As a novel approach to conceptualizing executive functions, this study applied network analysis to a common battery of executive function tests administered to a sample covering the life span. Participants (N = 3,944; age: M = 20.8 years, SD = 19.6, range: 3-85; maternal/self education: M = 12.9 years, SD = 2.6; 53.3% girls/women, 46.7% boys/men;…

By using a three-time longitudinal design, the present study focuses on three components of executive function (EF), respectively, to examine whether the relation between EF and receptive vocabulary was reciprocal and whether the direction of the above relation would differ by EF components and child gender. A total of 320 Chinese preschool…

Executive function (EF) has rarely been considered for adolescents' daily school outcomes or in conjunction with ethnic/racial discrimination. Using 2-week, daily data from 137 ethnic/racial minority adolescents (M[subscript age] = 14.56; 53% female; 56% Black, 19% Latinx, 7% Asian, 7% Native, 12% other [e.g., multiracial]) in the Midwest United…

This study examined the factor structure of executive control throughout elementary school, as well as associations between executive control abilities in preschool and elementary school. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of executive control development in a community sample of children (N = 294; 53% female, 47% male) oversampled for low…

By approximately 6 years of age, children can use time-based visual selection to ignore stationary stimuli, already in the visual field and prioritize the selection of newly arriving stimuli. This ability can be studied using preview search, a version of the visual search paradigm with an added temporal component, in which one set of distractors…

This study examined the longitudinal associations of various executive function components with subsequent psychiatric problems in Chinese school-age children. Data from 1,639 children (44.36% girls) ages 6-13 years were drawn from the Children School Functions and Brain Development project. Executive function components were assessed by the…

Executive functions (EF) are domain-general cognitive skills that predict foundational academic skills such as literacy and numeracy. However, less is known about the relation between EFs and science achievement. The nature of this relation might be explained by the theory of mutualism, which states that development is the result of complex and…

Efforts to increase moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in school-age children are associated with improved health, cognitive, and academic outcomes. However, questions remain about whether similar benefits are observed in early childhood. We hypothesized that motor competence, not MVPA, would be related to improved cognitive and…

The current study is the first to provide a comprehensive examination of the activation--decision--construction model (Walczyk, Roper, Seemann, & Humphrey, 2003, 2009) in relation to young children's lie-telling and lie maintenance. Young children (3 to 4 years of age, N = 93) completed the temptation-resistance paradigm to elicit a…

The present study examined longitudinal associations between preschoolers' executive function (EF) and adult educational attainment, impulse control, and general health directly and through its cascading effects on childhood and adolescent EF using a large, national, and prospective longitudinal sample of participants. Data were drawn from the…

Elementary school students often lack a conceptual understanding of linear measurement, which is revealed by their poor performance when the object to be measured is not aligned with the start of the ruler. Instead of correctly counting the units that correspond to the object (e.g., inches or centimeters), children often use 1 of 2 incorrect…

Emerging evidence suggests interventions can improve childhood self-regulation. One intervention approach that has shown promise is Taekwondo martial arts instruction, though little is known about its acceptability among stakeholders or its mechanisms of effect. We extend evidence on Taekwondo interventions in three ways: (1) testing the efficacy…

Recent research has demonstrated that, when instructed to prioritize a serial position in visual working memory (WM), adults are able to boost performance for this selected item, at a cost to nonprioritized items (e.g., Hu, Hitch, Baddeley, Zhang, & Allen, 2014). While executive control appears to play an important role in this ability, the…

Children with higher levels of executive function (EF) skills consistently demonstrate higher levels of academic achievement. Despite the consistency of these associations, fundamental questions remain about whether efforts to improve an individual child's EF skills result in corresponding improvements in his or her academic performance. In the…

Although algebra is a prerequisite for higher mathematics, few studies have examined the mathematical and cognitive capabilities that contribute to the development of algebra word problems solving skills. We examined changes in these relations from second to ninth grades. Using a cross-sequential design that spanned 4 years, children from 3…