed in relation to the broader EF assessment literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).