A normative‐developmental study of executive function: A window on prefrontal function in children

TLDR

Executive function is goal‑directed behavior encompassing planning, organized search, and impulse control. The study examined normative developmental trajectories of executive function across a battery of tasks. Researchers administered clinical neuropsychological tests (visual search, verbal fluency, motor sequencing, WCST) and developmental tasks (Tower of Hanoi, Matching Familiar Figures Test), plus a recognition memory task and IQ scores, to 100 children aged 3–12 and an adult comparison group. Adult‑level performance emerged at ages 6, 10, and adolescence; the tasks grouped into speeded responding, set maintenance, and planning factors, and most were uncorrelated with IQ.

Abstract

Abstract Normative‐developmental performance on a battery of executive function tasks was investigated. Executive function was defined as goal‐directed behavior, including planning, organized search, and impulse control. Measures were drawn from clinical neuropsychology (visual search, verbal fluency, motor sequencing, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Task [WCST]) and from developmental psychology (Tower of Hanoi [TOH] and Matching Familiar Figures Test [MFFT]). A discriminant task, recognition memory, was administered, and IQ scores were available on a subset of the sample. One hundred subjects ranging from 3 to 12 years old participated; an adult group was also studied. Three major results were found: (a) adult‐level performance on different subsets of the executive function tasks was achieved at three different ages—6 years old, 10 years old, and adolescence; (b) the measures clustered into three different factors reflecting speeded responding, set maintenance, and planning; and (c) most of the executive function tasks were uncorrelated with IQ. The implications of these results for our understanding of the development of prefrontal lobe functions are discussed.