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Abstract The hierarchical competing systems model (HCSM) provides a framework for understanding the emergence and early development of executive function – the cognitive processes underlying the conscious control of behavior – in the context of search for hidden objects. According to this model, behavior is determined by the joint influence of a developmentally invariant habit system and a conscious representational system that becomes increasingly influential as children develop. This article describes a computational formalization of the HCSM, reviews behavioral and computational research consistent with the model, and suggests directions for future research on the development of executive function.

In order to address the deleterious effects of poverty and toxic stress on the development of children's executive function (EF) skills, it is important for researchers to consider interventions that address multiple overlapping family systems. Interventions should consider influences on children's developing EF skills, including parent stress, household chaos, and the quality of parent-child interactions. One particularly important component of successful EF intervention is the promotion of cognitive reflection. However, common methods of promoting reflection in children (e.g., mindfulness meditation) might not be appropriate in all contexts. This paper outlines a framework for considering the promotion of cognitive reflection within daily family routines. This integration of practices has the potential to improve children's EF skills as well as other important family outcomes.

AbstractVisual scenes contain many statistical regularities such as the likely identity and location of objects that are present; with experience, such regularities can be encoded and can ultimately facilitate the deployment of spatial attention to important locations. Memory‐guided attention has been extensively examined in adults with the 'contextual cueing' paradigm and has been linked to specific neural substrates – a medial temporal lobe (MTL)‐frontoparietal network. However, it currently remains unknown when this ability comes 'online' during development. Thus, we examined the performance of school‐aged children on an age‐appropriate version of the contextual cueing paradigm. Children searched for a target fish among distractor fish in new displays and in 'old' displays on a touchscreen computer. Old displays repeated across blocks of trials and thus provided an opportunity for prior experience with the invariant configuration of the stimuli to guide attentional deployment. We found that over time children searched old displays significantly faster than new displays, thus revealing intact memory‐guided attention and presumed function of an MTL‐frontoparietal network in 5‐ to 9‐year‐olds. More generally, our findings suggest that children are remarkably sensitive to the inherent structure of their visual environment and this enables attentional deployment to become more efficient with experience.

AbstractWhereas 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.

AbstractTo explore the influence of circadian rhythms on executive function during early adolescence, we administered a battery of executive function measures (including a Go‐Nogo task, the Iowa Gambling Task, a Self‐ordered Pointing task, and an Intra/Extradimensional Shift task) to Morning‐preference and Evening‐preference participants (N = 80) between the ages of 11 and 14 years who were tested in the morning or afternoon. Significant Chronotype × Time of Day interactions (controlling for amount of sleep the previous night) revealed that adolescents tested at their optimal times of day performed better than those tested at their nonoptimal times. Implications for our understanding of physiological arousal, sleep, and executive function during adolescence are discussed.