Children with a history of behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament face a heightened risk for anxiety disorders and often use control strategies that are less planful. Although these relations have been observed concurrently in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, few studies leverage longitudinal data to examine long-term…

This study evaluates the feasibility of the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIH-TCB) for use in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 116 autistic children and adolescents and 80 typically developing (TD) controls, ages 3-17 years, completed four NIH-TCB tasks related to inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, and episodic memory.…

This study examined whether age differences in risky decision making are dependent on known probability and value of outcomes (i.e., the expected value [EV]), the valence of anticipated outcomes (gains or losses), and individual differences in working memory and impulsivity. We used a task that varied risk independently from EV so that taking…

Variability is a fundamental feature of human brain activity that is particularly pronounced during development. However, developmental neuroimaging research has only recently begun to move beyond characterizing brain function exclusively in terms of magnitude of neural activation to incorporate estimates of variability. No prior neuroimaging…

Adolescent risk-taking is a public health issue that increases the odds of poor lifetime outcomes. One factor thought to influence adolescents' propensity for risk-taking is an enhanced sensitivity to appetitive cues, relative to an immature capacity to exert sufficient cognitive control. We tested this hypothesis by characterizing interactions…

Background: Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterised by developmentally inappropriate levels of hyperactivity, impulsivity and/or inattention and are particularly impaired when performing tasks that require a high level of cognitive control. Methylphenidate (MPH) and motivational incentives may help improve…

This study examined the relations of parent-youth agreement and disagreement during a joint problem-solving task and multi-methodological indices of socioemotional outcomes in adolescents (mean age = 13). One hundred and sixty-seven parents and their adolescent children participated. Each parent-youth pair played the interactive game "Jenga", and…

Background: Individual differences in specific components of attention contribute to behavioral reactivity and regulation. Children with the temperament of behavioral inhibition (BI) provide a good context for considering the manner in which certain components of attention shape behavior. Infants and children characterized as behaviorally…

Background: Adolescence is a time when intense emotions are elicited within the parent-adolescent relationship, often when autonomy subjectively is endangered. As emotion dysregulation is one of the risk processes for the development of psychopathology, adolescence may be perceived as a highly sensitive period for maladjustment. Inter-individual…

The usefulness of an approach to reduce impulsive behavior in 11 institutionalized behavior disordered boys (10 to 16 years old) was investigated. Ss were taught to use five steps to solve cognitive problems. Steps involved task analysis, were modeled by the experimenter followed by reinforcement of verbalization of the rules, and included active…

Background: To investigate whether recent first episode major depression in adolescence is characterised by selected executive difficulties in attentional flexibility, behavioural inhibition and decision-making. Methods: Selected executive functions were compared in adolescents with recent (past year) first episode major depression (n = 30) and…