Elsevier

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Volume 32, 3rd Quarter 2015, Pages 40-50
Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Identifying unique components of preschool children's self-regulatory skills using executive function tasks and continuous performance tests

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.02.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Low target-frequency CPTs measured attention in preschoolers.

  • Low target-frequency CPTs did not measure executive functioning in preschoolers.

  • Executive functioning skills were uniquely related to teacher-rated attention.

  • Omission errors on the CPT were uniquely related to teacher-rated attention.

  • Only executive functioning skills were uniquely related to early academic skills.

Abstract

Continuous Performance Tests (CPTs) are proposed to measure attention and inhibitory control (IC). The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which performance on the CPT overlaps with measures of executive functioning (EF) skills (i.e., IC and working memory [WM]). A sample of 279 preschoolers (Age, M = 55.86, SD = 4.00) were administered three CPTs as well as measures of IC, WM, and early academic achievement. For each child, a teacher completed a behavioral-rating measure. Results indicated that omission and commission errors on the CPT were distinct from EF skills and each other. These findings have implications for understanding the overlap between attention and EF and for the use of low target-frequency CPTs with preschoolers.

Section snippets

Self-regulatory processes

Executive functioning (EF) is an important part of self-regulatory behavior that refers to the control of thoughts and action needed for future-oriented and goal-directed behaviors (Welsh, Pennington, & Groisser, 1991). A variety of theories have been proposed as explanations of the cognitive mechanism that underlies complex tasks requiring intentional allocation of attention resources (i.e. “frontal lobe or executive tasks” Miyake et al., 2000, p. 50). Most such theories propose the existence

The CPT

The overlap between definitions and descriptions of IC, WM, and attention makes determining the extent to which each is uniquely measured by performance on a given task difficult. This is particularly true of multi-faceted tasks such as the CPT, which is widely accepted as a measure of attention and also has been used as a measure of IC (Berry, 2012, Bodnar et al., 2007). During this task, children view a stimulus sequence on a screen, respond to target stimuli, and withhold responses to

Self-regulatory processes, early academic skills, and problem behaviors

There is evidence that attention problems are associated with academic development in research with school-age (McClelland, Acock, & Morrison, 2006) and preschool-age (Walcott, Scheemaker, & Bielski, 2010) populations. Much of the research linking inattention to academic skills has been conducted using teacher and parent ratings of inattention (Galéra et al., 2009, Lonigan et al., 1999). There is also research reporting relations between performance on direct measures of inattention, such as

The current study

The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, the extent to which young children's performance on measures of IC, WM, and the CPT represent distinct or overlapping constructs was examined. CFA was used, rather than the exploratory factor analytic techniques used in previous studies on this topic (Steele et al., 2012, Sulik et al., 2010). In CFA measurement models, at least three observed indicator variables are recommended per latent construct. We conducted analyses using three indicators of

Participants

The sample included 279 children (53.4% female) recruited from 20 preschools and child-care centers serving a diverse population of children in north Florida (e.g., eight of the preschools were located in neighborhoods served by Title-1-classified elementary schools [schools classified as having a large concentration of low-income students]). The children ranged in age from 38 to 65 months (M = 55.86, SD = 4.00). The sample was ethnically diverse; it was composed of 30.5% African-American/Black,

Descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics for all variables are presented in Table 1. IC and WM task scores are presented as the mean, averaged across trials of the task. Omission errors and commission errors, as well as externalizing behavior scores and academic subscale scores, are presented as the mean across trials or items. Item-level data were aggregated to create scale scores for the IC tasks, WM tasks, externalizing behavior scales, and academic skills measures. Children were allowed to have up to 10%

Discussion

The primary goal of this study was to examine the extent to which measures of performance on the CPT overlap with direct measures of EF skills (i.e., WM and IC). Results indicated that both attention and H/I, as measured by omission and commission errors, respectively, on the CPT, were distinct from EF and each other. This finding implies that low target-frequency CPTs may provide an index of attention that is distinct from, albeit moderately related to, EF in preschool-age children. Both EF

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