Davidson Matthew C, Amso Dima, Anderson Loren Cruess, Diamond Adele
Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2006;44(11):2037-78. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.02.006. Epub 2006 Mar 31.
Predictions concerning development, interrelations, and possible independence of working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility were tested in 325 participants (roughly 30 per age from 4 to 13 years and young adults; 50% female). All were tested on the same computerized battery, designed to manipulate memory and inhibition independently and together, in steady state (single-task blocks) and during task-switching, and to be appropriate over the lifespan and for neuroimaging (fMRI). This is one of the first studies, in children or adults, to explore: (a) how memory requirements interact with spatial compatibility and (b) spatial incompatibility effects both with stimulus-specific rules (Simon task) and with higher-level, conceptual rules. Even the youngest children could hold information in mind, inhibit a dominant response, and combine those as long as the inhibition required was steady-state and the rules remained constant. Cognitive flexibility (switching between rules), even with memory demands minimized, showed a longer developmental progression, with 13-year-olds still not at adult levels. Effects elicited only in Mixed blocks with adults were found in young children even in single-task blocks; while young children could exercise inhibition in steady state it exacted a cost not seen in adults, who (unlike young children) seemed to re-set their default response when inhibition of the same tendency was required throughout a block. The costs associated with manipulations of inhibition were greater in young children while the costs associated with increasing memory demands were greater in adults. Effects seen only in RT in adults were seen primarily in accuracy in young children. Adults slowed down on difficult trials to preserve accuracy; but the youngest children were impulsive; their RT remained more constant but at an accuracy cost on difficult trials. Contrary to our predictions of independence between memory and inhibition, when matched for difficulty RT correlations between these were as high as 0.8, although accuracy correlations were less than half that. Spatial incompatibility effects and global and local switch costs were evident in children and adults, differing only in size. Other effects (e.g., asymmetric switch costs and the interaction of switching rules and switching response-sites) differed fundamentally over age.
针对工作记忆、抑制和认知灵活性的发展、相互关系以及可能的独立性所做的预测，在325名参与者（4至13岁各年龄段及青年成人，每个年龄段约30人；50%为女性）中进行了测试。所有人都在同一套计算机化测试组合上接受测试，该测试组合旨在分别或同时独立操控记忆和抑制，包括在稳定状态（单任务块）以及任务切换过程中，并且适用于整个生命周期以及神经成像（功能磁共振成像）。这是首批针对儿童或成人进行的研究之一，旨在探究：（a）记忆需求如何与空间兼容性相互作用，以及（b）空间不兼容性效应，包括与特定刺激规则（西蒙任务）以及更高级别的概念规则的关系。即使是最小的儿童也能够记住信息、抑制优势反应，并在所需抑制为稳定状态且规则保持不变的情况下将二者结合起来。认知灵活性（在规则之间切换），即使在记忆需求最小化的情况下，也呈现出较长的发展进程，13岁儿童仍未达到成人水平。在成人中仅在混合块中引发的效应，在幼儿中甚至在单任务块中就已出现；虽然幼儿能够在稳定状态下进行抑制，但这会带来一种在成人中未见的代价，成人（与幼儿不同）在整个块中需要抑制相同倾向时似乎会重新设置其默认反应。与抑制操控相关的代价在幼儿中更大，而与增加记忆需求相关的代价在成人中更大。仅在成人反应时中出现的效应，在幼儿中主要出现在准确性方面。成人在困难试验中放慢速度以保持准确性；但最小的儿童较为冲动；他们的反应时保持相对稳定，但在困难试验中以准确性为代价。与我们对记忆和抑制之间独立性的预测相反，在难度匹配时，二者之间的反应时相关性高达0.8，尽管准确性相关性不到其一半。空间不兼容性效应以及全局和局部切换代价在儿童和成人中均很明显，只是大小不同。其他效应（例如，不对称切换代价以及切换规则与切换反应位点的相互作用）在不同年龄阶段存在根本差异。
