Gaining control: changing relations between executive control and processing speed and their relevance for mathematics achievement over course of the preschool period
Gaining control: changing relations between executive control and processing speed and their relevance for mathematics achievement over course of the preschool period
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DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00107
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发表时间：
2014-02-17
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Espy, Kimberly Andrews
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Clark, Caron A. C.;Nelson, Jennifer Mize;Espy, Kimberly Andrews
早期执行控制（EC）预测了一系列的学术成果，并显示出特别强的关联与儿童的数学成绩。尽管如此，EC研究的一个主要挑战在于区分EC相关的认知结构，也与成就结果。发展级联模型表明，儿童的信息处理速度是认知发展的驱动机制，支持工作记忆，抑制控制和相关的认知能力的增益。因此，在早期执行任务的表现和他们的关系，数学的个体差异可能会反映，至少部分，在儿童的处理速度的潜在变化。本研究的目的是：（1）检查EC和加工速度之间的重叠程度在不同的学龄前年龄点;（2）确定EC是否唯一预测儿童的数学成绩后，占加工速度的个体差异。作为纵向，队列顺序研究的一部分，388名儿童（50%的男孩，44%来自低收入家庭）完成了相同的电池EC任务，在3岁，3.75，4.5，和5.25年。有几个任务结合了基线加速命名条件，EC要求最低。多维潜在模型被用来隔离执行任务的表现，不重叠的基线处理速度，协变儿童的语言能力的方差。不同年龄点的模型表明，虽然EC没有形成一个独立的处理速度在3岁的连贯的潜在因素，它确实出现了一个独特的因素，由年龄5.25。虽然EC在3岁时没有表现出明显的关系，数学成绩独立的处理速度，EC在3.75，4.5，和5.25岁时表现出独立的，前瞻性的联系与数学成绩。研究结果表明，EC和处理速度是紧密交织在一起的幼儿。随着年龄的增长，EC逐渐与处理速度脱钩，它开始对儿童的数学成绩产生独特的、有区别的重要性。
Early executive control (EC) predicts a range of academic outcomes and shows particularly strong associations with children's mathematics achievement. Nonetheless, a major challenge for EC research lies in distinguishing EC from related cognitive constructs that also are linked to achievement outcomes. Developmental cascade models suggest that children's information processing speed is a driving mechanism in cognitive development that supports gains in working memory, inhibitory control and associated cognitive abilities. Accordingly, individual differences in early executive task performance and their relation to mathematics may reflect, at least in part, underlying variation in children's processing speed. The aims of this study were to: (1) examine the degree of overlap between EC and processing speed at different preschool age points; and (2) determine whether EC uniquely predicts children's mathematics achievement after accounting for individual differences in processing speed. As part of a longitudinal, cohort-sequential study, 388 children (50% boys; 44% from low income households) completed the same battery of EC tasks at ages 3, 3.75, 4.5, and 5.25 years. Several of the tasks incorporated baseline speeded naming conditions with minimal EC demands. Multidimensional latent models were used to isolate the variance in executive task performance that did not overlap with baseline processing speed, covarying for child language proficiency. Models for separate age points showed that, while EC did not form a coherent latent factor independent of processing speed at age 3 years, it did emerge as a distinct factor by age 5.25. Although EC at age 3 showed no distinct relation with mathematics achievement independent of processing speed, EC at ages 3.75, 4.5, and 5.25 showed independent, prospective links with mathematics achievement. Findings suggest that EC and processing speed are tightly intertwined in early childhood. As EC becomes progressively decoupled from processing speed with age, it begins to take on unique, discriminative importance for children's mathematics achievement.