Underpinnings of the Costs of Flexibility in Preschool Children: The Roles of Inhibition and Working Memory
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This study addressed the respective contributions of inhibition and working memory to two underlying components of flexibility, goal representation (as assessed by mixing costs) and switch implementation (as assessed by local costs), across the preschool period. By later preschool age (4 years, 6 months and 5 years, 3 months), both inhibition and working-memory performance were associated with mixing costs, but not with local costs, whereas no relation was observed earlier (3 years, 9 months). The relations of inhibition and working memory to flexibility appear to emerge late in the preschool period and are mainly driven by goal representation.
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Performance on switching tasks generally requires inhibition to suppress a previously applied rule set and working memory to maintain the alternating rules and when to shift.
“Performance on switching tasks generally requires 1) inhibition to suppress previously applied rule set, and 2) working memory to maintain the alternating rules and when to shift (Chevalier et al., 2012).”
From Assessing Executive Function in Preschoolers (2012) · cites this paper as Chevalier et al., 2012
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References 75 · Cited by 87
Research works printed but not linked: 8
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- Authors
- Chevalier, N., Sheffield, T. D., Nelson, J. M., Clark, C. A. C., Wiebe, S. A., & Espy, K. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
- University of Nebraska
- University of Alberta (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Chevalier, Nicolas
- ORCID
- Venue
- Developmental Neuropsychology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2012-02
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 99-118
- ISSN
- 1532-6942 (ISSN-L)
- 8756-5641
- PMC
- PMC3308575
- OpenAlex
- W2003236489
- Cited by
- 87
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Developmental Neuropsychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- 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, P01HD060563)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- cognitive flexibility, inhibition, working memory, preschool children, goal representation, switch implementation, mixing costs, executive function, cognitive development
- MeSH terms
- Child, Preschool, Cognition, Female, Goals, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Neuropsychological Tests, Executive Function
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