Investigating the development of inhibitory control with the Early Childhood Inhibitory Touchscreen Task

• In Event: The Development of Executive Functions in Early Toddlerhood

Abstract

The early development of inhibitory control has been a topic of much interest in recent years, not least because inhibitory control associates with several other functional domains and early academic skills (Blair & Razza, 2007). Petersen, Hoyniak, McQuillan, Bates and Staples (2016) have argued that a comprehensive set of age-appropriate tasks are needed to establish heterotypic continuity in the assessment of inhibitory control during childhood; that is, different tasks are needed at each age to capture the same inhibitory function over time. In this talk, I will argue that it is also possible to study the development of inhibitory control by aiming for homotypic continuity, that is, by using tasks that are structurally equivalent over time.

I will illustrate this idea by presenting data from the recently developed Early Childhood Inhibitory Touchscreen Task (ECITT). The ECITT is a simple response inhibition task that is easy to understand even before children are fully verbal. Participants are presented with two blue buttons on a tablet; one of the buttons has a smiley on it. They are then encouraged to “press the happy face”. The smiley is in one location, e.g., the right side of the screen, on 75% of trials (prepotent condition) and in the opposite location on 25% of trials (inhibitory condition). Inhibitory control is needed to overcome the more habitual response when the smiley is in the less frequent location. An animated reward is played for correct responses in children under 3 years of age.

The ECITT was investigated in 6 independent samples (N = 592), 3 cross-sectional (n = 300) and 3 longitudinal (n = 292). The majority of participants were 2½ years or younger (n = 336). Across the lifespan, participants made more errors on inhibitory trials. Likewise, from 16 months of age participants were slower to respond on correct inhibitory trials compared to correct prepotent trials. Increases in inhibitory performance was observed on the fast version of the task between mid-childhood (7-9 years) and young adulthood, with a small decrement in performance in older adulthood. In infants, there was no significant improvement in performance between 10 and 16 months. However, a fast increase in inhibitory performance, as well as significant stability of individual performance differences, was observed between 18 and 24 months. The increase in performance was entirely specific to the inhibitory trials, as performance on the prepotent trials remained constant during this period. This finding suggests a potential spurt in inhibitory control development during the second year of life.

The development of the ECITT demonstrates that it is possible to develop tasks that retain most of their structure across age. This can provide new insights into the early development of inhibitory control. Efforts to develop multiple tasks optimised for assessing inhibitory control at each age are still very much needed (Petersen et al., 2016). However, the combination of homotypic in and heterotypic approaches is likely to give us the most comprehensive insight into inhibitory control development across the early childhood years and beyond.

Authors

• Karla Holmboe, University of Oxford
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra Hendry, University of Oxford
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carina De Klerk
  Non-Presenting Author

• Abigail Fiske, University of Oxford
  Non-Presenting Author

• Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Henrik Dvergsdal, Nord University
  Non-Presenting Author