Predicting cognitive control from preschool to late adolescence and young adulthood.
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.
Eigsti
Inge-Marie
IM
Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Rd., Unit 1020, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. inge-marie.eigsti@uconn.edu
Zayas
Vivian
V
Mischel
Walter
W
Shoda
Yuichi
Y
Ayduk
Ozlem
O
Dadlani
Mamta B
MB
Davidson
Matthew C
MC
Lawrence Aber
J
J
Casey
B J
BJ
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