Talk title: A novel approach to measuring executive functions in typical and atypical developing young children

Abstract

Executive function refers to the goal-oriented ability to monitor and manage various cognitive processes, including inhibitory control, working memory and switching. It has an important impact on children’s learning, reasoning and social development. It has been theorized that children with autism have deficits in executive functioning. However, there are still considerable discrepancies in empirical findings. In this talk, I will present several studies that used an approach which simultaneously manipulates different executive function processes in the same experimental paradigm in order to more purely measure specific executive functions among both typical and atypical developing preschoolers.