Age- and schooling-related effects on executive functions in young children: a natural experiment.
We employed a cutoff design in order to examine age- and schooling-related effects on executive functions. Specifically, we looked at development of working memory and response inhibition over the period of 1 school year in prekindergarten and kindergarten students born within 4 months of each other. All children improved on executive function and word-decoding tasks from the beginning to the end of the year. Additionally, we found prekindergarten- and kindergarten-schooling effects for the working memory and word-decoding tasks (p < .05), and a trend-level prekindergarten-schooling effect for the response inhibition task (p < .10).
Burrage
Marie S
MS
Combined Program in Education & Psychology, University of Michigan, MI, USA.
Ponitz
Claire Cameron
CC
McCready
Elizabeth A
EA
Shah
Priti
P
Sims
Brian C
BC
Jewkes
Abigail M
AM
Morrison
Frederick J
FJ
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000367:Age Factors; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012574:Schools; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis