Development of a behavior attributed to the frontal lobes and the relationship to other cognitive functions

Abstract

This study investigates the developmental relationship between a neuropsychological measure, the Verbal Retroactive Inhibition (VRI) task, which is presumed to be mediated by the frontal lobes, and a measure of selective attention, the central‐incidental (C‐I) task, drawn from traditional developmental psychology. Thirty children ages 7, 10, and 13 years, were administered the two tasks. Performance on the VRI task improved significantly from ages 7 to 10 and again from ages 10 to 13. The central score of the C‐I task, which measures the ability to selectively attend to relevant stimuli, also showed developmental improvement, but significantly so only between ages 10 and 13. The mean number of incidental items remembered did not change significantly across the three ages. Correlational analyses showed that the central and incidental measures were independent after age 7. At age 13, but not before, performance on the VRI task was significantly correlated with the incidental score, suggesting the maturation, at this age, of an executive function operative in the performance of both tasks.