Early Executive Function Development and Individual Differences

Executive functions are the set of high-level goal-directed thinking skills that develop rapidly during early childhood. While a lot is known about executive function development between the ages of 3 and 5, we know much less about how executive functions develop over the toddler years, known as the ’dark ages’ of cognitive development. In some of our recent work, we have found that important developments occur between the ages of 2 and 3 in children’s ability to flexibly switch their behaviour. Furthermore, our work has recently found that social inequalities may impact executive functions and this has a knock on effect on school readiness and early maths skills. At present, the mechanisms linking a families socioeconomic circumstances and children’s executive function skills are not clear. A project in this area might extend this work to try and understand how executive functions emerge during these early years through the design of new measures, or examine why we see individual differences in executive functions that align with socioeconomic circumstances (for instance is it language, or aspects of the home environment)? Projects could track how executive functions develop over time during this stage of development and/or how they are influenced by the wider family context and family constraints. 

The PhD researcher will be part of the Sheffield Cognitive Development lab and be able to make use of our excellent links with local nurseries and schools, extensive family volunteer database and testing facilities in our lab (including reception, parent room, toys for children). Please see our website for more information about the lab: https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/sheffieldcogdev/home