Stuart Marcovitch, Ph.D. - US grants

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Executive function refers to the higher order cognitive processes that are responsible for planning, executing, and evaluating problems. The development of executive function is widely studied as it has broad implications for tracking typical and atypical development, including ADHD. However, due to limitations in current methodology, most developmental accounts of executive function ignore the abilities prior to 3 years of age. The current proposal puts forth a unified account of the development of executive function through the framework of a computational model of search behavior. Using variants of the A-not-B search task, the development of executive function may now be tracked from infancy, through toddlerhood and into the early childhood years. In an A- not-B task, the child must search correctly at a new location (B) after previously searching a number of times at an old location (A); failure to do so is termed the A-not-B error. The computational model that guides this research program consists of a function that captures the effects of habit (i.e., previously executed responses) and a function that captures the ability to reflect on representations (e.g., reminding one's self where the object is hidden). Interestingly, this model generates a number of testable hypotheses that all stem from the unique perspective that task experience simultaneously increases the likelihood of searching incorrectly due to habit and decreases the likelihood of searching incorrectly by offering additional opportunities for reflection. The proposed research will expand on this hypothesis by testing children across the preschool age range (i.e., 2 to 4 years), and varying the likelihood of reflection via labeling cues. By furthering our understanding of the joint develolpment of habit, memory, and language use, we can begin to track the development of executive function over the first few years of life. This can serve as a basis for the early typical development of executive function, and may serve as a means to detect atypical trajectories that have been implicated in autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and maltreatment related posttraumatic stress disorder. This research will study directly the combined develolpment of habit, memory, and language use, which will permit the tracking of the development of higher order cognition over the first few years of life. This can serve as a basis for the early typical development of executive function, and may serve as a means to detect atypical trajectories that have been implicated in autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and maltreatment related posttraumatic stress disorder. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children's success or failure in the early school years is an important predictor of a range of developmental outcomes. Despite our understanding that these predictive relations exist, we know very little about how trajectories of low versus high achievement are produced, particularly with respect to the developmental precursors of early academic skills. The proposal describes a novel longitudinal biobehavioral study of a diverse sample of 350 children from age 4 to first grade, using a multi-method approach to study trajectories of emotional and cognitive processes and the emergence of academic skills and social skills competence at the transition to school. We propose to examine learning engagement across preschool and early childhood as the mechanism mediating children's early emotional, cognitive, and social skills and later school success as measured by trajectories of academic achievement and social skills in first grade. Further, we propose to examine the contextual factors in home and school that moderate the relations between these early skills and learning engagement. Learning engagement is defined as positive affect associated with school and learning, interest and persistence in challenging academic tasks, and active participation in classroom activities. We propose that these indices of learning engagement emerge and become integrated as a function of earlier emotional and cognitive skills, making this program of research uniquely positioned to elucidate school-relevant processes that have to date been either unexplored or not well-linked to prior developmentally significant skills. By understanding the emergence of learning engagement and how it is affected by child and environmental factors as well as the interaction between them, we can develop more effective intervention approaches to increase academic achievement and support children's adjustment. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In this study, we propose to examine learning engagement as the mechanism linking preschool aged children's early emotional, cognitive, and social skills to later school success as measured by early academic achievement. By understanding the emergence of learning engagement and how it is affected by child and environmental factors as well as their interaction, we can develop more effective intervention approaches to increase academic achievement and support children's adjustment.