Cognitive adaptations to stressful environments: When childhood adversity enhances adult executive function.
Open accessAbstract
Can growing up in a stressful childhood environment enhance certain cognitive functions? Drawing participants from higher-income and lower-income backgrounds, we tested how adults who grew up in harsh or unpredictable environments fared on 2 types of executive function tasks: inhibition and shifting. People who experienced unpredictable childhoods performed worse at inhibition (overriding dominant responses), but performed better at shifting (efficiently switching between different tasks). This finding is consistent with the notion that shifting, but not inhibition, is especially useful in unpredictable environments. Importantly, differences in executive function between people who experienced unpredictable versus predictable childhoods emerged only when they were tested in uncertain contexts. This catalyst suggests that some individual differences related to early life experience are manifested under conditions of uncertainty in adulthood. Viewed as a whole, these findings indicate that adverse childhood environments do not universally impair mental functioning, but can actually enhance specific types of cognitive performance in the face of uncertainty.
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Experiences of scarcity affect people's cognitive resources.
“Behavioral science, psychology, and evolutionary biology studies have shown how experiences of scarcity (sometimes referred to as harshness) affect people's cognitive resources (Frankenhuis, Panchanathan, and Nettle 2016; Mani et al. 2013; Mittal et al. 2015).”
From Human Capital and Administrative Burden: The Role of Cognitive Resources in Citizen‐State Interactions (2020) · cites this paper as Mittal et al. 2015
Early life experiences of scarcity have long-lasting effects on people's executive functioning.
“For example, early life experiences of scarcity have long‐lasting effects on people's executive functioning.”
From Human Capital and Administrative Burden: The Role of Cognitive Resources in Citizen‐State Interactions (2020) · cites this paper as Mittal et al. 2015
Meta-analyses show a medium-size correlation between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and executive functioning in children and in adult life.
“Meta‐analyses show a medium‐size correlation between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and executive functioning in children (Lawson, Hook, and Farah 2018) as well as executive functioning in adult life (Mittal et al. 2015, 10; Paál, Carpenter, and Nettle 2015).”
From Human Capital and Administrative Burden: The Role of Cognitive Resources in Citizen‐State Interactions (2020) · cites this paper as Mittal et al. 2015
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“Meta-analyses show a medium-size correlation between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and executive functioning in children (Lawson, Hook, and Farah 2018) as well as executive functioning in adult life (Mittal et al. 2015, 10; Paál, Carpenter, and Nettle 2015).”
BackgroundButler, K., Klaus, K., Edwards, L., & Pennington, K. (2017) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.07.013 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
- Authors
- Mittal, C., Griskevicius, V., Simpson, J. A., Sung, S., & Young, E. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2015-10
- Volume
- 109
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 604-621
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2272950013
- Cited by
- 397
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 31.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1057482)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- childhood adversity, executive function, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, task switching, uncertainty, unpredictable environments, early life experience, cognitive adaptation, individual differences
- MeSH terms
- Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events, Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Male, Middle Aged, Stress, Psychological, Uncertainty, Young Adult, Executive Function
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