A cross-cultural investigation of inhibitory control, generative fluency, and anxiety symptoms in Romanian and Russian preschoolers

The influence of early life socio-environmental factors on executive performance in a healthy adult sample

OBJECTIVE

Attempts have been made (with research efforts encouraged) to deconstruct the "race" concept into language, cultural, and life experience variables that can help explain performance differences found between ethnic groups (Romero et al., 2009). The extant empirical literature reveals that early environmental factors and life experiences (e.g., socioeconomic status) are related to cognitive test performance in adulthood (Byrd et al., 2006). This study examined the explanatory value of early life childhood resources in the relationship between ethnicity and neuropsychological test performance in adulthood.

PARTICIPANTS/ METHODS

Neurologically and psychologically healthy African American (n = 40), Caucasian (n = 14), and Hispanic (n = 107) college students ranging from 19-38 years of age. On average, participants had completed around 13 years of education, indicating that the majority were in the early stages of their undergraduate studies and mostly consisted of females (72%). Each participant completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery that included tests of executive function and an extensive background questionnaire.

RESULTS

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that the CA group was significantly older (F (2, 160) = 18.38, p = .045) compared to the AA and H groups, but the groups did not differ in terms of number of years of educations or gender. Also, an ANOVA revealed significant group test performance differences on the Stroop-C [F (2, 160) = 1.53, p = .047], but not on the TMT-B and COWAT. Furthermore, a Tukey post hoc revealed that there were no significant differences in test performance on Stroop-C between the groups. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that group performance differences on executive function tests were medium or non-existent and only partially explained by years of education and early life financial resources.

CONCLUSION

The results are discussed in light of the existing literature, study strengths and limitations, as well as directions for future research. This research can aid in pinpointing variables crucial for interpreting differences in neuropsychological assessments among diverse populations, holding potential implications for intervention research and policy settings. It is particularly relevant in the context of the continuously evolving social, political, and economic landscapes of societies.

Truthful yet misleading: Elementary second-order deception in school-age children and its sociocognitive correlates

In highly competitive contexts, deceptive intentions might be transparent, so conveying only false information to the opponent can become a predictable strategy. In such situations, alternating between truths and lies (second-order lying behavior) represents a less foreseeable option. The current study investigated the development of 8- to 10-year-old children's elementary second-order deception in relation to their attribution of ignorance (first- and second-order ignorance) and executive functions (inhibitory control, shifting ability, and verbal working memory). An adapted version of the hide-and-seek paradigm was used to assess children's second-order lie-telling, in which children were asked to hide a coin in either of their hands. Unlike the standard paradigm, the opponent did not consistently look for the coin in the location indicated by the children, so children needed to switch between telling simple lies and truths (elementary second-order lies about the coin location) to successfully deceive the recipient. The results showed that older children were less likely to tell elementary second-order lies. However, across the sample, when children decided to lie, this ability was positively related to their second-order ignorance attribution and their verbal working memory. Moreover, we obtained preliminary evidence for the presence of a habituation effect in second-order lying, with children being more accurate and having less variability in their truthful-to-deceive responses (this being the more frequently elicited response) than when telling lies to deceive. Our findings could have implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying children's ability to alternate between truths and lies to deceive.

Learning motivation tendencies among preschoolers: Impact of executive functions and gender differences

The current study aimed to validate the Russian version of the Child Behaviour Motivation Scale (CBeMO), examine gender differences in motivational tendencies, and explore the impact of executive functions on learning motivation tendencies among children. The sample consisted of 434 typically developing 5-6 years old children. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that according to the evaluation criteria, the model is poorly fitted to the data. However, internal consistency analysis confirmed acceptable levels of reliability and unidimensionality of the CBeMO scales. The identified internal structure of CBeMO indicates an overlap between CBeMO items related to task avoidance and social dependence on the Russian sample. The study revealed differences between girls and boys in all three CBeMO scales. Concerning executive functioning, it was revealed that motor persistence skills and working memory have an impact on the learning motivation tendencies among children, when controlling for group size, age, gender and non-verbal intelligence.

Inhibitory abilities in girls and boys: More similarities or differences?

This brief review examined the literature from 1990 to June 2020 on sex differences in inhibitory abilities from early childhood to adolescence, primarily in individuals with typical development (TD) and individuals with atypical development. The 38 articles included (28 on individuals with TD, eight on the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] population, and two on individuals with autism spectrum disorder [ASD]) suggest that the cognitive demand of the task is important, together with contextual factors that may interact with the development of inhibitory ability, for revealing differences between the sexes. The literature has neglected the multicomponential nature of inhibitory abilities, and the emphasis has consequently been placed on response inhibition (vs. other components). The implication of the impurity problem has also been considered. The findings on children and adolescents with ADHD or ASD-even for outcomes that are not conclusive-imply that there is no evidence for a difference in inhibitory abilities between males and females. The literature proposes an asynchrony in the development of inhibitory abilities that may explain what is found in typically developing girls who perform more highly than boys on more demanding tasks.

Associations Between Executive Functions and Physical Fitness in Preschool Children

Considering the current agreement on the significance of executive functions, there is growing interest in determining factors that contribute to the development of these skills, especially during the preschool period. Although multiple studies have been focusing on links between physical activity, physical fitness and executive functions, this topic was more investigated in schoolchildren and adults than in preschoolers. The aim of the current study was to identify different levels of physical fitness among pre-schoolers, followed by an analysis of differences in their executive functions. Participants were 261 5–6-years old children. Inhibitory control and working memory were positively linked with physical fitness. Cognitive flexibility was not associated with physical fitness. The research findings are considered from neuropsychological grounds, Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, and the cultural-historical approach.

Cultural influences on the developing semantic lexicon

To determine whether the developing semantic lexicon varies with culture, we examined the animal and food naming of children from three communities distinguished by language, cultural heritage, and population density. The children were five- and seven-year-olds from Australia (n = 197), Taiwan (n = 456), and the US (n = 172). Naming patterns revealed hierarchical and flexible organization of the semantic lexicon. The content of the lexicon, particularly food names, varied with cultural heritage. In all three communities, wild mammals were predominant during animal naming, a likely influence of children's media. The influence of the Chinese zodiac was evident in the clustering of animal names in the Taiwanese sample. There was no apparent influence of population density and little influence of language, except that the Taiwanese children more frequently named foods at the superordinate level, a possible influence of the structure of Mandarin. Children develop their lexicons in response to culture as experienced first-hand or through media.

Neurocognitive Functions in 3- to 15-Year-Old Children: An International Comparison

OBJECTIVES

Performance on neurocognitive tasks develops with age, but it is still unknown whether this performance differs between children from different cultures. We compared cross-sectionally the development of neurocognitive functions in 3- to 15-year-old children from three countries: Finland, Italy, and the United States (N=2745).

METHODS

Language, face memory, emotion recognition, theory of mind, and visuospatial processing subtests from the NEPSY-II standardizations in Finland, Italy, and the United States were used to evaluate if children and adolescents from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds differ in performance on these measures.

RESULTS

We found significant differences in performance on the tasks between the countries. Generally, the differences were more pronounced in the younger age groups. Some subtests showed greater country effects than others, performance on these subtests being higher, in general, in one country over the others, or showed different patterns of age associated changes in test performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Significant differences in neurocognitive performance between children from Finland, Italy, and the United States were found. These findings may be due to cultural or educational differences that impact test performance, or due to factors associated with the adaptation of measures from one culture to another. The finding of performance differences across countries on similar tasks indicate that cross-cultural and background variables impact performance on neuropsychological measures. Therefore, clinicians need to consider a child's cultural background when evaluating performance on neuropsychological assessments. The results also indicate that future cross-cultural studies are needed to further examine the underlying cultural factors that influence neurocognitive performance. (JINS, 2017, 23, 367-380).

Screening for dementia in Arabic: normative data from an elderly Lebanese sample

OBJECTIVE

Prevention and treatment of dementia is a global concern that requires involvement of international samples. The purpose of this study is to develop culturally sensitive norms based on normal older Lebanese adults using multiple cognitive screening measures translated into Arabic for regional use.

METHODS

Participants were 164 community dwelling older Lebanese adults without cognitive complaints. They were administered the following cognitive measures in Arabic: Alzheimer's Disease 8-item questionnaire, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Mini Mental Status Exam, Modified Mini Mental Status, Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised, Lebanese Digit Span, Cross-Linguistic Naming Test, and phonemic and semantic fluency tests.

RESULTS

Sample characteristics and descriptive statistics for the demographically unadjusted raw scores are first presented (N = 164). Same-form test-retest reliability for each test were computed for 24 participants retested over 2-5 weeks, with reliabilities ranging from .55 to .90; Cronbach alpha coefficients ranged from .34 to .93. Two sets of normative data were constructed. First, base-rates for demographically unadjusted raw scores for the 5th, 10th and 15th percentiles are presented to identify relatively rare occurring performances. Second, using standardized regression-based procedures demographically corrected normative information adjusted for age, education and sex were generated for normative interpretation.

CONCLUSIONS

Adapting cognitive tests for use in culturally and linguistically diverse regions of the world not only requires careful translation of test instructions and materials, but construction of culturally sensitive local norms. Our normative data should allow for more accurate identification of cognitive impairment and dementia in Arabic-speaking patients, especially those living in Lebanon.

Measuring the development of inhibitory control: The challenge of heterotypic continuity

Inhibitory control is thought to demonstrate heterotypic continuity, in other words, continuity in its purpose or function but changes in its behavioral manifestation over time. This creates major methodological challenges for studying the development of inhibitory control in childhood including construct validity, developmental appropriateness and sensitivity of measures, and longitudinal factorial invariance. We meta-analyzed 198 studies using measures of inhibitory control, a key aspect of self-regulation, to estimate age ranges of usefulness for each measure. The inhibitory control measures showed limited age ranges of usefulness owing to ceiling/floor effects. Tasks were useful, on average, for a developmental span of less than 3 years. This suggests that measuring inhibitory control over longer spans of development may require use of different measures at different time points, seeking to measure heterotypic continuity. We suggest ways to study the development of inhibitory control, with overlapping measurement in a structural equation modeling framework and tests of longitudinal factorial or measurement invariance. However, as valuable as this would be for the area, we also point out that establishing longitudinal factorial invariance is neither sufficient nor necessary for examining developmental change. Any study of developmental change should be guided by theory and construct validity, aiming toward a better empirical and theoretical approach to the selection and combination of measures.

Neuropsychological performance of Finnish and Egyptian children with autism spectrum disorder

Background

Previous studies investigating neuropsychological functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have only analysed certain abilities, such as executive functions or language. While comprehensive assessment of the neuropsychological profile of children with ASD has been the focus of recent research, most of the published evidence originates from single centres. Though studies on differences in neuropsychological features of children with ASD across countries are essential for identifying different phenotypes of ASD, such studies have not been conducted.

Objective

Our goal was to assess the neuropsychological abilities of children with ASD in northern Finland and Egypt and to examine the effect of age and intelligence quotient (IQ) on these abilities.

Design

Selected verbal and non-verbal subtests of the neuropsychological assessment NEPSY were used to examine 88 children with ASD in northern Finland (n=54, age M=11.2, IQ M=117.1) and Egypt (n=34, age M=8.4, IQ M=96.6).

Results

Finnish ASD children scored significantly higher than their Egyptian counterparts on the verbal NEPSY subtests Comprehension of Instructions (p<0.001), Comprehension of Sentence Structure (p<0.01), Narrative Memory (p<0.001) and Verbal Fluency (p<0.05) and on the non-verbal NEPSY subtest Design Fluency (p<0.01). Finnish and Egyptian ASD children did not differ on the subtests Memory for Faces, Object Recognition and Object Memory. In addition, we found that age and verbal IQ can have significant influence on neuropsychological performance.

Conclusions

Our results suggest a possible cultural impact on verbal and visuomotor fluency. However, the ability to recognize and memorize objects and the disability to remember faces appear to be typical for ASD and culturally independent.

Symbolization in the Structure of Abilities in Children of Preschool and School Age

This research explores the role of symbolization in educational activity in children of late preschool and early school age. The aim of the research was to compare the efficiency of using sign and symbolic means (i.e. schemes and models) in the learning of some new content in preschool and early school age. The study involved 46 children of late preschool age from one of the Moscow kindergartens, 20 girls and 26 boys (M = 78 months); and 25 first grade students of one of the Moscow schools, 16 girls and 9 boys (M = 101 months). The study consisted of the following stages: carrying out tests of mental abilities and dividing the subjects into two sub¬groups within each age group (that is, two subgroups of preschool children and two subgroups of school chil¬dren) with equal levels of development of the explored abilities; conducting developmental lessons aimed at making the children familiar with phenomena characterizing phase transitions in states of aggregation of mat¬ter — with the help of symbolic means (in the experimental group) or sign means (in the control group); carrying out a posttest, that is, measuring the level of development of the concepts of aggregate states in all sub¬groups. The outcomes of the research indicated that symbolization may actually be an effective means of con¬structing learning content both in preschool and in early school age.