Identifying factors that contribute to spatial thinking is of great interest given links between spatial thinking and success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Working memory has been found to be predictive of spatial thinking but little research has explored other components of executive function (i.e.,…

Low inhibitory control (IC) is sometimes associated with enhanced problem-solving amongst adults, yet for young children high IC is primarily framed as inherently better than low IC. Here, we explore associations between IC and performance on a novel problem-solving task, amongst 102 English 2- and 3-year-olds (Study 1) and 84 Swedish children,…

Attention control (AC) is thought to play an important role in the development of inhibitory control (IC) in children, yet there are few longitudinal studies of this association. This study used a prospective parent-child adoption design (N = 361 children) to examine whether maternal warmth at child age 27 months moderated the link between AC…

There has long been a hypothesized link between pretend play and self-regulation in childhood, and several recent studies have confirmed a positive relation between the two in children as young as preschool-age. However, no research to date has investigated whether this relation is present in toddlerhood. The purpose of the present study is to…

A beneficial effect of physical activity on cognitive functioning is supposed, although to a certain extent, literature remains inconsistent. Furthermore, the mediating effect of aerobic fitness on this association remains unclear, especially in children. This review presents data from 26 articles on the relation between aerobic fitness and…

The present study explored the role of three components of executive function (EF)--response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility--in preschool children's social competence. Each component was expected to contribute uniquely to children's abilities to resolve peer conflict in a competent manner, namely, the inhibition of…

The present study aimed to examine how visual skills, verbal working memory, visuospatial working memory, and other general cognitive skills (inhibitory control, attention, and decision speed) were simultaneously correlated with the early acquisition of reading among kindergarten children. A total of 99 Chinese children were tested individually on…

Representational theory of mind--the ability to represent others' mental states and understand that these beliefs can be different from one's own and reality--emerges in early childhood alongside other meta-representational abilities, such as understanding that an image can be perceived in multiple ways. Limited research has suggested that…

The aim of this study was to explore associations between time spent using various media devices and executive abilities in preschoolers. Participants were 190 children (44.2% female; mean age 58.75 months, SD = 7.27). The Shape School, the Missing Scan and the Head and Feet tasks were administered to children to assess three core executive…

Theoretical accounts and experimental data on young children have shown that executive functions (EFs) are predicted by experiential factors. However, studies on school-aged children are rare. The present study has addressed this gap using a short-term cross-lagged longitudinal design focusing on the relationship between working memory (WM),…

Commonly proven abnormalities in the structure and functioning of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are related to cognitive deficits in children with ADHD. The purpose of the randomized controlled study was to assess the efficacy of intervention using hemoencephalographic biofeedback (HEG BFB) in PFC in ADHD and neurotypical children. The final cohort…

This study examines the association between teacher--child interaction quality and children's self-regulation in Finnish and Portuguese toddler classrooms. The participants included 230 Finnish (M = 29; SD = 3 months) and 283 Portuguese M = 30, SD = 4 months) toddlers and their teachers (n = 43 Finland; n = 29 Portugal). The children's behavioural…

It is well established that children lie in different social contexts for various purposes from the age of 2 years. Surprisingly, little is known about whether very young children will spontaneously lie for personal gain, how self-benefiting lies emerge, and what cognitive factors affect the emergence of self-benefiting lies. To bridge this gap in…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between temperament and social cognition, including theory of mind and emotion understanding, in 34 preschool-aged children (aged 3-4 years). Theory of mind was measured with a belief-desire reasoning assessment, and emotion understanding was measured with an affective…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contributions of general cognitive skills (working memory, inhibition, and reasoning) and metalinguistic awareness to young children's character reading. One hundred eighty-nine Chinese children, aged from 60 to 78 months, were administered with measures of character recognition, language,…