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Developmental trends of hot and cool executive function in school-aged children with and without autism spectrum disorder: Links with theory of mind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2018

Evangelia-Chrysanthi Kouklari ,
Stella Tsermentseli  and
Claire P. Monks
Evangelia-Chrysanthi Kouklari*
Affiliation:
University of Greenwich
Stella Tsermentseli
Affiliation:
University of Greenwich
Claire P. Monks
Affiliation:
University of Greenwich
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Evangelia-Chrysanthi Kouklari, Department of Psychology, Social Work, and Counselling, Bronte Building, University of Greenwich, Avery Hill Road, London, UK SE9 2UG; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

The development of executive function (EF) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been investigated using only “cool”-cognitive EF tasks while there is limited knowledge regarding the development of “hot”-affective EF. Although cool EF development and its links to theory of mind (ToM) have been widely examined, understanding of the influence of hot EF to ToM mechanisms is minimal. The present study introduced a longitudinal design to examine the developmental changes in cool and hot EF of children with ASD (n = 45) and matched (to age and IQ) controls (n = 37) as well as the impact of EF on ToM development over a school year. For children with ASD, although selective cool (working memory and inhibition) and hot (affective decision making) EF domains presented age-related improvements, they never reached the performance level of the control group. Early cool working memory predicted later ToM in both groups but early hot delay discounting predicted later ToM only in the ASD group. No evidence was found for the reverse pattern (early ToM predicting later EF). These findings suggest that improvements in some EF aspects are evident in school age in ASD and highlight the crucial role that both cool and hot EF play in ToM development.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , May 2019 , pp. 541 - 556
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

The authors are grateful for the Vice Chancellor Scholarship Funding from the University of Greenwich. The authors would like to acknowledge their gratitude to the participating schools and children. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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