Development of an aspect of executive control: Development of the abilities to remember what I said and to ?Do as I say, not as I do?

Abstract

Luria's tapping test (tap once when E taps twice, tap twice when E taps once) was administered to 160 children (80 males, 80 females) between 31/2 to 7 years old. Older children were faster and more accurate than younger children, with most of the improvement occurring by the age of 6. All children tested demonstrated understanding of the instructions during the pretest, and most started out performing well, but younger subjects could not sustain this. Over the 16 trials, percentage of correct responses decreased, especially among younger subjects. Performance here was compared with performance on the day‐night Stroop‐like task. The most common error on both tasks was to comply with only one of the two rules. Other errors included tapping many times regardless of what the experimenter did and doing the same thing as the experimenter, rather than the opposite. It is suggested that the tapping task requires both the ability to hold two rules in mind and the ability to inhibit a strong response tendency, that these abilities improve between 3–6 years of age, and that this improvement may reflect important changes within frontal cortex during this period of life. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Effects of early bilingualism on learning phonological regularities in a new language

“…Scheffé tests indicated a difference between the children in kindergarten and those in second grade (p < .05). The age effect is consistent with previous research on the improvement in working memory between 4 and 7 years of age (e.g., Diamond & Taylor, 1996). No other main or interaction effects were significant.…”

Inhibitory Control and Harsh Discipline as Predictors of Externalizing Problems in Young Children: A Comparative Study of U.S., Chinese, and Japanese Preschoolers

“…Day/Night Stroop During the Day/Night Stroop task (Diamond and Taylor 1996), the experimenter has a book of pictures that depict daytime scenes or nighttime scenes. During the imitative phase, the child is supposed to say "Day" when the experimenter reveals a daytime scene, and "Night" when the experimenter reveals a nighttime scene for 10 trials.…”

Children’s false memory and true disclosure in the face of repeated questions

“…The Tapping Task (Diamond & Taylor, 1996) was adapted from Luria's tapping test used to assess patients with damage to the frontal lobe of the brain. Like the Day/Night Task, the Tapping Task also involves children learning two rules and inhibiting the prepotent response, in this case to imitate the interviewer.…”