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Longitudinal development of attention and inhibitory control during the first year of life.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Abstract

Executive functions (EFs) are key abilities that allow us to control our thoughts and actions. Research suggests that two EFs, inhibitory control (IC) and working memory (WM), emerge around 9 months. Little is known about IC earlier in infancy and whether basic attentional processes form the "building blocks" of emerging IC. These questions were investigated longitudinally in 104 infants tested behaviorally on two screen-based attention tasks at 4 months, and on IC tasks at 6 and 9 months. Results provided no evidence that basic attention formed precursors for IC. However, there was full support for coherence in IC at 9 months and partial support for stability in IC from 6 months. This suggests that IC emerges earlier than previously assumed. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVE17hooANY.

Description

Keywords

Attention, Executive Function, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant Behavior, Inhibition, Psychological, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Sense of Coherence

Journal Title

Dev Sci

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1363-755X
1467-7687

Volume Title

21

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (MR/K021389/1)
Medical Research Council (G9715587)
UK Medical Research Council Programme Grant G9715587 (PI Mark Johnson) Postdoctoral Fellowship G0800054 (PI Karla Holmboe) Pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Alliance for Autism Research (now Autism Speaks) to the first author (grant 612)
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