Age-related change in inhibitory processes when controlling working memory capacity and processing speed: A confirmatory factor analysis.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the age-related changes in inhibitory control of 450 children at the ages of 7-8, 11-12, and 14-16 when controlling for working memory capacity (WMC) and processing speed to determine whether inhibition is an independent factor far beyond its possible re...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nuria Carriedo, Odir A Rodríguez-Villagra, Juan A Moriano, Pedro R Montoro, Valentín Iglesias-Sarmiento
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316347
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The main purpose of this study was to examine the age-related changes in inhibitory control of 450 children at the ages of 7-8, 11-12, and 14-16 when controlling for working memory capacity (WMC) and processing speed to determine whether inhibition is an independent factor far beyond its possible reliance on the other two factors. This examination is important for several reasons. First, empirical evidence about age-related changes of inhibitory control is controversial. Second, there are no studies that explore the organization of inhibitory functions by controlling for the influence of processing speed and WMC in these age groups. Third, the construct of inhibition has been questioned in recent research. Multigroup confirmatory analyses suggested that inhibition can be organized as a one-dimension factor in which processing speed and WMC modulate the variability of some inhibition tasks. The partial reliance of inhibitory processes on processing speed and WMC demonstrates that the inhibition factor partially explains the variance of inhibitory tasks even when WMC and processing speed are controlled and some methodological concerns are addressed.
ISSN:1932-6203