Psychological Science 2006

Predicting Cognitive Control From Preschool to Late Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Inge‐Marie Eigsti¹; Vivian Zayas²; Walter Mischel³; Yuichi Shoda⁴; Özlem Ayduk⁵; Mamta Banu Dadlani⁶; Matthew C. Davidson²; J. Lawrence Aber^7,8; B. J. Casey²

¹ University of Connecticut · ² Cornell University · ³ Columbia University · ⁴ University of Washington · ⁵ University of California, Berkeley · ⁶ University of Massachusetts Amherst · ⁷ Reinhardt University · ⁸ New York University

Abstract

In this longitudinal study, the proportion of time preschoolers directed their attention away from rewarding stimuli during a delay-of-gratification task was positively associated with efficiency (greater speed without reduced accuracy) at responding to targets in a go/no-go task more than 10 years later. The overall findings suggest that preschoolers' ability to effectively direct their attention away from tempting aspects of the rewards in a delay-of-gratification task may be a developmental precursor for the ability to perform inhibitory tasks such as the go/no-go task years later. Because performance on the go/no-go task has previously been characterized as involving activation of fronto-striatal regions, the present findings also suggest that performance in the delay-of-gratification task may serve as an early marker of individual differences in the functional integrity of this circuitry.

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01732.x

Sources

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