Sebastián Javier Lipina

Error detection and correction are essential components of cognitive control. Following an error, adjustments such as response slowing and changes in accuracy are typically observed. Adaptive theories interpret this behavior as strategic control, while maladaptive theories link it to cognitive impairment. Recent research suggests that post-error slowing depends on error type and the available time to implement adjustments before the next stimulus. In this cross-sectional study, two independent samples completed a version of the Simon task in which response stimulus intervals (RSI) were manipulated to study their effects on post-error adjustments in different error placements (i.e., earlier vs. later errors based on each participant’s median response time across error trials). In Experiment 1, we conducted exploratory analyses to test whether post-error adjustments vary with error placement and RSI. In Experiment 2, we aimed to replicate these findings in an independent sample to assess their robustness. Across both experiments, post-error adjustments varied systematically, suggesting that longer processing time enables distinct, error-specific adaptive mechanisms and highlighting new avenues for future research.

Existing adult-report survey measures provide crucial information about children’s executive function (EF) development across contexts, but lack cultural relevance and ecological validity. To address these limitations, we introduce the Executive Function from Observation and Reflection Tool (EFFORT), a publicly available, open-source item bank designed for cross-cultural adaptation that includes 32 parallel items for caregivers and teachers across six EF domains: sustained attention, response inhibition, interference suppression, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning/organization. EFFORT additionally includes 10 assessor report items intended for use following a structured, standardized assessment session. This study presents the first validation of the tool within seven countries (Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Haiti, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United States) leveraging caregiver, teacher, and assessor observations of 1738 children (aged 3–11 years). Findings revealed acceptable fit for a six-factor structure for caregiver and teacher reports that were not empirically distinct, but yielded highly reliable composites. We further validated a 12-item short form for caregivers and teachers that demonstrated strong unidimensionality, gender invariance, and age-related increases. We demonstrated significant convergence of a short-form caregiver and teacher composite with the assessor-reported measures, as well as convergence of all three adult reports with direct assessments of children’s EF skills. This new tool holds promise to advance the science of how children develop and apply EFs to accomplish everyday goals across different cultural settings and in understudied populations.

Existing adult-report survey measures provide crucial information about children’s executive function (EF) development across contexts, but lack cultural relevance and ecological validity. To address these limitations, we introduce the Executive Function From Observation and Reflection Tool (EFFORT), a publicly available, open-source item bank designed for cross-cultural adaptation that includes 32 parallel items for caregivers and teachers across six EF domains: sustained attention, response inhibition, interference suppression, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning/organization. EFFORT additionally includes 10 assessor-report items intended for use following a structured, standardized assessment session. This study presents the first multinational validation of the tool across seven countries (Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Haiti, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United States) leveraging caregiver, teacher, and assessor observations of 1,738 children (aged 3–11 years). Findings revealed acceptable fit for a six-factor structure for caregiver and teacher reports that were not empirically distinct, but yielded highly reliable composites. We further validated a 12-item short form for caregiver and teacher that demonstrated strong unidimensionality, gender invariance, and age-related increases. We demonstrated significant convergence of a short-form caregiver and teachers composite with the assessor-reported measures, as well as convergence of all three adult reports with direct assessments of children’s EF skills. This new tool holds promise to advance the science of how children develop and apply EFs to accomplish everyday goals across different cultural settings and in understudied populations.

To achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Goal 4 for equitable quality education, many countries are incorporating computer programming into preschool curricula. The main reason for this educational decision lies in the need for a better understanding of the digital world, and also, in the still not fully explored idea that learning to program could have potential collateral cognitive benefits. This pilot study analyzed whether programming instruction enhances executive functions—both key 21st‐century skills—, attention and non‐verbal intelligence and whether the improvements vary by socioeconomic status (SES). A cluster‐randomized controlled trial was conducted in Argentina with one low‐SES and one medium‐SES kindergarten. Five‐year‐old classrooms at each school were randomly assigned to a study group, receiving programming lessons with ScratchJr, or a control group engaging in visual arts activities. Both groups used tablets, and sessions were conducted by regular classroom teachers. Ninety‐four children completed computerized cognitive tests before and after the intervention and control activities, yielding 21,801 trials for analysis. We modeled children's trial‐by‐trial accuracy using a Bernoulli‐distributed Generalized Linear Mixed Model that we estimated with Bayesian methods. Our results suggested the programming group showed greater improvement than the control group in most cognitive tasks but the benefits were consistently larger for children in the low‐SES school (65%–92% greater than controls) with high certainty, while middle‐SES children showed only modest improvements (13%–36%) with weaker evidence. These findings tentatively suggest that teaching programming, besides its intrinsic educational value, could also potentially contribute to developing critical cognitive processes, particularly among vulnerable children.

The extent to which developmental science has mapped associations between cognitive, academic and socio-emotional functioning; caregiver reports and non-participant observation of young children was examined. Initially, 88 studies comprising over 300 effects were identified. The relationships between outcome measures and research design was described. Findings show that recurrent associations between task performance, behavioral report and naturalistic observation appear in this literature. The most frequently occurring comparisons in school settings were those between children’s disruptive-aggressive behavior, on-task/off-task behavior, prosocial behavior, externalizing problems, prosocial skills and early math and language achievement. In home settings, those between children’s positive/negative affect, engagement, compliance, temperament, cognitive and motor development were most common. Despite conceptual overlap, limited access to correlational data and between-study heterogeneity hinders cross-sample comparisons.

Despite the ubiquity of variation in child development within individuals, across groups, and across tasks, timescales, and contexts, dominant methods in developmental science and education research still favor group averages, short snapshots of time, and single environments. The Learning Variability Network Exchange (LEVANTE) is a framework designed to enable coordinated data collection by research teams worldwide, with the goal of measuring variability in children's learning and development. The LEVANTE measure set aims to capture variability in learning outcomes (literacy and numeracy) as well as in core cognitive and social constructs. LEVANTE will yield a large, open access longitudinal dataset for long-term research use, both creating a multidisciplinary research network and facilitating the science of learning variability.

This manuscript discusses the underrepresentation of childhoods from Majority world settings -especially from Latin America- in developmental psychology research, particularly highlighting the biases, limitations, and advances made in Latin America in the past two decades. It stresses biases in sampling, publishing, fundings, and theory that reinforce Minority perspectives. While focusing on Latin America, these challenges extend to other Majority contexts. The authors advocate for a systemic-relational approach encompassing biological, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions and their interdependencies, in studies that better represent the varied contexts and experiences of child development worldwide, to inform a relevant understanding of childhood and development.

Child temperament is a predictor of non‐verbal ability (i.e., thinking and problem‐solving skills that do not fundamentally require verbal language production and comprehension). Given that temperament scores might vary depending on whether the reporter is a parent or a teacher, this study analyzes (a) whether those reports are different and (b) how each report predicts child non‐verbal ability in a non‐western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (non‐WEIRD) sample. The Matrix subtest of KABC‐II (a non‐verbal ability task widely used in non‐WEIRD contexts) was administered to 85 Argentinian children (47 girls, 38 boys) aged 4–5 years, from middle‐to‐low socioeconomic status homes. Also, the Child Behaviour Questionnaire‐Very Short Form (CBQ‐VSF) was administered to obtain temperament reports from parents and teachers. Factors from parents' and teachers' reports did not correlate. Only factors including items from the effortful control dimension from teachers' reports predicted Matrix total score with a small effect size (partial η ² = 0.10). Instead, the parents' report did not predict non‐verbal ability. Our results provide infrequent data from non‐WEIRD low‐SES populations and underscore the unique and predictive validity of teachers' perspectives in clarifying the connections between child temperament and nonverbal ability.