Chunk #20 — Changes in Frontal EEG Coherence across Infancy Predict Cognitive Abilities at Age 3: The Mediating Role of Attentional Control — The Current Study
The overarching purpose of the current study is to investigate the neural and attentional precursors of language, cognitive flexibility, and behavioral IC, cognitive abilities that are crucial to children’s social, emotional, and academic adjustment. The first specific aim of the study is to examine whether attentional control at age 2 accounts for unique variation in these abilities at age 3. Although attentional control has been implicated in the development of each of these skills (Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, & Witzki, 2000; Rothbart & Bates, 2006), to date no study has directly tested these relations longitudinally or in the same model. By assessing language, cognitive flexibility, and behavioral IC in combination with one another, a more meaningful interpretation of their unique associations with attentional control can be gained. Because the maturation of the PFC is theorized to underlie the emergence of attentional control, the second aim of the study is to examine whether changes in frontal EEG coherence across the second half of the first year are associated with attentional control skills at age 2. The final aim is to examine whether
