No interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young ages

The present study examined the developmental trajectories of motor planning and executive functioning in children. To this end, we tested 217 participants with three motor tasks, measuring anticipatory planning abilities (i.e. the bar-transport-task, the sword-rotation-task and the grasp-height-task...

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Main Authors: Kathrin Wunsch, Roland Pfister, Anne Henning, Gisa Aschersleben, Matthias Weigelt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-07-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01031/full
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spelling doaj-d1ed63ee751f42928bf6a2f429c795812020-11-24T23:46:54ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-07-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.01031204348No interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young agesKathrin Wunsch0Roland Pfister1Anne Henning2Gisa Aschersleben3Matthias Weigelt4University of FreiburgUniversity of WürzburgSRH Fachhochschule for HealthcareSaarland UniversityUniversity of PaderbornThe present study examined the developmental trajectories of motor planning and executive functioning in children. To this end, we tested 217 participants with three motor tasks, measuring anticipatory planning abilities (i.e. the bar-transport-task, the sword-rotation-task and the grasp-height-task), and three cognitive tasks, measuring executive functions (i.e. the Tower-of-Hanoi-task, the Mosaic-task, and the D2-attention-endurance-task). Children were aged between 3 and 10 years and were separated into age groups by one-year bins, resulting in a total of eight groups of children and an additional group of adults. Results suggested (1) a positive developmental trajectory for each of the sub-tests, with better task performance as children get older; (2) that the performance in the separate tasks was not correlated across participants in the different age groups; and (3) that there was no relationship between performance in the motor tasks and in the cognitive tasks used in the present study when controlling for age. These results suggest that both, motor planning and executive functions are rather heterogeneous domains of cognitive functioning with fewer interdependencies than often suggested.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01031/fullChild Developmentdevelopmental disordersMotor developmentanticipatory planningend-state comfort effect
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Kathrin Wunsch
Roland Pfister
Anne Henning
Gisa Aschersleben
Matthias Weigelt
spellingShingle Kathrin Wunsch
Roland Pfister
Anne Henning
Gisa Aschersleben
Matthias Weigelt
No interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young ages
Frontiers in Psychology
Child Development
developmental disorders
Motor development
anticipatory planning
end-state comfort effect
author_facet Kathrin Wunsch
Roland Pfister
Anne Henning
Gisa Aschersleben
Matthias Weigelt
author_sort Kathrin Wunsch
title No interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young ages
title_short No interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young ages
title_full No interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young ages
title_fullStr No interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young ages
title_full_unstemmed No interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young ages
title_sort no interrelation of motor planning and executive functions across young ages
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Psychology
issn 1664-1078
publishDate 2016-07-01
description The present study examined the developmental trajectories of motor planning and executive functioning in children. To this end, we tested 217 participants with three motor tasks, measuring anticipatory planning abilities (i.e. the bar-transport-task, the sword-rotation-task and the grasp-height-task), and three cognitive tasks, measuring executive functions (i.e. the Tower-of-Hanoi-task, the Mosaic-task, and the D2-attention-endurance-task). Children were aged between 3 and 10 years and were separated into age groups by one-year bins, resulting in a total of eight groups of children and an additional group of adults. Results suggested (1) a positive developmental trajectory for each of the sub-tests, with better task performance as children get older; (2) that the performance in the separate tasks was not correlated across participants in the different age groups; and (3) that there was no relationship between performance in the motor tasks and in the cognitive tasks used in the present study when controlling for age. These results suggest that both, motor planning and executive functions are rather heterogeneous domains of cognitive functioning with fewer interdependencies than often suggested.
topic Child Development
developmental disorders
Motor development
anticipatory planning
end-state comfort effect
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01031/full
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