Stability of individual differences in executive functions in kindergarten children – a microgenetic study

Executive functions (EF) are higher cognitive processes which are involved in new, complex tasks. EF are often subdivided into three components: updating of working memory representations, shifting between tasks or task rules, and inhibiting predominant reactions or interfering stimuli. Individual differences in EF are often used to predict academic performance. Although the temporal stability of a construct is a necessary condition for its use as a predictor, the stability of EF in children remains unclear. The present study aims to investigate the short-term stability of individual EF performance in N = 57 kindergarten children. They were tested eight times every 2-3 days with an n-back task to measure updating, a colour/shape sorting task to measure shifting, and a go/no-go task to measure inhibition. Four-week stabilities were high for inhibition and low to moderate for updating and shifting. In latent state-trait analyses, half of the variance in inhibition but very small amounts of variance in updating and shifting variance were explained by trait. Moderate to high amounts of variance in all three tasks were explained by state. The results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of the tasks for measuring stable EF in kindergarten age and for predicting later performance.