The development of executive attention: Contributions to the emergence of self-regulation

Over the past decade, developmental studies have established connections between executive attention, as studied in neurocognitive models, and effortful control, a temperament system supporting the emergence of self-regulation. Functions associated with the executive attention network overlap with the more general domain of executive function in childhood, which also includes working memory, planning, switching, and inhibitory control (Welch, 2001). Cognitive tasks used with adults to study executive attention can be adapted to children and used with questionnaires to trace the role of attention and effortful control in the development of self-regulation. In this article we focus on the monitoring and control functions of attention and discuss its contributions to self-regulation from cognitive, temperamental, and biological perspectives. Self-Regulation refers to the many processes by which the human psyche exercises control over its functions, states, and inner processes. It is an important key to how the self is put together. Most broadly, it is essential for transforming the inner animal nature into a civilized human being.