According to the 2009 U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 57 million individuals, ages five and older, living in the United States spoke a language other than English at home. There is a clear and growing number of bilingual individuals and English Language Learners (ELL) in the United States. With these growing numbers, especially within the school-aged population, it is crucial that a clear understanding exist regarding the development of children who are bilingual or learning English as their second language. There is evidence that bilingual children differ from their monolingual peers in the development of executive function (EF), and specifically demonstrate some advantages on EF tasks. This research has not been expanded to include the new conceptualization of EF as hot and cool. This study seeks to examine bilingual EF advantages in EF in light of this recent conceptualization. A second goal of this study is to identify other psychosocial variables that predict EF in children and, thus, might impact its development. The variables of interest include socioeconomic status (SES), economic stress, parenting practices (e.g., disciplinary practices and relational frustration), and cultural beliefs (e.g., individualism/collectivism). A sample of 67 bilingual and monolingual English speaking children and their parents/guardians participated in this study. Children completed 4 EF tasks and parents completed a battery which included measures of the psychosocial variables and the BRIEF Parent Form. A MANCOVA model was utilized to examine bilingual differences in EF. Multiple regression models were also used to test for significant predictors of hot and cool EF and general EF (as measured by the BRIEF GEC) among the psychosocial variables. No significant group differences were found in multivariate analyses. Significant predictors of specific EF measures and hot and cool total scores were identified, including economic stress, age, relational frustration, vertical individualism, and vertical collectivism. These are discussed in light of current literature and clinical applications.

The proportion of elderly individuals in society is increasing dramatically, leading to an increase in the prevalence of age-related neurological disorders that affect the function of the frontal lobes and overall movement control. This thesis aims to evaluate ‘executive control’ and the underlying brain changes in normal versus abnormal aging processes using saccadic eye movement tasks. Tasks performed by subjects that probe executive control consist of antisaccades (generate a voluntary eye movement after inhibiting an automatic movement to a visual stimulus), and memory-guided saccades (generate eye movements to three previous remembered visual stimuli in the same sequence they were presented). Both of these types of saccades require good functioning behavioural control, which is subserved by areas in the prefrontal cortex. This thesis specifically characterizes the changes in oculomotor control related to aging, Huntington’s disease, mild cognitive impairment (amnestic), and Alzheimer’s disease. We also specifically examine the neural mechanisms related to behavioural control in the antisaccade task in aging. Together, the conclusions drawn from this thesis reveal that specific areas in the prefrontal cortex are involved in executive dysfunction in both normal and abnormal aging, but the patient groups studied have provided new understanding that different underlying brain substrates may be altering function in the frontal cortical areas, such as the basal ganglia and the hippocampus. / Thesis (Ph.D, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-04-28 13:44:32.25

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Caregiving is a rewarding and strenuous activity that affects the physiological, psychological, and cognitive processes in the human body. While caregiving stress has been studied previously, these studies have overlooked a common symptom of experiencing stress: rumination. The present study explored how recalling stressful caregiving experiences affected caregiver stress levels and their performance on a test of executive function. Neural correlates underlying cognitive performance were also examined. The findings indicate that lifetime duration of caregiving activities, not recalling stressful experiences, is associated with poorer performance on the AX-CPT, though no changes in neural correlates were observed. / Doctor of Philosophy / Caregiving is a rewarding activity for many individuals, but it can also be associated with many consequences like changes in mental and physical health. When these stressful moments occur, it is natural for individuals to replay them in their minds. Caregivers may experience an increase in these stressful moments, but this may impede functions in those re-playing these experiences. Caregivers frequently experience stress from their care activities, which may also lead them to recall these stressors more often. The present study examined whether thinking about stressful caregiving experiences was associated with changes in physical and cognitive changes functioning in caregivers. The results indicate that the amount of time a person spends caregiving across their lifetime, not recalling stressful caregiving experiences, is related to poorer performance on a cognitive test.

This study explores the relationship between acute sugar consumption and its effect on executive function (EF). Specifically, this study examines the effect of both acute and chronic sugar consumption on EF. An epidemiological survey was given on an online work distribution platform, where participants finished cognitive tasks of EF after completing questionnaires assessing sugar consumption both in the last year and last 24 hours (n = 273). It was hypothesized that acute and chronic sugar intake would significantly predict scores on measures of aspects of EF. Additionally, it was hypothesized that chronic sugar intake would significantly moderate the relationship between acute sugar intake and EF. Neither acute nor chronic sugar consumption predicted EF. This effect was not changed by including chronic sugar consumption as a moderating variable upon acute sugar consumption and EF. This research provides greater evidence about what effect sugar consumption has on EF.

Executive Function (EF) comprises general purpose control processes that regulate thoughts and behaviours. Underlying core skills have been identified, including Shift: the ability to move between mental states, operations, or tasks. Research implicates EF (and Shift specifically) in academic achievement and broader life functioning throughout the life span. Most attempts to develop EF skills directly have focused on memory aspects and/or younger children. Reported benefits are controversial and perhaps limited. This research tackles a particular gap: intervention with adolescent core EF skills, with a focus on Shift, in a typical educational setting. All participant sampling was by convenience. Two experts in EF and three local stakeholders guided intervention development. 22 mainstream Year 8 students (one tutor group) trialled the resulting intervention prototype. A teaching assistant facilitated the implementation, with the form tutor present to occasionally assist. Being an exploratory evaluation, this research used mixed methods with an emphasis on qualitative data. Semi-structured group interviews with experts and a stakeholder focus group were used during the development phase. Standardised baseline and retest data were collected up to three weeks before and four weeks after the implementation phase respectively: a half term's trial during morning form-time. This was complemented by semi-structured feedback interviews with the participating adults and eight students. Transcripts were analysed with Thematic Analysis and the researcher's diary with Content Analysis. The quantitative data were summarised with descriptive statistics and additionally analysed with nonparametric inferential statistics. The study extends available data describing the near benefits of EF intervention. It explores the likely utility of EF intervention both theoretically and from an implementation perspective.

The study reported in this dissertation aimed at exploring relations between parental factors - parenting and maternal executive function (EF) - and preschool children's EF in the South Korean context (the Republic of Korea; Korea hereafter). Specifically, it investigated the replication in the Korean context of existing findings in Western cultures on the link between parenting and child EF. In addition, the present study explored parental aspects that have rarely been linked to child EF: 1) the relation of parental verbal input to child EF, 2) simultaneous relations of parenting and maternal EF to child EF, and 3) mediating roles played by parenting in the maternal EF-child EF link. Ten kindergartens located in different districts (middle- to upper-middle class households) in Seoul, Korea hosted the present study, and data were collected from a total of 92 mother-child dyads who volunteered to take part. The children were aged between 3 and 5 years, with 97 per cent of them being 4 years old, and they were reported not to have experienced developmental issues. The mothers were biological parents of child participants. Both the mothers and children performed on age-appropriate EF tasks. Three types of parenting dimensions were focused on in two contexts of mother-child interactions: maternal contingency and intrusiveness in a problem-solving context and maternal verbal input during a mother-child reminiscing conversation. Maternal verbal input was operationalized to consist of four constructs: maternal elaboration, semantic connection (maternal utterances that are semantically connected with the child's utterances), maternal mental-state references, and connected mental-state references (maternal mental-state references that are semantically connected with the child's utterances). As such, a total of 14 maternal traits during the two mother-child interactions were examined for their relations to the development of child EF. Mother-child interactions were videotaped for later analysis. As a result, 184 five-minute video clips were obtained and analysed by adopting a quantitative approach. Results showed that the positive relation between maternal contingency and child EF was successfully replicated in the Korean context. In addition, maternal connected mental-state references, particularly emotion references, were found as a significant factor explaining child EF, above and beyond three covariates of child EF (child age, child verbal ability and maternal educational attainment). However, maternal intrusiveness was found not to be significantly related to child EF in the Korean context. Next, the analysis of the simultaneous relations of maternal factors to child EF showed that maternal contingency accounted for unique variance in child EF more than any other parenting variables involved in the present study. In addition to maternal contingency, maternal EF (i.e., maternal shifting as measured by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task) and maternal connected mental-state references were found to significantly account for unique variance in child EF. Finally, it was found that the maternal EF-child EF link was not explained by parenting behaviours explored in the present study. Instead, maternal contingency was found to mediate the link between child verbal ability and child EF and the link between maternal educational attainment and child EF. While the above mentioned results were the main findings of the present study, the difference in the results should be addressed between when using the whole sample (N=92 dyads) and only 4-year-olds (N=89 dyads). Child's age was found to account for less unique variance in child EF when using only 4-year-olds. In addition, the significant link between maternal EF and child EF when using the data from the whole sample became insignificant when using the data from only 4-year-olds. These findings are discussed in terms of universal or culture-specific links between maternal EF, parenting behaviours and child EF, adding to the literature by presenting the first empirical evidence on this research field in a non-Western context.

Executive functions (EF) are higher-level control processes that regulate lower-level processes to shape complex performance. Although remaining an elusive construct, researchers have dichotomized EF into “cool” cognitive processes, such as cognitive flexibility, and “hot” emotional processes, such as decision-making. The current study investigated both “cool” and “hot” EF as moderators of the relation between provocation and aggression. Undergraduate participants (N = 224) completed measures of “cool” and “hot” EF. Aggression was measured using a modified version of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm in which participants blasted an ostensive “partner” after receiving positive or negative feedback. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Task was associated with aggression for males, but not for females; the Trail Making Test- Part B was not related to aggression; the Iowa Gambling Task was the strongest predictor of aggression for both genders. Findings highlight the importance of including measures of “cool” and “hot” EF in the assessment of aggression.

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