Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-11-03
Abstract： As high-level cognitive processes, executive functions (EF) refer to a set of top-down neurocognitive processes served for conscious, goal-directed control of thought, action and emotion, which is crucial for children’s academic success and mental and physical health. It includes inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility. Although abundant related theories and studies existed, some limitations still remained. Firstly, EF are measured with a single task in previous studies, which are rarely incapable of decomposing different components of EF. They are lack to systematically investigate the unity and diversity of EF from an integrative view; Then, rare studies use longitudinal design to examine the stability of the unity and diversity of children’s executive functions during middle childhood. The present attempted to address these issues mentioned above.
From the perspective of a unity/diversity framework of EF, combined with latent-variable analysis and network analysis, the present study followed 756 students from grade 3 to 4 (Mage = 9.25 years, 51.85% girls) to systematically and comprehensively explore the unity and diversity of EF during middle childhood. They were recruited to measure six tasks related with three main components of EF.
The results showed that: The structure of children’s EF in middle childhood included inhibitory control and combined factor of working memory and cognitive reflection; These six tasks were organized into one stable components through at least age 10; The unity and diversity of EF met full metric invariance.
These findings highlight the importance of understanding the unity and diversity of EF among middle childhood from a developmental perspective, and provide new sight on the measuring means of EF.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
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