The structure of executive function in 3-year-old children

By Sandra A. Wiebe, Tiffany D. Sheffield, J. Nelson, C. Clark, N. Chevalier, Kimberly Andrews Espy. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2010

726 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Although the structure of executive function (EF) in adulthood is characterized by both unity and diversity, recent evidence suggests that preschool EF may be best described by a single factor (Wiebe, Espy, & Charak, 2008). The latent structure of EF was examined in 228 3-year-olds using confirmatory factor analysis. Children completed a battery of executive tasks that differed in format and response requirements, and putative working memory and inhibitory control demands. Tasks appeared to be age appropriate, with adequate sensitivity across the range of performance and without floor or ceiling effects. Tests of the relative fit of several alternative models supported a single latent EF construct. Measurement invariance testing revealed less proficient EF in children at higher sociodemographic risk relative to those at lower risk, and no differences between boys and girls. At age 3 years, when EF skills are emerging, EF appears to be a unitary, more domain-general process.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8cc1a5f03c2e8ed871f9bb604f333e416d3bb8e5

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Psychiatry and Mental health

Citations in the corpus

Impact of Urban Nature on Executive Functioning in Early and Middle Childhood (2017, methodology): “A “false alarm” occurs when a signal is absent, and the person identifies the signal as being present (i.e., a com - mission error, in our Go/No go task when a shark appears, and the child presses the spacebar; Wiebe et al., 2011).”
Executive function in the first three years of life: precursors, predictors and patterns (2016, background): “Many researchers have found that a single latent EF construct best describes preschoolers’ performance on EF batteries (Hughes, Ensor, Wilson, & Graham, 2009; Senn, Espy & Kaufmann, 2004; Wiebe, Espy, & Charak, 2008; Wiebe et al., 2011; Willoughby, Wirth, Blair & Family Life Project Investigators, 2”
The differentiation of executive functions in middle and late childhood: A longitudinal latent-variable analysis (2014, background): “…in typically developing children until around the age of 9 years (Brydges et al., 2012; Hughes, Ensor, Wilson, & Graham, 2009; Shing et al., 2010; Wiebe et al., 2008, 2011; Willoughby et al., 2012), but are separable yet related by the age of 10–11 years (Duan et al., 2010; Lehto et al., 2003;…”
Individual Differences in Children’s Pragmatic Ability: A Review of Associations with Formal Language, Social Cognition, and Executive Functions (2018, background): “Wiebe et al. (2011) suggest that early on in development EF is a unitary, domain general construct.”
Changes and challenges in 20 years of research into the development of executive functions (2011, background): “…children suggest that EF in preschoolers has a simple unitary structure (e.g., Hughes, Ensor, Wilson, & Graham, 2010; Wiebe, Espy, & Charak, 2008; Wiebe et al., 2010), but shows a more fractionated structure in school-aged children (Huizinga, Dolan, & van der Molen, 2006; Lehto, Juujärvi,…”
The Relation Between Executive Function and Theory of Mind is More Than Skin Deep (2015, result): “Although this is inconsistent with some studies suggesting a single latent factor of EF among preschool-age children (e.g., Wiebe et al., 2011; Willoughby, Blair, Wirth, & Greenberg, 2010), it is consistent with other research suggesting a distinction T A B L E 2 R a w a n d P a rt ia l C o rr e…”
Parenting Mediates the Effects of Income and Cumulative Risk on the Development of Effortful Control (2014, background): “Although some evidence suggest that a single factor underlies both executive and delay components (Allan & Lonigan, 2011; Wiebe et al., 2011), other evidence suggests the predictors, outcomes, and trajectory of delay may differ from that of executive control (e.g., Brock et al., 2009; Li-Grining,…”
Executive function and metacognition: Towards a unifying framework of cognitive self-regulation (2017, background): “Importantly, however, they seem to be relatively undifferentiated early in development (Diamond, 2013; Hughes, Ensor, Wilson, & Graham, 2010; Wiebe et al., 2011; Willoughby, Wirth, Blair, & Family Life Project Investigators, 2012).”
Longitudinal contributions of executive functioning and visual-spatial skills to mathematics learning in young Chinese children (2019, background): “Even though studies suggest that EFs are at first inseparable at the early age of 3 (Wiebe et al., 2011; Wiebe, Espy, & Charak, 2008; Willoughby, Blair, Wirth, & Greenberg, 2010), later when children are older than 3 years old, some studies suggest two or more factors of EF (Lee, Bull, & Ho, 2013;…”
Specifying Links Between Executive Functioning and Theory of Mind during Middle Childhood: Cognitive Flexibility Predicts Social Understanding (2015, background): “Ongoing research probes the utility of these models during the preschool years (Hughes, Ensor, Wilson, & Graham, 2010; Wiebe, Espy, & Charak, 2008; Wiebe et al., 2011), leading some scientists to conclude that executive functioning begins as a unitary construct that becomes more differentiated…”
Executive Function Skills, Early Mathematics, and Vocabulary in Head Start Preschool Children (2017, background): “The mixed results regarding these three EF processes may be due in part to their high integration and relation to language development in younger children (Calvo & Bialystok, 2014; Garon, Bryson, & Smith, 2008; Wiebe et al., 2011).”