Individual differences in early executive functions

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. A project in this area would extend this work to try and understand how executive functions emerge during these early years, and why we see such big individual differences in executive functions. Projects could track how executive functions develop over time during this stage of development, how they predict more complex cognitive skills and/or how they are influenced by socioeconomic factors.

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. Please see our website for more information about the lab:

https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/sheffieldcogdev/home