Early Self-regulation
Claudia Roebers, Niamh Oeri
The theoretical basis of the research project is grounded in the hierarchical self-regulation model proposed by Calkins and Williford (2009). The authors define five different domain-specific regulatory mechanisms that build upon each other. The regulatory mechanisms are of biological, attentional, emotional, behavioural and cognitive nature.
A variety of studies has demonstrated that self-regulation mechanisms in early childhood relate to cognitive abilities later in the development. Furthermore, self-regulation mechanisms have a predictive value for academic achievement.
However, the present research project approaches the relation between self-regulation and cognition from a different angle, as the instant interplay between self-regulation and cognitive abilities is being addressed. More precisely, the aim is to disentangle the extent to which the different self-regulation mechanisms and cognitive abilities contribute to the accomplishment of a certain task. By means of cross-sectional studies, the different self-regulation mechanisms will be addressed individually.
A first study focuses on the interplay between behavioural regulation mechanisms and cognition in pre-schoolers, 1st and 3rd graders. Specific manipulations on the common Flanker task should trigger behavioural response mechanisms. Thus, the analysis of the performance should give some indication about the extent to which behavioural regulation mechanisms and cognitive top down mechanisms influence performance. A complementary analysis, comparing the different age groups, should reveal if there is a developmental change in the use of such behavioural cues.
A further study motivated by a collaboration between our group and the NESP at the University of Bamberg under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Sabine Weinert, with an even younger age group 3- to 4 year olds, focuses on attentional regulation development. An age-appropriated version of the common Flanker task has been developed in the lab of Claudia Roebers. After successfully piloting the age-adapted Flanker task, it will be applied to investigate attentional regulation mechanisms in young children.
Similar studies concerning the emotional and cognitive regulation mechanism are planned.
