Qualitative change in executive control during childhood and adulthood
Open accessAbstract
Executive control development typically has been conceptualized to result from quantitative changes in the efficiency of the underlying processes. In contrast, the present study addressed the possibility of qualitative change with age by examining how children and adults detect task switches. Participants in three age groups (5- and 10-year-old children, young adults) completed two conditions of a cued task-switching paradigm where task cues were presented either in isolation or in conjunction with transition cues. Five-year-olds performed better with transition cues, whereas the reverse effect was observed at age 10 and with adults. Unlike 5-year-olds who detect switches after semantically processing cues, older participants strategically detect switches based on perceptual processing only. Age-related qualitative changes promote increasingly optimal adjustment of executive resources with age.
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Studies of complex switching report inconsistent developmental trajectories, including a plateau at age 10 or 11-12, gradual improvement across the teenage years, or an inverted U in the teenage years.
“with other studies suggesting a plateau at age 10 (Chelune and Baer, 1986; Chevalier et al., 2013; De Luca et al., 2003) or 11–12 (Huizinga et al., 2006; Huizinga and van der Molen, 2007; Somsen, 2007), gradual improvement across the teenage years (Crone et al., 2006; Crone et al., 2008), or an inverted U in the teenage years (van der Schaaf et al., 2011).”
From Does puberty mark a transition in sensitive periods for plasticity in the associative neocortex? (2017) · cites this paper as Chevalier et al., 2013
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References 63 · Cited by 73
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Chen Z Siegler RS Across the great divide: Bridging the gap between understanding of toddlers’ and older children’s thinking Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 2000 65 No. 2 (Whole No. 261) 12467094
- Authors
- Chevalier, N., Huber, K. L., Wiebe, S. A., & Espy, K. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Towson University (US)
- University of Alberta (CA)
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chevalier, Nicolas
- Venue
- Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-07
- Volume
- 128
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-12
- ISSN
- 0010-0277 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4049232
- OpenAlex
- W2069559708
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 4.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH065668, R01MH065668)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R21DA024769, R01DA023653, DA023653, DA024769)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD038051, R01HD050309, HD050309, P01HD038051)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- executive function, task switching, qualitative change, developmental changes, children, adults, semantic processing, perceptual processing, age differences, cognitive development
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aging, Child, Child, Preschool, Cues, Female, Form Perception, Humans, Male, Reaction Time, Young Adult, Executive Function
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