Abstract
Building on the theoretical framework that intellectual behavior relies on one's ability to process both task-relevant and task-irrelevant information, this study aimed to empirically investigate the association of response inhibition with intelligence in preschool children's development. In a sample of 152 typically developing children aged between 3.6 and 6.6 years, we found evidence that suggests that inhibitory control is linked to age-related differences in intelligence. Stop-signal inhibition improved at a rate similar to the age-related changes in Verbal IQ. Components of variance analyses revealed that stop-signal reaction time predicted a larger proportion of the age-related variance in children's verbal intelligence than non-age-related variance. Results are discussed with respect to possible explanations for this intriguing relationship between response inhibition and the verbal aspects of intelligence.
Highlights
Inhibitory efficiency is of particular developmental interest because of its close connection to learning effectiveness and appropriate social behaviors
The 20% trimmed means and standard deviations calculated from the Winsorized variances were used to chart the age-related changes because slightly non-normal distributions were observed in stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) in Age Group 6.5, Verbal IQ (VIQ) in Age Groups 5 and 5.5, and Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM) in Age Groups 4.5 and 5.5, and the SSRT distributions showed unequal variances
The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between inhibitory control and intelligence by, firstly, charting the patterns and rates of development of response inhibition as indexed by SSRT and different types of IQ as measured on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R) and RCPM during the preschool period, and secondly, by determining whether SSRT is differentially related to individual and age-related differences in children’s intelligence
Summary
Inhibitory efficiency is of particular developmental interest because of its close connection to learning effectiveness and appropriate social behaviors. Inhibitory control and intelligence are sometimes viewed as two distinct, if not mutually exclusive, processes because of their different predictive validity for life outcomes. Efficiency of selfcontrol, on the other hand, has been found to predict academic achievement independent of intelligence (Bull and Scerif, 2001; Blair and Razza, 2007; Welsh et al, 2010; Chung and McBrideChang, 2011) and other aspects of life outcomes above and beyond intelligence, including social and emotional coping, physical health, personal finances, and criminal convictions (Carlson and Wang, 2007; Pérez-Edgar et al, 2010; Meier and Sprenger, 2011; Mischel et al, 2011; Moffitt et al, 2011; Oldehinkel et al, 2011). Damage leading to impairment in inhibitory functions does not impede performance on measures of intelligence (Stuss et al, 1983; Stuss and Benson, 1984)
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