MEASUREMENT OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTION IN YOUNG CHILDREN

描述(申请人提供)：执行功能(EF)，也被称为流体认知，由工作记忆、抑制控制和注意力转移过程组成，已知依赖于主要与前额叶皮质相关的皮质回路，并在儿童早期迅速发展。作为发展认知能力的一个独特方面，EF具有明确的神经生物学基础，已被证明在发展自我调节方面发挥着核心作用，这些方面对社会和学术能力以及为上学做好准备至关重要。然而，鉴于EF与自我调节发展的关系，目前还没有统一的测量单元可以可靠和有效地测量儿童早期EF变化的个体差异。迫切需要开发这样一种测量电池，特别是用于大规模研究的背景下。它的缺失限制了对关于EF个体内变化的基本发展问题的了解，以及这种变化与儿童早期主要成就的关系。因此，本申请建议开发一种易于管理、高度便携的工作记忆、抑制控制和注意力转移认知任务组合来测量3-5岁儿童的EF，并利用项目反应理论在300名3-5岁儿童的横断面样本中建立测量组件的心理测量学特性和评分程序；使用EF电池收集有关发育变化的数据，从种族和经济上不同的、流行病学衍生的600名儿童样本中，在一项名为家庭生活项目的研究中，从出生到3岁，在这项应用下，将从3岁到5岁进行跟踪，以创建新开发的EF测量电池的标准数据库；并通过在标准化实验室中确定电池的性能在多大程度上解释了与一般智力和语言能力相关的独特差异，以及教师和家长报告社会和学术能力、情绪反应和努力控制的测量，以及通过确定电池在低严重程度/高发病率发育障碍(如学习障碍和注意力缺陷多动障碍)中识别出EF缺陷的程度，来建立标准样本600的EF测量电池的有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Executive function (EF), also referred to as fluid cognition, is comprised of working memory, inhibitory control, and attention shifting processes known to be dependent upon cortical circuitry associated primarily with the prefrontal cortex and to develop rapidly in early childhood. As a unique aspect of developing cognitive competence with a well-defined neurobiological basis, EF has been shown to play a central role in developing aspects of self-regulation important for social and academic competence and readiness for school. However, given the relation of EF to the development of self-regulation, there is currently no uniform measurement battery that can reliably and validly measure individual differences in change in EF in early childhood. There is an urgent need to develop such a measurement battery, particularly for use in the context of large-scale studies. Its absence limits knowledge of basic developmental questions regarding intraindividual change in EF and the relation of that change to the primary accomplishments of early childhood. Accordingly this application proposes to develop an easily administered, highly portable battery of working memory, inhibitory control, and attention shifting cognitive tasks to measure EF in 3 to 5 year old children; to utilize item response theory to establish the psychometric properties and scoring procedures for the measurement battery in a cross sectional sample of 300 children age 3 to 5 years; to collect data on developmental change using the EF battery with a racially and economically diverse, epidemiologically derived sample of 600 children that are being followed from birth to age 3 in a study known as the Family Life Project and that will be followed from ages 3 to 5 years under this application to create a normative database for the newly developed EF measurement battery; and to establish the validity of the EF measurement battery with the normative sample of 600 by determining the extent to which performance on the battery accounts for unique variance over and above that associated with general intelligence and language ability in standardized laboratory and teacher and parent report measures of social and academic competence and emotional reactivity and effortful control, and by determining the extent to which the battery identifies EF deficits in low severity/high incidence developmental disorders such as learning disability and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.