title: Predicting cognitive control from preschool to late adolescence and young adulthood.
abstract: In this longitudinal study, the proportion of time preschoolers directed their attention away from rewarding stimuli during a delay-of-gratification task was positively associated with efficiency (greater speed without reduced accuracy) at responding to targets in a go/no-go task more than 10 years later. The overall findings suggest that preschoolers' ability to effectively direct their attention away from tempting aspects of the rewards in a delay-of-gratification task may be a developmental precursor for the ability to perform inhibitory tasks such as the go/no-go task years later. Because performance on the go/no-go task has previously been characterized as involving activation of fronto-striatal regions, the present findings also suggest that performance in the delay-of-gratification task may serve as an early marker of individual differences in the functional integrity of this circuitry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Rd., Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. inge-marie.eigsti@uconn.edu
authors.forename: Inge-Marie
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Eigsti
authors.forename: Vivian
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zayas
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mischel
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shoda
authors.forename: Ozlem
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ayduk
authors.forename: Mamta B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Dadlani
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lawrence Aber
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Casey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011930:Reaction Time; D014888:Wechsler Scales