About this paper symposium

---

Panel information
Panel 1. Attention, Learning, Memory

Paper #1
Components of Socioeconomic Status Differentially Predict Development of Cool Versus Hot Executive Function in Children
Author information	Role
Zachary Demko, University of Iowa, United States	Presenting author
Alexis Hosch, University of Iowa, United States	Non-presenting author
Johanna Caskey, University of Iowa, United States	Non-presenting author
Giovanni Longino, University of Iowa, United States	Non-presenting author
Isaac T. Petersen, University of Iowa, United States	Non-presenting author
Abstract
Children use memory, impulse control, and flexible thinking—collectively referred to as executive function—in a range of daily tasks, such as school activities and social interaction. Likely given its relevance to a broad range of activities, childhood executive function predicts adult outcomes such as educational attainment and health-promoting behavior (Allan et al., 2016). It is well-established that family socioeconomic status is associated with children’s executive function abilities (Lawson et al., 2018). However, no prior studies have examined whether individual components of socioeconomic status independently predict later executive function while controlling for baseline executive function. Thus, the specific aspects of socioeconomic status that support the development of executive function remain unknown. Although various structures of executive function have been proposed, some research supports distinguishing between “hot” (affectively salient) and cool (affectively neutral) executive function. Such a distinction appears useful, with hot executive function more strongly linked to socioemotional functioning and cool executive function more strongly linked to academic performance (Poon, 2018). As such, individual components of socioeconomic status may uniquely impact hot versus cool executive function. To examine the unique contributions of components of socioeconomic status in predicting children’s executive function, we recruited a community sample of 231 children (109 girls) and their caregivers as part of a longitudinal study spanning ages 3 to 7.5 years. Participants completed study visits every nine months for four timepoints. During these visits, children completed behavioral tasks assessing hot and cool executive function; their parents completed surveys assessing their socioeconomic status and executive function. Socioeconomic status included income, occupational prestige, and educational attainment. We used cross-lagged panel models to examine how individual components of family socioeconomic status at one timepoint predicted children’s hot versus cool executive function nine months later, controlling for all other components of socioeconomic status. We also controlled for children’s age and sex, and parents’ own self-reported executive function as a proxy for genetic effects. First, we found support for a two-factor model of hot versus cool executive function in children. Second, parental education, but not parental occupational prestige or family income, positively predicted children’s cool executive function. No socioeconomic index predicted children’s hot executive function. Our findings align with prior work demonstrating positive links between parental education and child executive function. We extend prior work by demonstrating that this link is specific to cool executive function and holds when 1) examining predictive relations controlling for baseline levels, and 2) while controlling for other components of socioeconomic status. Future research should examine why parental education supports children’s cool executive function—for example, whether education impacts parenting practices, access to intellectually engaging material for children, or other mechanisms. In sum, findings suggest that parental education may be particularly relevant for the development of children’s cool executive function; more work is needed to identify environmental processes that influence the development of hot executive function. Understanding the core aspects of socioeconomic status that support the development of hot and cool executive function may ultimately promote more effective interventions to support children.

Paper #2
The Association Between Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Executive Function in Childhood: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis
Author information	Role
Alexis Hosch, University of Iowa, United States	Presenting author
Emily Lancaster, University of Montana, United States	Non-presenting author
Kasia Janik, University of Iowa, United States	Non-presenting author
Isaac T. Petersen, University of Iowa, United States	Non-presenting author
Abstract
Executive functions, including the ability to monitor and update mental representations (working memory), inhibit prepotent responses (inhibition), and flexibly shift between tasks (attention shifting), are necessary for navigating everyday tasks and decisions. Deficits in executive function (EF) have been associated with adverse outcomes, including poor physical and mental health. Prior studies have investigated mechanisms in the development of EF, including socioeconomic status (SES). Previous meta-analytic work found small-to-medium effects between family SES and EF (Lawson et al., 2018). However, no prior meta-analyses have examined the relation between neighborhood SES and EF. The current study is the first to comprehensively review and meta-analyze evidence for an association between neighborhood SES and EF in childhood. We conducted meta-analyses to examine (1) the unadjusted (i.e., bivariate) relation between neighborhood SES and EF and (2) the adjusted relation (i.e., after controlling for covariates including family SES) between neighborhood SES and EF. Studies were identified in October 2022 through literature searches of databases. Inclusion criteria included: (1) Written in English, (2) Published or unpublished empirical article, (3) Includes at least one measure of EF, (4) Includes at least one measure of neighborhood SES, and (5) Mean age of participants was ≤ 18 years of age. Pearson correlations were extracted to assess the unadjusted relation between neighborhood SES and EF. Standardized regression coefficients were extracted and converted to Pearson correlations to assess the adjusted relation between neighborhood SES and EF. The meta-analysis on the unadjusted association between neighborhood SES and EF included 36 studies and 96 effect sizes (N = 48,285, Mage=10.1 years). The adjusted model included 15 studies and 27 effect sizes (N=19,365, Mage=10.2 years). Results are summarized in Table 1. Analyses revealed an overall small, positive association between neighborhood SES and EF (Figure 1), in which higher neighborhood SES was associated with better EF (r=.11, 95%CI [0.08, 0.14]). This association remained significant after controlling for covariates including family SES (r=.08, 95%CI [0.05, 0.11]). Neighborhood quality and safety had the strongest associations with EF. Moreover, neighborhood SES was most strongly associated with working memory and other EF skills. There were no significant differences in the unadjusted association between neighborhood SES and hot versus cool EF. This study was the first to review the evidence for an association between neighborhood SES and EF in childhood. We found higher neighborhood SES was associated with greater EF, with similar effect sizes observed for hot versus cool EF. Effect sizes in the present study are smaller than the effects found between family SES and EF, suggesting more proximal family-level processes may exert a relatively greater impact on children’s EF than more distal neighborhood-level processes. However, the relation between neighborhood SES and EF remained after controlling for covariates, suggesting neighborhood SES may uniquely contribute to EF above and beyond family sociodemographic factors. Future research should consider both family- and neighborhood-level factors in the relation between SES and EF. Important contributions of children’s broader environment may be missed by not considering the effects of neighborhood.

Paper #3
12-month Predictors of 24-month Executive Function
Author information	Role
Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Tech, United States	Presenting author
Leslie A. Patton, Virginia Tech, United States	Non-presenting author
Abstract
Executive functions (EF) in early development predict cognitive, academic, and socio-emotional outcomes in childhood (Blair & Razza, 2007). We focused on the development of executive function during the second year, when developmental changes in multiple aspects of self-regulation are rapidly occurring. We wanted to know which extrinsic and intrinsic factors during infancy predict toddler performance on EF tasks. Regarding intrinsic factors, in adults EF task performance is associated with various frontofrontal and frontoparietal networks (Diamond, 2013); thus, we hypothesized that resting state EEG coherence during infancy would predict toddler EF (Whedon et al., 2016). We also hypothesized that infant temperamental attention and engagement with the environment would also predict toddler EF because these temperament traits (effortful control, surgency) are associated with similar brain networks as EF processes. Because of the strong association between language and EF in young children (Bruce & Bell, 2022), we hypothesized that very early forms of communication during infancy (i.e., gestures) would predict toddler EF. Regarding extrinsic factors, the home environment as assessed by family social economic status (SES) is related to EF in middle childhood (Ming et al., 2021). We wanted to know if the same association was evident in very early development. Thirty-eight typically developing infants (half girls) and their parents were seen in the research lab at 12 months; we recorded resting-state EEG and calculated coherence between frontal and parietal scalp locations at 6-9 Hz because meta-analysis shows that this is the frequency band associated with general self-regulation during the first year (Hofstee et al., 2022). Parents completed questionnaires to assess temperamental effortful control and surgency (IBQ-VSF) and early communication (MCDI gestures). Children were seen again at 24 months and we administered a working memory/inhibitory control task (looking A-not-B with invisible displacement; Diamond et al., 1997), a simple response inhibition task (glitter wand; Friedman et al., 2012), and a complex inhibitory control task (reverse categorization; Garon et al., 2008). We used mother and father education level as a proxy for SES. In terms of intrinsic predictors, analyses showed that both 12-month temperamental effortful control and surgency predicted performance on A-not-B with invisible displacement (Rsqr=.05); effortful control alone predicted reverse categorization (Rsqr=.04); neither predicted glitter wand performance. Both left and right 12-month frontofrontal and frontoparietal EEG coherence predicted A-not-B (Rsqr=.17) and reverse categorization (Rsqr=.52); EEG did not predict performance on glitter wand. MCDI gestures as 12 months predicted reverse categorization (Rsqr=.18) and glitter wand (Rsqr=.21); MCDI gestures did not predict performance on A-not-B. The extrinsic factor of SES did not predict performance on any of the 3 EF tasks at 24 months. These data show that parent-report infant attention and engagement, parent-report of early gestures, and resting state EEG coherence at 12 months predict 24-month outcomes on EF tasks. This work fills critical gaps in our scientific knowledge regarding normal trajectories of early EF development and the value of infant predictors of later toddler cognition.

Paper #4
Socioeconomic and Cardiac Autonomic Predictors of Hot and Cool Executive Functions in Preschoolers
Author information	Role
Daniel Ewon Choe, Ph.D., University of California Davis, United States	Presenting author
Aubrey B. Golden, University of California Davis, United States	Non-presenting author
Abstract
Evidence is accumulating in support of hot and cool dimensions of executive functions (EFs). Hot EFs involve suppression of motivational responses to appetitive cues in affectively "hot" situations, whereas cool EFs involve interference control of abstract processes in affectively neutral or "cool" situations (Zelazo & Carlson, 2012). Although hot and cool EFs have been found to have unique neural substrates (Salehinejad et al., 2021), growth rates (O’Toole et al., 2017), and associations with functional outcomes (Wang & Ji, 2024), distinct biosocial predictors of their individual differences remain poorly understood. This cross-sectional study of preschoolers leverages multimethod data to test socioeconomic and autonomic predictors of hot and cool EFs in early childhood. Evidence linking hot and cool EFs to socioeconomic factors has been mixed (Baker et al., 2021), whereas parasympathetic functioning has been linked reliably to top-down self-control, facilitated by EFs (Thayer & Lane, 2009). How both branches of the autonomic nervous system, especially sympathetic activity, relate to hot and cool EFs is poorly understood, and few studies have examined whether they interact with socioeconomic status to predict hot and cool EFs. We hypothesize that socioeconomic factors will predict cool EFs, whereas heightened arousal related to greater sympathetic and less parasympathetic activity will predict hot EFs. We expect interactions between socioeconomic and autonomic factors will predict EFs, but we have no a priori predictions based on the paucity of prior research. The present study included 70 preschool-age children (M = 51.41 mos; 51.4% male; 52.9% non-Hispanic White) recruited from child care centers, preschools, and community events. Children completed lab tasks measuring hot (gift wrap, gift delay) and cool EFs (day/night, bird/dragon, tower, picture memory; Kochanska, 2014) while wearing MindWare mobile recording units acquiring electrocardiogram and impedance cardiography. Parents reported their education and family income. Children’s resting autonomic activity was scored in 30-sec epochs averaged across a 2.5-min sitting baseline task in which they watched a calming video. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; indexing parasympathetic activity) and pre-ejection period (PEP; indexing sympathetic activity) were mean centered with parental education and family income. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) software, Mplus, to identify hot and cool latent factors, and then regress them onto these predictors. Preliminary confirmatory factor analysis showed a latent factor for cool EFs fit the data well (Figure 1). A follow-up SEM model also fit well: χ2(17) = 10.45, p = .884. CFI = 1.00. RMSEA = .00. SRMR = .06. Contrary to hypotheses, RSA, PEP, parental education, family income, and their interactions were nonsignificant predictors, except the interaction between RSA and parental education predicted cool EFs (β = .46, p = .029), partially supporting expectations. Figure 2 shows a plot of simple slopes indicating that only among children of parents with high educational attainment (1 SD above mean) was RSA positively associated with cool EFs (β = .53, p = .009). A latent factor for hot EFs did not fit well, so gift wrap and gift delay scores will be examined in separate SEM models. Developmental implications of the unique antecedents of hot and cool EFs will be discussed.

⇦ Back to session