The social foundation of executive function. Issue 3 (4th December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Marciszko, Carin; Forssman, Linda; Kenward, Ben; Lindskog, Marcus; Fransson, Mari; Gredebäck, Gustaf
• Is Part Of: Developmental science. Volume 23:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-12-04
• Subjects: executive function -- infants -- scaffolding -- social‐cognition; Developmental psychology -- Periodicals; Psychology, Comparative -- Periodicals; 155
• DOI: 10.1111/desc.12924
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1363-755X

Abstract

Abstract: In this study, we propose that infant social cognition may 'bootstrap' the successive development of domain‐general cognition in line with the cultural intelligence hypothesis. Using a longitudinal design, 6‐month‐old infants ( N = 118) were assessed on two basic social cognitive tasks targeting the abilities to share attention with others and understanding other peoples' actions. At 10 months, we measured the quality of the child's social learning environment, indexed by parent's abilities to provide scaffolding behaviors during a problem‐solving task. Eight months later, the children were followed up with a cognitive test‐battery, including tasks of inhibitory control and working memory. Our results showed that better infant social action understanding interacted with better parental scaffolding skills in predicting simple inhibitory control in toddlerhood. This suggests that infants' who are better at understanding other's actions are also better equipped to make the most of existing social learning opportunities, which in turn may benefit future non‐social cognitive outcomes. Abstract : In this study we investigated the association between infants' social cognitive skills, the quality of their social learning environment, and child executive function in toddlerhood. We found that infants with better social cognitive skills, particularly better social action understanding (i.e., internal models), show better inhibitory control skills in toddlerhood, but only if their parents provide a good social learning environment (indexed by parental scaffolding skills).