The structure of executive functions in preschool children and chimpanzees

Christoph J. Völter; Eva Reindl; Elisa Felsche; Zeynep Civelek; Andrew Whalen; Zsuzsa Lugosi; Lisa Duncan; Esther Herrmann; Josep Call; Amanda M. Seed

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-08406-7

The structure of executive functions in preschool children and chimpanzees

Christoph J. Völter^* (Corresponding Author), Eva Reindl^* (Corresponding Author), Elisa Felsche, Zeynep Civelek, Andrew Whalen, Zsuzsa Lugosi, Lisa Duncan, Esther Herrmann, Josep Call, Amanda M. Seed

^*Corresponding author for this work

Applied Health Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Executive functions (EF) are a core aspect of cognition. Research with adult humans has produced evidence for unity and diversity in the structure of EF. Studies with preschoolers favour a 1-factor model, in which variation in EF tasks is best explained by a single underlying trait on which all EF tasks load. How EF are structured in nonhuman primates remains unknown. This study starts to fill this gap through a comparative, multi-trait multi-method test battery with preschoolers (N = 185) and chimpanzees (N = 55). The battery aimed at measuring working memory updating, inhibition, and attention shifting with three non-verbal tasks per function. For both species the correlations between tasks were low to moderate and not confined to tasks within the same putative function. Factor analyses produced some evidence for the unity of executive functions in both groups, in that our analyses revealed shared variance. However, we could not conclusively distinguish between 1-, 2- or 3-factor models. We discuss the implications of our findings with respect to the ecological validity of current psychometric research.

Original language	English
Article number	6456
Number of pages	16
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08406-7
Publication status	Published - 19 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
General: We thank all children, their parents, the nurseries and schools for participation in the study, Carolina Mayer, whose PhD work contributed a lot to the task designs and pilot work, Keith Haynes, Robert Mackenzie, and Michael Kinnear for their help with apparatus construction, Geraldine Brown for facilitating child data collection, Lisa Moir, Rosie O’Connor, Karen Golden, Kaja Andersen, Valerie Lye, Abigail Petrie, Rebecca Benson, Eilidh Sandilands, Joao Pedro Sobrinho Ramos, Amy Lord, Ayra Rehman, Anna Sabadze, Molly Finn, and Maja Juszczakiewicz Lewis for their help with data collection, Wendi Zhang for help with data preparation and cleaning, Drew Anderson, Tom Francis, Peyton Sarrail, Kennedy Herron, Heather Birge, Rachel Lawson, Emily Dowey, Caitlin Lawrence, Haerim Lee, and Rishika Kannan for their help with coding and data cleaning. We are thankful to Joshua Rukundo, the board members and all the staff at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust in Uganda for their support. We appreciate permission from the Ugandan National Council for Science and Technology and the Uganda Wildlife Authority. We also thank Richard Vigne, Samuel Mutisya, Stephen Ngulu, the board members and all the staff of Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya for their support. We thank Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya Wildlife Service and the National Council for Science and Technology for approving our research.

Funding
The research of A.M.S. was supported by an ‘INQMINDS’ ERC Starting Grant no. (SEP-210159400). The funding sources had no involvement in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of the data, writing the paper, nor in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Author information
Author notes
These authors contributed equally: Christoph J. Völter and Eva Reindl.

Data Availability Statement

All data and analysis scripts associated with this study can be found on the following OSF page https://osf.io/mcenz/?view_only=868ef8f463c24607b328deb60b92f860.

Access to Document

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Cite this

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abstract = "Executive functions (EF) are a core aspect of cognition. Research with adult humans has produced evidence for unity and diversity in the structure of EF. Studies with preschoolers favour a 1-factor model, in which variation in EF tasks is best explained by a single underlying trait on which all EF tasks load. How EF are structured in nonhuman primates remains unknown. This study starts to fill this gap through a comparative, multi-trait multi-method test battery with preschoolers (N = 185) and chimpanzees (N = 55). The battery aimed at measuring working memory updating, inhibition, and attention shifting with three non-verbal tasks per function. For both species the correlations between tasks were low to moderate and not confined to tasks within the same putative function. Factor analyses produced some evidence for the unity of executive functions in both groups, in that our analyses revealed shared variance. However, we could not conclusively distinguish between 1-, 2- or 3-factor models. We discuss the implications of our findings with respect to the ecological validity of current psychometric research.",

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note = "Acknowledgements General: We thank all children, their parents, the nurseries and schools for participation in the study, Carolina Mayer, whose PhD work contributed a lot to the task designs and pilot work, Keith Haynes, Robert Mackenzie, and Michael Kinnear for their help with apparatus construction, Geraldine Brown for facilitating child data collection, Lisa Moir, Rosie O{\textquoteright}Connor, Karen Golden, Kaja Andersen, Valerie Lye, Abigail Petrie, Rebecca Benson, Eilidh Sandilands, Joao Pedro Sobrinho Ramos, Amy Lord, Ayra Rehman, Anna Sabadze, Molly Finn, and Maja Juszczakiewicz Lewis for their help with data collection, Wendi Zhang for help with data preparation and cleaning, Drew Anderson, Tom Francis, Peyton Sarrail, Kennedy Herron, Heather Birge, Rachel Lawson, Emily Dowey, Caitlin Lawrence, Haerim Lee, and Rishika Kannan for their help with coding and data cleaning. We are thankful to Joshua Rukundo, the board members and all the staff at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust in Uganda for their support. We appreciate permission from the Ugandan National Council for Science and Technology and the Uganda Wildlife Authority. We also thank Richard Vigne, Samuel Mutisya, Stephen Ngulu, the board members and all the staff of Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya for their support. We thank Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya Wildlife Service and the National Council for Science and Technology for approving our research. Funding The research of A.M.S. was supported by an {\textquoteleft}INQMINDS{\textquoteright} ERC Starting Grant no. (SEP-210159400). The funding sources had no involvement in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of the data, writing the paper, nor in the decision to submit the article for publication. Author information Author notes These authors contributed equally: Christoph J. V{\"o}lter and Eva Reindl.",

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The structure of executive functions in preschool children and chimpanzees

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

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