Effects of inhibitory control training on social behaviour in 6-11 year old children

• In Event: 2-215 - Training of executive functions in childhood: Moderators of training gains and individual differences in outcomes

Integrative Statement

There is much debate whether prosocial behaviour occurs as a result of automatic or deliberative and controlled processes. Understanding the mechanisms of prosocial behaviour especially in childhood can help foster these crucial skills in targeted ways. While correlative evidence suggests that controlled processes might be important for prosocial behaviour like sharing, a direct mechanistic link is missing. To address this, we employed an intervention design and trained a group of children in inhibitory control and compared its effects on sharing before and after training to that of a group of children training response speed.
80 typically developing children (mean age = 9.3 years, SD = 0.5) participated in the study, which employed a design comprising pretest, an average of 20 training sessions, and a posttest. Children were randomized into an experimental group that trained inhibition by means of an adaptive stop-signal paradigm, and a control group that trained response speed, which was also adaptive. To measure the effects of training on prosocial behaviour, both groups also played a Dictator Game before and after training.
Both groups improved in the cognitive function that was trained during the respective intervention (i.e. the experimental group improved their inhibitory control; the control group their response speed). Importantly, only children in the experimental group shared significantly more after the training compared to before, and difference that greater compared to the control group. These findings suggest that inhibitory control can be improved during childhood, which has further effects on associated functions like giving up valuable resources.

Author

• Nikolaus Steinbeis, University College London
  Presenting Author