The Lexical Stroop Sort (LSS) picture-word task: a computerized task for assessing the relationship between language...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The connection between children's language development and executive function (EF) requires further investigation.
• Existing EF tasks may not fully capture the nuances of language's role in cognitive control.
• A validated tool is needed to explore this relationship in school-aged children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate the Lexical Stroop Sort (LSS) task, a novel computerized measure.
• To examine the relationship between oral language development and EF in school-aged children using the LSS task.
• To establish the convergent validity of the LSS task by comparing it with the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task.

Main Methods:

• A diverse sample of school-aged children completed standardized oral language assessments.
• Participants performed the newly developed LSS task and the established DCCS task.
• Accuracy and reaction times were recorded for both EF tasks to assess performance.

Main Results:

• The LSS task demonstrated convergent validity with the DCCS task, as indicated by similar patterns of relationships with children's vocabulary.
• Children's phonological awareness was associated with LSS performance but not DCCS performance.
• Vocabulary fully mediated the relationship between phonological awareness and LSS task performance.

Conclusions:

• The validated LSS task provides a new method for assessing EF, particularly its connection to language.
• The findings highlight the distinct roles of phonological awareness and vocabulary in EF.
• The LSS task holds potential for use with diverse populations, including preschoolers and bilingual children.