Saturday, July 27, 2019

Hot and cool dimensionality of executive function: Model invariance across age and maternal education in preschool children - ScienceDirect


Abstract

The structure of executive function (EF), as it pertains to distinct "hot" (affectively salient) and "cool" (affectively neutral) dimensions, in early childhood is not well understood. Given that the neural circuitry underlying EF may become increasingly differentiated with development and enriched experiences, EF may become more dissociable into hot and cool factors with age and advantaged socioeconomic circumstances. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to compare a multidimensional hot and cool EF model with a unidimensional model in early childhood, and to investigate model invariance across age and maternal education. Participants were 1900 children (2–5 years of age) from socioeconomically diverse families in an urban area in the southern United States. We aggregated data from four previously collected studies that included EF tasks, thus this study includes secondary data analysis. We tested model fit across (1) children older and younger than 4 years of age and (2) higher (college experience) versus lower (no college) maternal education. Results indicated that a two-factor hot and cool EF model provided the best fit to the data across all groups. Although the number of factors was invariant, only partial metric invariance was met for age, suggesting that how certain tests represent EF changes with age. For maternal education, partial scalar invariance was met, with higher maternal education associated with higher scores on certain EF tasks. Findings with this large sample suggest that EF includes two factors characterized as hot and cool. However, the study raises questions about model invariance, particularly across age.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200619300961



Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Monday, July 08, 2019

Structure of brain networks is not fixed - Neuroscience News



Structure of brain networks is not fixed - Neuroscience News
https://neurosciencenews.com/brain-network-structure-14435/amp/

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Kevin McGrew, PhD
Educational Psychologist
Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics
IAP
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Friday, July 05, 2019

Cognitive ability is associated with changes in the functional organization of the cognitive control brain network - A. Breukelaar - 2018 - Human Brain Mapping - Wiley Online Library



Cognitive ability is associated with changes in the functional organization of the cognitive control brain network - A. Breukelaar - 2018 - Human Brain Mapping - Wiley Online Library
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbm.24342

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******************************************************
Kevin McGrew, PhD
Educational Psychologist
Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics
IAP
******************************************************