Presenter: John P. Spencer, Professor, University of East Anglia

When: Wednesday February 4^th at 4pm GMT+0

Where…

________________________________________________________________________________

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/32838875960272?p=KE6ze0PYAI7b3alzkI

Meeting ID: 328 388 759 602 72

Passcode: 2pJ3G7cD

Abstract: Data suggest that executive functions (EFs) are a key developmental skill predicting school readiness and longer-term health and well-being outcomes. This has led to heightened interest in designing intervention tools to boost EFs in early development. In this talk, I will focus on a key developmental challenge that is a barrier to realising effective intervention: how to conceptualise early EFs. To address this challenge, I will describe a new theory of early EFs using the framework of Dynamic Field Theory. In particular, I will present an overview of our WOLVES 2.0 neural architecture that captures data from both early word learning tasks, later card-sorting tasks (e.g., the DCCS task), as well as the relationship between dimensional label learning and EF. This work sets the stage for on-going work looking at the relationship between word learning and EF in early development.

Note that the talk will focus on the following paper, available here…

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273229724000662

Spencer, J.P., Buss, A.T., McCraw, A.R., Johns, E. & Samuelson, L.K. (2025). Integrating attention, working memory, and word learning in a dynamic field theory of executive function development: Moving beyond the ‘component’ view of executive function. Developmental Review, 75, 101182.

All are welcome.