Theories about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have addressed cognitive deficits however few have examined how comorbid diagnoses, including sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression contribute to the underlying deficits. We investigated potential mediations of common ASD comorbidities in the relationship between sub-clinical autism traits and…

Social problem-solving (SPS) skills represent an individual's ability to effectively solve daily problems. Although previous studies have demonstrated the positive effects of SPS interventions, there is still a lack of evidence on the relevant moderating factors. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of an SPS intervention on a sample of…

This cross-sectional study explored the relationship between 24-hour movement behaviors and executive function (EF) in preschool children. A total of 426 Han Chinese preschoolers (231 males; 3.8 ± 0.6 years old) from Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China were selected from October 2021 to December 2021. Accelerometers were used to measure physical…

The authors compare pretend play and executive function both in preschool children with an acquired brain injury and in neurotypical preschool children. They find the ability to produce logical, sequenced pretend play actions and object substitutions in play correlates strongly with executive function ability in both groups, and working memory…

Cognitive control is a mental construct thought to be important in most cognitive tasks, including second language learning. Its functions are believed by many scholars to be mainly domain-general, with some transferability across linguistic and non-linguistic domains. Our study aims to investigate to what extent the domain-generality claim of…

This study aims at investigating the relationship between working memory updating and working memory capacity in preschool children. A sample of 176 preschoolers (36-74 months) was administered a working memory updating task (Magic House) along with three working memory capacity tests that specifically measure their core attentional component (M…

Working memory functions as an underlying force for school readiness, yet many autistic children have difficulties with it. Similarly, autistic children tend to start kindergarten with less school readiness compared with their peers. In addition, children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds face additional barriers in working memory…

The widespread adoption of mobile technologies has exacerbated their utilization in educational environments. Multitasking in the classroom is a common practice and deserves further investigation to understand its antecedents. Yet, rare studies have addressed this issue based on the theory of planned behavior framework. To this end, the current…

This study investigated the direct and indirect associations of different executive function skills with Chinese word reading and writing. A total of 213 Cantonese-speaking kindergarteners (97 girls, mean age = 73.3 months) participated in this study. Their working memory, inhibition control, cognitive flexibility, orthographic knowledge,…

How working memory supports dual-task performance is the focus of a long-standing debate. Most previous research on this topic has focused on participant performance data. In three experiments, we investigated whether changes in participant-reported strategies across single- and dual-task conditions might help resolve this debate by offering new…

Executive function (EF) skills are consistently associated with global mathematics assessments. However, less is known about which specific mathematics skills invoke EF in early childhood. We adapted batteries of EF, numerical, and patterning tasks to be conducted via synchronous video conferencing with typically developing 4-year-old children (N…

Objective: Children diagnosed with cerebral palsy have been reported to be at increased risk of executive function deficits and neurodevelopmental disorders. This population-based cohort study aimed to assess executive function, attention, behaviour, and autism symptomatology in school-aged children with CP, using parent-report measures that can…

Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of executive functions (EFs) training, both in computer-based and school-based formats. However, there is limited research on the combined effects of these training modalities. This study aims to assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an EFs training programme for primary school…

Empathy is crucial for our social life, with evidences suggesting that executive function is the cognitive basis of empathy. However, debates about the causal relationship between executive function and empathy still exist. A two-wave and one-year longitudinal follow-up experiment is conducted to investigate this problem, mainly focusing on…

This article discusses the role of the three components of executive functions (EF) in geometric understanding. Discussing several examples of geometry problems, this article shows how EF are actively employed to solve geometry problems. Inhibition as the first component of EF helps the individual to suppress contextually irrelevant information.…