Cognitive Development DVML

What are the 3 core EFs?

Inhibition - controlling attention/ behaviour/ thoughts and/or emotion to override a proponent response

Working memory - holding information in mind whilst simultaneously processing it

Cognitive Flexibility - changing perspectives/ approaches to a problem, flexibly adjusting to new demand/ rules/ priorities

They are interlinked

Development of inhibition control?

Very difficult for children

Rapid growth in early childhood

3-6 years: button press response inhibition task - accuracy increased by 30%

Continues to mature into early adulthood

Development of working memory?

Takes a long time to develop

Infancy: capacity of 1 item at 6 months, 3-4 by end of first year

However tasks for infants cannot provide comparable data to children and adult data

Development of cognitive flexibility?

Develops later than inhibition and working memory

Classic task: Wisconsin card sorting task

Dimensional change card sort test is much simpler with only one dimension

4yo: can sort by colour or shape but can’t switch between these

Fractionation of EF?

Too many tasks testing the same concept

Tasks are complex and multi-dimensional. Make it difficult to pinpoint the specific skills being assessed

What is did the Tower Of Hanoi say?

Children younger than 4yo predicted by inhibition, guilted older than 4th predicted by working memory

Structural PFC development?

Progressive changes (myelination, neuron proliferation, synaptogenesis)

Regressive changes (cell death, synaptic pruning, loss in grey matter)

PFC and infancy?

Cerebral blood volume in the frontal region increases linearly from birth

What are qualitative changes?

Patterns of brain activity are more diffused in your children or show distinct neural patterns relative to adults

What are quantitative changes?

Strengthening of region to region connections, consistent set of brain regions