Sabine Doebel

Getting ready to use control: Advances in the measurement of young children’s use of proactive control

A key developmental transition in executive function is in the temporal dynamics of its engagement: children shift from reactively calling to mind task-relevant information as needed, to being able to proactively maintain information across time in anticipation of upcoming demands. This transition is important for understanding individual differences and developmental changes in executive function; however, methods targeting its assessment are limited. We tested the possibility that Track-It, a paradigm developed to measure selective sustained attention, also indexes proactive control. In this task children must track a target shape as it moves unpredictably among moving distractors, and identify where it disappears, which may require proactively maintaining information about the target or goal. In two experiments (5–6 year-olds, Ns = 33, 64), childrens performance on Track-It predicted proactive control across two established paradigms. These findings suggest Track-It measures proactive control in children. Theoretical possibilities regarding how proactive control and selective sustained attention may be related are also discussed.

Group Influences on Engaging Self-Control: Children Delay Gratification and Value It More When Their In-Group Delays and Their Out-Group Doesn’t:

Self-control emerges in a rich sociocultural context. Do group norms around self-control influence the degree to which children use it? We tested this possibility by assigning 3- to 5-year-old children to a group and manipulating their beliefs about in-group and out-group behavior on the classic marshmallow task. Across two experiments, children waited longer for two marshmallows when they believed that their in-group waited and their out-group did not, compared with children who believed that their in-group did not wait and their out-group did. Group behavior influenced children to wait more, not less, as indicated by comparisons with children in a control condition who were assigned to a group but received no information about either groups’ delay behavior (Experiment 1). Children also subsequently valued delaying gratification more if their in-group waited and their out-group did not (Experiment 2). Childhood self-control behavior and related developmental outcomes may be shaped by group norms around self-control, which may be an optimal target for interventions.

Using language to get ready: Familiar labels help children engage proactive control

A key developmental transition is the ability to engage executive functions proactively in advance of needing them. We tested the potential role of linguistic processes in proactive control. Children completed a task in which they could proactively track a novel (target) shape on a screen as it moved unpredictably amid novel distractors and needed to identify where it disappeared. Children almost always remembered which shape to track, but those who learned familiar labels for the target shapes before the task had nearly twice the odds of tracking the target compared with those who received experience with the targets but no labels. Children who learned labels were also more likely to spontaneously vocalize labels when the target appeared. These findings provide the first evidence of a causal role for linguistic processes in proactive control and suggest new ideas about how proactive control develops, why language supports a variety of executive functions, and how interventions might best be targeted.

Self-Regulation in Adolescence: The Role of Reflection in Promoting Adolescent Self-Regulation

Executive function (EF) – the top-down, conscious control of thought, action and emotion – has been found to be highly predictive of healthy adaptation in adolescence, when many individuals assume increased responsibility for setting and managing the pursuit of their personal goals. We use a developmental social cognitive neuroscience perspective to discuss EF and its relevance to adolescent self-regulation. Specifically, we argue that EF improves as a function of developmental increases in the ability to reflect consciously on one’s own perspective and its relation to a broader context of considerations, which in turn is achieved as neural circuits connecting relevant parts of the brain adapt to the environment and change as function of specific, repeated experiences. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this view for efforts to improve EF in childhood and thereby promote self-regulation in adolescence. Running head: REFLECTION AND RULE USE IN ADOLESCENCE 3 The Role of Reflection in Promoting Adolescent Self-Regulation Research on goal pursuit (Gollwitzer & Oettingen, 2011; Oettingen, 2012) has identified concrete strategies for improving goal achievement that emphasize the role of rule use in the service of goal pursuit. From this perspective, rules play an important role in representing and transforming the relation between a desired future and the current reality (Oettingen, 1999, 2012), and also in formulating specific plans for engaging in goal-directed behavior (Gollwitzer, 1999; Gollwitzer & Oettingen, 2011). Research indicates that adolescents are more successful at achieving their goals when these rule use strategies are implemented (e.g., Duckworth, Grant, Loew, Oettingen, & Gollwitzer, 2011). In this chapter, we provide a developmental social cognitive neuroscience perspective on self-regulation that focuses on the nature and development of executive function. Executive function (EF) – the top-down, conscious control of thought, action and emotion – continues to develop well into adolescence and may become increasingly important for healthy adaptation as adolescents become more responsible for setting and managing the pursuit of personal goals. An understanding of the mechanisms underlying EF and its development has the potential to inform the creation of more effective interventions for promoting self-regulation, supporting and complementing the selfregulation strategies identified by Gollwitzer, Oettingen, and colleagues. We first summarize relevant research on the protracted development of EF in childhood and adolescence and then describe a theoretical model, the Iterative Reprocessing Model, that addresses how improvements in self-reflection, mediated by the growth and refinement of neural networks involving increasingly anterior regions of prefrontal cortex (PFC), make Running head: REFLECTION AND RULE USE IN ADOLESCENCE 4 the development of EF possible. We conclude by offering suggestions for an integrative approach to enhancing self-regulation in adolescence that takes into account what is now known about neural plasticity and the neurocognitive processes involved in EF. Specifically, interventions promoting reflection suggest a promising approach that can be incorporated with other strategies to maximize goal achievement in adolescents. EF and Its Importance Across Development EF is essential for adaptive human functioning, from completing the most mundane activities to solving the most challenging problems, and a key feature of EF is keeping one’s goals and the current context clearly in mind—consciously reflecting on them. Conscious reflection, which depends on neural networks involving hierarchically arranged regions of prefrontal cortex, is required, for example, when one attempts to suppress a spontaneous emotional response out of consideration for someone’s feelings. But even the execution of relatively routine behavioral plans requires some degree of conscious reflection to avoid interference from misleading environmental cues. For example, holding a container of orange juice in hand when one is preparing a bowl of cereal for breakfast could easily lead to error if one does not maintain some awareness of the situation. Although the need for EF is present throughout childhood and across the lifespan, there are periods during which the demands placed on EF are relatively high, and during which performance on laboratory measures of EF improves relatively rapidly. During the preschool years, for example, children typically show rapidly increasing degrees of control over thought, emotion, and action, as they prepare for the transition to school, which itself places substantial new demands on EF in the context of learning and Running head: REFLECTION AND RULE USE IN ADOLESCENCE 5 cooperating with peers. It is now well documented that EF undergoes particularly rapid developmental change during this period (Zelazo et al., 2013). Similarly, adolescence is a period during which a range of new influences—both endogenous and exogenous to the individual—must be managed on the fly. For example, during the transition to adolescence, social stimuli become increasingly salient, and children become increasingly sensitive to peer approval (Nelson, Leibenluft, McClure, & Pine, 2005). At the same time, however, children are provided with new opportunities to exercise independence and take risks. In the presence of peers, choices can be biased towards risk, leading to undesirable outcomes (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005), so the need for EF is especially strong. Research also suggests that the transition to adolescence is another period during which EF develops relatively rapidly (Zelazo et al., 2013). EF development during both periods co-occurs with changes in the neural structures that support EF, and research on neural plasticity (e.g., Huttenlocher, 2002) suggests that EF and prefrontal networks develop particularly rapidly during these times precisely because this development is demanded by circumstances, and hence, EF is exercised vigorously. In sum, EF is a critical ability that develops markedly in early childhood and adolescence, likely as a result of behavioral and neural adaptation to the changing demands of the environment. By addressing the neurocognitive processes that underlie goal-directed behavior, and revealing the ways in which these processes grow through interactions with the environment, a developmental social cognitive neuroscience perspective offers clues about how best to facilitate the healthy development of EF in adolescents. In the next section, we discuss the processes underlying EF and its development. Running head: REFLECTION AND RULE USE IN ADOLESCENCE 6 The Development of EF in Early Childhood Recent research using measures of EF that are suitable for individuals aged 3 to 85 years confirms that EF improves most rapidly during the preschool period but continues to develop during adolescence and beyond (Zelazo et al., 2013). These changes in EF co-occur with substantial structural and functional changes in neural systems involving PFC (Carlson, Zelazo, & Faja, 2013). Performance on one such measure of EF, the Dimensional Change Card Sort task (DCCS) (Zelazo, 2006), is shown in Figure 1. In the DCCS, children first sort bivalent test cards (e.g., red rabbits and blue boats) according to one dimension (e.g., by shape) for several trials, and then are instructed to switch to sorting the same cards according to a new set of rules (e.g., by color). Performance on this task at this age is typically scored as the number of post-switch test cards sorted correctly. On the post-switch phase, 3-year-olds typically continue to sort the test cards according to the initial rule set, despite being informed of the new rules before every trial and demonstrating knowledge of the new rules (Zelazo, Frye, & Rapus, 1996; Zelazo, Müller, Frye, & Marcovitch, 2003). By contrast, most 4and 5-year-olds switch to the new rules. Performance on this task remains effortful, however, and while older children and adults usually maintain high levels of accuracy, they need to slow down in order to do so. Reaction time on this task decreases with increasing age until early adulthood. Running head: REFLECTION AND RULE USE IN ADOLESCENCE 7 Figure 1. Performance on the NIH Toolbox DCCS Test across age groups. Pediatric data from a cross-sectional validation study of 476 individuals, ages 3 to 85 years. Performance was indexed using a two-vector method in which individuals that achieved a high level of accuracy in the post-switch phase of the task (≥ 80% cards sorted correctly in the post-switch phase) were primarily assessed based on their reaction time, with slower RTs indicating more effort, whereas children who sorted < 80% of cards correctly were assessed based on the percentage they achieved. These measures were converted to a normalized scaled score to make comparison across the different measures possible. Error bars are +/2 standard errors. Reproduced with permission from: “NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB): measuring executive function and attention.” by P. D. Zelazo, J. E. Anderson, J. Richler, K. Wallner-Allen, J. L. Beaumont, and S. Weintraub, 2013, National Institutes of Health Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB): Validation for children between 3 and 15 years. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, p. 27. Running head: REFLECTION AND RULE USE IN ADOLESCENCE 8 The Iterative Reprocessing Model of the Development of EF Research on EF generally supports the seminal ideas of Vygotsky (1962) and Luria (1959, 1961) concerning the importance of verbal processes in the exercise and development of self-regulation, finding, for example, that with age children increasingly use verbalization strategically to maintain task information in mind (Karbach & Kray, 2007), and that blocking the use of inner speech disrupts cognitive control in children and adults (Emerson & M