title: Individual differences in disengagement of fixation and temperament: longitudinal research on toddlers.
abstract: It has been suggested that a shift occurs in the brain's control system from the orienting network in infancy to the executive network by the age of 3-4 years; however, there has been little empirical evidence of this shift during toddlerhood. Therefore, the present study examined how the orienting system in infancy is related to an effortful control system at a later age. Children were assessed longitudinally at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age, using a gap-overlap task in which dynamic geometrical-shape stimuli were presented. Parents completed temperament questionnaires about the children at each age. A delayed-gratification task was also given to 36-month-olds. Overall, saccadic latencies in the gap-overlap task were significantly faster at 36 months. At all ages, responses were slower during overlap trials than during gap or no-overlap trials. Longer latencies in the overlap condition were associated with low temperamental orienting/regulation scores at 12 months but with high effortful control scores at 18 and 24 months. The associations at 18 and 24 months are thought to represent a genuine positive association between effortful control and sustained and focused attention.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagoya City University, Japan. Electronic address: nakagawa@hum.nagoya-cu.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Atsuko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Masune
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sukigara
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010290:Parents; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Attention; Effortful control; Longitudinal; Orienting; Toddler