The Development of Cognitive Control From Infancy Through Childhood

Teaching With Televised Stories: A Story‐Focused Narrative Preview Supports Learning in Young Children

“…Another limitation is that children’s story schema development and working memory were not measured or controlled, limiting the conclusions that can be drawn with respect to underlying mechanisms. Both of these skills develop across early childhood, and age is often regarded as a proxy (Morasch, Raj, & Bell, 2013; Rand, 1984). However, there are individual differences across same‐aged children.…”

Why improving and assessing executive functions early in life is critical.

“…To shift mental sets or see something from different perspectives, you need to activate and maintain a new set or perspective in working memory and you need to inhibit the set or perspective that was just being used. Thus, cognitive flexibility (also called set shifting), the third core EF, builds upon and requires working memory and inhibitory control (Diamond, 2010;Morasch, Raj, & Bell, 2013; see Figure 1.1). Whereas factor analyses of EFs in adults routinely come up with three factors (working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility; Lehto, Juujärvi, Kooistra, & Pulkkinen, 2003;Miyake et al, 2000), factor analyses with children are more likely to find only two factors (working memory and inhibitory control; Hughes, Ensor, Wilson, & Graham, 2009;St Clair-Thompson & Gathercole, 2006;Wiebe et al, 2011).…”

Understanding the Transfer Deficit: Contextual Mismatch, Proactive Interference, and Working Memory Affect Toddlers’ Video‐Based Transfer

“…Both accounts of the transfer deficit—representational flexibility and graded representations—may explain age‐related increases in transfer, insofar as both representational flexibility (Barr, ; Barr et al., ) and memory updating (Troseth, ) rely on WM. WM entails the ability to maintain and update information for future actions, making it an important aspect of cognitive control that helps guide thoughts and behaviors in a goal‐directed manner (Carlson, Zelazo, & Faja, ; Morasch, Raj, & Bell, ). Individual differences in WM predict a wide range of cognitive activities and learning outcomes (Blair & Razza, ; Bull & Scerif, ; Im‐Bolter, Johnson, & Pascual‐Leone, ).…”