ERIC Number: EJ929684
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-May
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1363-755X
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Available Date: N/A
A New Measure for Assessing Executive Function across a Wide Age Range: Children and Adults Find "Happy-Sad" More Difficult than "Day-Night"
Lagattuta, Kristin Hansen; Sayfan, Liat; Monsour, Michael
Developmental Science, v14 n3 p481-489 May 2011
Two experiments examined 4- to 11-year-olds' and adults' performance (N = 350) on two variants of a Stroop-like card task: the "day-night task" (say "day" when shown a moon and "night" when shown a sun) and a new "happy-sad task" (say "happy" for a sad face and "sad" for a happy face). Experiment 1 featured colored cartoon drawings. In Experiment 2, the happy-sad task featured photographs, and pictures for both measures were grayscale. All age groups made more errors and took longer to respond to the happy-sad versus the day-night versions. Unlike the day-night task, the happy-sad task did not suffer from ceiling effects, even in adults. The happy-sad task provides a methodological advance for measuring executive function across a wide age range.
Descriptors: Cartoons, Memory, Age Differences, Children, Comparative Analysis, Visual Stimuli, Task Analysis, Experiments, Emotional Response, Adults, Evaluation, Child Development, Science Education, Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Adult Education; Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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