ABSTRACT
Objective Inhibitory ability plays an important role in individuals' development process.It has close relationship with intelligence and other cognitive ability.This study aims to explore the development of inhibitory ability on 7- to 12-year-old children.Methods A sample of 187 children aged from 7 to 12 were divided into three age-groups:7- to 8-year-old,9- to 10-year-old and 11-to 12-year-old.They perfonned the Stroop Color and Word Test and their reaction time and accuracy were recorded.Results Compared with incongruent trials ( ( 801.88 ± 344.05 ) ms ),the reaction time on congruent trials ( ( 743.16 ± 227.20ms ) of all the children was shorter( F ( 1,181 ) =7.29,P ＜ 0.0 1 ).The accuracy of congruent trials (0.94 ± 0.11 ) was higher than that of incongruent trials (0.90 ± 0.13 ) (F ( 1,181 ) =28.41,P ＜ 0.001 ).The reaction time difference of 7- to 8 -year-old children ( 117.81 ± 396.68 ) ms was longer than that of 9- to 10-year-old children ( ( 24.70 ± 177.65 ) ms) (P ＜0.05).There was no significant difference between the reaction time of difference 9- to 10-year-old children and 11- to 12-year-old children ( (32.44 ± 120.07 ) ms) (P ＞ 0.05 ).The gender effect was not significant (F ( 1,181 )=1.69,P＞ 0.05).Condusion The inhibitory ability increases from 7 to 12-year-old.The ability of 9-to 12-year-old children is reasonably stable.There is no gender effect on children's inhibitory ability.
ABSTRACT
Objective To study the characteristic of 8 to 16-year-old children's short-term memory.Methods 157 subjects participated in this study (8,10,12,14 and 16 years old).All subjects completed the digit recall,word recall,spatial recall and position recall tests.Results Short-term memory spans increased with age (F(4,145)= 35.56,P<0.01) and peaked at 14 years old [ digit (8.83±1.31),word (4.79±0.68),spatial (5.90±0.77),position (5.42±1.28)].Conclusion The developmental trends of four tasks' memory span were similar.But the exact span-scores were different from what Pascual-Leone's model predicted.