Six-month executive function predicts joint attention across the first year

• In Event: Social development in infancy: Neural, behavioral, and cognitive influences across the first year of life

Abstract

The developmental association between executive function (EF) and aspects of social cognition is established beginning in the second year (e.g. Miller & Marcovitch, 2015; Van Hecke et al., 2012), but it is unknown how these cognitive abilities codevelop in early infancy. Social cognition relies on neural and behavioral processes that overlap with executive function and the two skills are observable to varying degrees in young infants. EF is a higher-order cognitive ability that involves aspects of planning and problem solving. Rudimentary EF skills develop in the first 6 months of life. Joint attention (JA) is an early form of social cognition which involves directing attention of others (initiating JA; IJA) and responding to bids for shared attention. For infants to share attention with others, they must inhibit distractions and maintain a goal in working memory, requiring EF. The current study examined the association between infant EF and JA, with the hypothesis that early EF would longitudinally predict JA.
A total of 48 infants (24 girls) participated in a longitudinal study investigating the neurodevelopment of EF. At 6, 9, and 12 months, infants and caregivers attended a laboratory visit and completed a battery of tasks including the A-not-B task and Book task from the Early Social Communication Scale (ESCS). The A-not-B task (Bell & Adams, 1999) introduced infants to an engaging toy that was hidden underneath one of two identical cups. Infants were distracted and asked which cup the toy was under. Infants’ first look towards one of the two cups was coded as correct or incorrect. After two successful trials on one side, the toy was hidden on the opposite side. Infants were coded on a scale based on their highest level of performance from 0 (no object permanence) to 6 (A-not-B with 4 sec delay). At 6 months, scores ranged from 0 to 5 (mean = 1.6). In the Book task of the ESCS, the experimenter showed the infant an open book and directed their attention to an image with a point. Lower level IJA was coded as infants’ eye contact bids to the experimenter/caregiver while actively manipulating the book or alternating gaze between eye contact and the book (Mundy et al., 2003). At 12 months, caregivers completed the MCDI and reported the highest educational degree earned by the mother.
Multiple regression analyses with 6-month A-not-B predicting IJA at 6, 9, and 12 months showed that six month EF precited IJA at 6 and 12 months, but not 9 months. These data demonstrate the longitudinal association between EF and JA that extends to the early emergence of both skills. It is curious that the association did not hold for nine-month JA, and may be a reflection of the small sample size, considering the effect size reported. Further research is necessary to understand the codevelopment of EF and JA in early infancy, but results suggest that social abilities in early childhood build on a foundation of EF. Implications and future directions will be further discussed in the presentation.

Authors

• Alleyne Patricia Ross Broomell, Western Carolina University
  Presenting Author

• Nina Andre, Western Carolina University
  Non-Presenting Author

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