MEASUREMENT OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTION IN YOUNG CHILDREN

描述（由申请人提供）：执行功能（EF），也称为流体认知，由工作记忆、抑制控制和注意力转移过程组成，已知这些过程依赖于主要与前额叶皮层相关的皮层回路，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，具有明确的神经生物学基础，EF已被证明在发展自我调节方面发挥着核心作用，这些方面对社交和学术能力以及入学准备至关重要。然而，由于EF与自我调节发展的关系，目前还没有统一的测量电池，可以可靠和有效地测量幼儿EF变化的个体差异。迫切需要开发这样一套测量工具，特别是用于大规模研究。它的缺乏限制了关于EF个体内变化的基本发展问题的知识，以及这种变化与幼儿期主要成就的关系。因此，本申请提出开发一种易于管理的、高度便携的工作记忆、抑制控制和注意转移认知任务的成套测验，以测量3至5岁儿童的EF;利用项目反应理论，在300名3至5岁儿童的横截面样本中建立用于测量成套测验的心理测量学特性和评分程序;收集数据的发展变化，使用EF电池与种族和经济多样化，流行病学来源的600名儿童的样本，在一项名为家庭生活项目的研究中从出生到3岁进行跟踪，并将在本申请下从3岁到5岁进行跟踪，以建立一个新的标准数据库。开发了EF测量电池;并通过确定在标准化实验室和教师及家长报告的社会和学术能力以及情绪反应和努力控制的测量中，组合上的表现占与一般智力和语言能力相关的独特方差的程度，建立具有600个标准样本的EF测量组合的有效性，以及通过确定成套测试在低严重性/高发生率发育障碍（例如学习障碍和注意力缺陷多动障碍）中识别EF缺陷的程度。

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.