Midterm Flashcards
Cool EF - Definition, brain, information processing characteristics
cognitive processes involving rational non-emotional tasks
Dorsolateral PFC
logical and critical analysis
HOT EF - Def, brain, information processing characteristic
emotionally and socially driven executive functions
orbitofrontal/ventromedial PFC
reappraisal of new stimuli, evaluation of motivational significance of stimuli, affective decision making
tasks used to assess cool and hot EF
cool: card sorting task, Stroop task
hot: gambling task, delayed gratification
are cool ef unitary or dependent? what do studies report?
studies vary; some suggest unity, other propose independence
patients with focal brain damage propose independence
animal models proposed unity with tests “frontal lobe-executive function”
adult research proposed mixed results
How is Bechera and Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis applied to the explanation of Hot and Cool EFs?
Bechara and Damasio propose people make decisions based on their past emotional representations
Applied to hot EFs, where emotional signals influence choices.
In terms of development, how is cool and hot EFs dissociated (statistically, different/same trajectories/neural networks)
Trajectories differ statistically for different domains. So results are mixed
Neural networks show unique maturation patterns for cool and hot EFs.
What are the components of Iterative Processing Model, which components should possibly be targeted in intervention? Do you think this model can be part of prevention if so how?
Components: reflection or reprocessing information
Reflections helps prevention as it causes them to pause and consider each rule and component carefully before responding in a more deliberate, flexible way.
Can you write an argument about the distinction and/or similarity between hot and cool executive functions using the research results and discussions that is presented in the lecture videos?
Distinction: Neuroimaging evidence reveals unique brain activation for cool and hot EFs.
Similarity: Overlapping neural regions suggest interdependence.
Importance: Understanding distinctions aids targeted interventions for specific EF domains.
What is SLD and how are SLDs defined in the DSM 5?
Specific Learning Disabilities
DSM 5 - neurodevelopmental disorder with biological origin that is a basis for cognitive level that are associated with the behavioral signs of the disorder”
How does Fletcher (2007) define etiological factors that impact academic outcomes in LD?
neurobiology (genetic factors, brain structure/function), core cognitive processes (phonetic awareness), behavioural/psychosocial factors (attention, anxiety, motivation), environment (socioeconomic, schooling, instruction)
Definition of co-morbidity and how comorbidity/LD is studied in two different samples (Margari et al, 2013 & Visser et al 2020). What are the general results of these studies?
Def - coexistance of two or more conditions
Margari et al (2013): Examined comorbidity in LD and NOS (not otherwise specified. Results suggested SLD and LD NOS comorbidity did not differ. SLD: ADHD anxiety and mood disorders. LD NOS: language and motor
Visser et al (2020): Investigated comorbidity in LD with varied results, emphasizing the need for a nuanced understanding. Children with SLD have more comorbid disorders, 2 or more psychopathology increased risk for SLD, ADHD more frequent with arthimetic and spelling problems.
Why is it important to understand the comorbid problems in LD (in terms of EFs and school readiness)?
Understanding comorbid problems helps tailor interventions to address not only learning difficulties but also associated executive function challenges, promoting overall school readiness.
How did Willoughby et at (2017) studied school readiness and EF in their study. Why is this study important methodologically? What were some of the research questions and their results?
Examined school readiness and EF using a longitudinal approach.
Methodologically: used 3 deferent measures at 5 different timeline events. EF battery used at 3, 4, 5. Teacher assessment used at kindergarten, achievement test used at prek and iq used at 3.
Does adding SES change results? Lower SES meant lower ef scores.
Do they exhibit atypical ef trajectories? Did not reach expected improvements between 3 and 5 years.
How did Peterson et al (2017) study the relationship of EFs and learning? What were their research questions? What are some important results of this study?
Explored the relationship between EFs and learning difficulties.
Investigated cognitive predictors of each skill domain to understand comorbidities between SLD and ADHD?
specific efs contributed to certain outcomes. ex: reading disability, math disability and ADHD are shown to co-occur more above chance level
By looking at the two studies Willoughby et at (2017) and Peterson et al (2017) what can we say about early EFs and school readiness?
Both studies underscore the crucial role of early EFs in shaping school readiness.
Willoughby et al’s findings link early EFs performance predict school readiness. Low ef at that age is risk factor in kindergarten readiness.
Peterson et al’s study reinforces the impact of EFs on specific learning outcomes. If certain efs are low than we could expect certain skill domains to be lower.
How did Qian et al. (2013) study EF development in children with ADHD? What are some of their results and why these results are important?
Investigated EF development trajectories in different aged grouped children with and without ADHD through four different tests; stroop, trail-making, digit span, tower test.
Found that inhibition and shifting trajectories are similar although controls completed tasks in shorter time when compared to ADHD children. These were significant differences.
WM: trajectories are similar, control had more capacity than ADHD, no significant diff as error overlaps
Planning; trajectories are similar, diff is not significant as error overlaps.
ALL IMPROVE BY AGE
Antonini et al (2015) studied hot and cool EFs in children with ADHD with and without comorbid ODD. In this study how did they measure these different EFs and what did they find?
measured diff efs with cool tasks (visual spatial span - WM, card sorting-inhibition and shifting) and hot tasks (gambling test - impulsive decision making, delayed discounting task - waiting for bigger reward)
results: adhd is associated with deficits with cool ef, irrespected of comorbid odd
hot efs deficits were not present in adhd, irrespective of comorbid odd status
the relationship between odd and hot or cool ef functioning did not depend on adhd subtype.
What are some research questions posed by Schreiber et al (2014). What did they examine and what did they find?
examined which efs predict learning problems in children with adhd
wm was the only significant predictor of learning problems.
Definition of ACE’s
ACEs are adverse childhood experiences, traumatic events occurring before age 18, including abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction
What does 10-item ACE Questionnaire measure, what are the subscales of this questionnaire?
Measures exposures to ACES
subscales: abuse; psychological, physical, sexual. household dysfunction; substance use, mental illness, mother treated violently criminal behaviour in household.
How is childhood poverty related to ACE outcomes? What are the risk factors of childhood poverty?
poverty means lack of adequate resources that are necessary for the development of physical, emotional wellbeing and cognitive abilities.
risk factors: economic instability, lack of resources, limited access to education
Explain two pathways by which child poverty affects the child outcomes (investment and stress pathways)
Investment Pathway: poverty prevents the parents ability to access goods and services that enhance the Childs development.
Stress Pathway: Economic hardship contributes to chronic stress affecting mental health.
How does SES shapes brain development?
poverty has three mechanisms; material deprivation, stressors, enviornmental toxins, which lead to the biological changes to the brain such as changing amygdala pathways which restricts the childs learning capacity or the capacity to regulate behaviour and emotions
Define experiential canalization model and how does this model explain child development under adverse conditions?
defines how children adapt to adverse conditions
biological stress response: brain perceives threat, activates neurobiological change, modifies brains functioning.
What is probabilistic determinism and how does Gottlieb’s model defines this concept?
there is a dynamic and reciprocal interaction among different levels.
states there is interactions between environment, behaviour, neural activity, and genetic activity that influence individual development
What does Finn et al (2017) study? What were the results? Why is this study important?
investigated the association between SES and functional brain organization (WM)
results: low and high ses show differences in mw performance. low ses show lower network activation
important as it indicates theres an important area to focus on and that it should be used within educational programs.
What does Brody’s study show? What type of a study was that? What were the results and why is this study important? (know Central Executive network and Emotion Regulation Network)
Longitudinal study, show that not all children exposed to poverty experience adverse consequences.
Low supportive parenting showed less central executive functioning and emotion regulation network during adulthood.
Significant for understanding the effects of parenting on neural networks supporting biopsychosocial framework.
Define different parenting styles
scaffolding:
guidance during challenging situations
- encouragement of problem solving behaviours
- support of opinions and choices
stimulation:
provide opportunities to enrich childs learning
- reading, playing with blocks
sensitivity:
responsive parenting
- warmth, positive effect, absence of hostility
control:
authoritarian parenting
- positive control, unintrusive
scaffolding - goal oriented - Hammond et al
how scaffolding parenting influenced development of efs
longitudinal study
observed during ring puzzle task
results:
scaffolding predicted the development of efs later in the study
stimulation - goal oriented - Bradley et al
examined scaffolding on development of efs
longitudinal
three tasks over 3 timeline events
high stimulation did better cognitive and language tasks
sensitivity - relationship - lucassen et al
mother and fathers harsh parenting and sensitive parenting on efs
longitudinal
mothers and fathers parenting independently predict child executive functions (inhibitory self regulation and metacognition)
control - relationsip - bindman et al
investigate mothers managment language and development of efs
longitudinal
language was positively related to efs at 3 but not afterward
Because there are more than direct relationships you need to know how two variables are connected (predictor and outcome variables). Moderation and Mediation effects
moderators: variables that modify the relationship between the predictor and outcome.
ex. parental warmth predicts better inhibition in males than females (GENDER IS MODERATOR)
mediators: variables that operate as a causal mechanism between predictor variable and outcome.
ex. harsh parenting predicts lower flexibility thorough high stress reactivity (STRESS REACTIVITY IS MEDIATOR)
There are some important recent findings about fathering effects and the fathers parenting impact on child’s cognitive development.
malin et al: fathers sensitive parenting related to attention and emotion regulation
goodman et al: fathers with sensitive/responding parenting predicted executive functioning
drug - classification - effects (A O LSD N CA C)
alc - cns depressant - reduce anxiety, mild euphoria, loss of motor coordination
opioids - cnc depressent - euphoria, pain relief, increase dopamine
LSD - hallucinogen - alter preception, dissociation
Nicotine - cns stim - increase alertness, mood, stimulates dopamine neurons
cocaine and amphetamine - cns stim - increase alertness and mood, stimulates dopamine neurons
cannabis - different effects - vivid sensory experience, euphoria, distortion of time/space
experimental substance use
social substance use
tolerance
physical dependence
withdrawal symptoms
psychological dependence
intoxication
-trying due to curiosity
-use in social events
-decrease in drug effect so increase dosage
-susceptibility of withdrawal symptoms with tolerance
-physical and psychological effects caused by the reduction of substance intake
-cravings despite harm / not always accompanied by withdrawal symptoms
-physiological distrubances after the administration of the drug
DSM 5 definition of substance use disorders
problematic pattern of substance use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress manifested by cravings, tolerance.
age and sex trends for substance use disorders
alc and cannabis are more frequently used within youth age groups 18-24
alc and cannabis are higher use in males than females
What is neuroadaptation ? How does addiction change the brain’s reward mechanism?
changes in the brain due to drugs
repeated drug use reorganizeds the brain, impairs extinction of drug seeking behaviour. tolerance builds and without the substance physiological and psychological withdrawal symptoms develop.
basic summary of substance action (cocaine and thc)
DIRECT EFFECT; Goes from one neuron to another, the excess is cleaned up through transported on pre-synaptic neuro and are recycled to be released again. As cocaine is introduced, it blocks the dopamine transporter so the excess dopamine cant be recycled. This means that dopamine stays in synapse and constant stimulation of dopamine receptors.
INDIRECT EFFECT; thc binds to gabba neurons (inhibits dopamine action) which stops gabba to inhibit neurons so dopamine is constantly released into synapse and continues as gabba cant stop it.
Brain maturation and effects of substance misuse (use) during adolescence.
pruning (brain maturation process): ineffective synapses are pruned, differences in developmental trajectory
Brown et al study showing different patterns of alcohol use and addiction trajectories
after first exposure:
-light, stable, early onset (trauma, abuse), late onset drinkers (other drugs)
- fling drinkers, decreasers
Schulenberg et al study showing different patterns of cannabis use (see the graphs) and the trajectories.
abstain, rare, fling, decreaser, increasers, chronic users
Three models explaining the first use and maintaining to use substance in teens
gateway: early experimentation with drugs escalates to more addictive drugs
common factors: non-specific biological tendency to use drugs interacts with environment factors (availability and norms)
developmental cascade: early exposure to risk factors predict later trajectory if they are sustained throughout childhood.
Neuroadaptation and problems with inhibition
neuroadaptation is after : increase alc during youth reorganize circuitry and negatively effects efs
disinhibition is before : low efs predict substance use
How do hot and cool EFs contribute to the addiction and maintenance of substance use?
cool: significant association between substance use and impaired neural circuitry of the PFC (inhibition, wm, shifting)
hot: efs moderate approach (reward) and avoid (punishment) systems toward the goal directed behaviour
definition and significance to quantitative assessment
validity, reliability, standardization, tests norm, ecological validity
Validity: Refers to the extent to which an assessment measures what it is intended to measure. In the context of executive functioning (EF), a valid assessment accurately gauges the individual’s EF abilities.
Reliability: Indicates the consistency and stability of assessment results. A reliable EF assessment will produce consistent results over time.
Standardization: The process of developing consistent and uniform procedures for administering and scoring assessments. Standardization helps ensure fairness and comparability across different individuals.
Tests Norms: Provide a reference point for interpreting individual scores by comparing them to the scores of a representative group.
Ecological Validity: The degree to which assessment tasks mirror real-world situations, ensuring that EF assessments accurately reflect an individual’s abilities in everyday life.
Multifactorial assessment of EFs and the challenges of assessing them
efs are multiple in nature and dont represent a unitary trait
the interdependence of ef components and the dynamic nature of ef, making it hard to isolate individual factors
Definition (comparisons) of process and performance approaches
Process Approach: Emphasizes the examination of cognitive processes involved in EF, such as problem-solving strategies.
Performance Approach: Focuses on observable behaviors and outcomes related to EF, providing a more practical assessment.
Definition of performance and rating based assessments
Performance-Based: Involves direct observation and measurement of an individual’s EF skills through tasks and activities.
Rating-Based: Relies on reports from individuals, caregivers, or teachers regarding observed EF behaviors.
Examples of EF assessments
verbal fluency, colour word, tower, digit span
Raw scores versus standard scores
Raw Scores: Direct numerical results from assessments.
Standard Scores: Scores that have been transformed to a standardized scale, allowing for comparison with a normative group.
D-KEFS battery of EF tests (some specifics)
battery means to use all subtests
The subtests of D-KEFS battery (the ones I went over) what they measure
- trail making - cognitive flexability
- verbal fluency - semantic memory
- design fluency - motor planning
- colour word - inhibition
- sorting - problem solving
- 20 Q - formulate best q’s
- word context - hypothesis testing
- tower - rule learning
- proverb - abstraction skills
BRIEF and what they measure
behaviour rating inventory of executive functions
assessment tools, behavioural manifestation of efs
