Individual Differences in Inhibitory Control Skills at Three Years of Age

Seventy-three children participated in an investigation of inhibitory control (IC) at 3 years of age. Child IC was measured under various conditions in order to determine the impact that nonverbal and/or motivational task demands had on child IC task performance. Furthermore, task performance was examined with respect to measures of language, temperament, and psychophysiology. Tasks showed different patterns of relations to each of these variables. Furthermore, performance on the Hand Game, our measure of nonverbal IC, was explained by frontal EEG activity and, surprisingly, by language abilities. In contrast, performance on two other IC tasks, Day-Night and Less is More, was not related to measures of language or frontal EEG, perhaps because children performed at chance level on these tasks, indicating that these tasks may be too difficult for 3-year-old children. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Watson, Amanda Joyce

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Bell, Martha Ann

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• White, Bradley A.
• Deater-Deckard, Kirby

• Inhibitory control
• EEG
• Developmental cognitive neuroscience
• Early childhood

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-04182011-144100

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/42162