Stability and change of cool and hot executive functions across middle childhood and early adolescence

With the aim of unraveling the developmental dynamics of executive functions (EF), this person-oriented longitudinal study investigated the stability and change of EF across 3 years from middle childhood into early adolescence. A community sample of 1,657 school children (52% female) completed behavioral tasks measuring three cool (inhibition, working memory updating, cognitive flexibility) and two hot EF facets (affective decision making [DM], delay of gratification) at three timepoints. Via random-intercept latent transition analyses, children were assigned to one of four profiles of EF performance at T1 ( M age = 8.36, SD = 0.95) and T2 ( M age = 9.11, SD = 0.93): all-average, low-delay, regulated-DM, and low-inhibition . At T3 ( M age = 11.06, SD = 0.92), the regulated-DM and low-inhibition profiles disbanded, and new high-hot EF and mixed-hot EF profiles emerged. Across 3 years, 35% of children remained assigned to their initial profile, whereas 22% of children experienced profile transitions reflecting increasing EF performance (e.g., all-average to high-hot EF ), and 21% experienced decreasing performance (e.g., all-average to low-delay ). Profile membership was differentially associated with age and binary sex. These results suggest substantial interindividual differences and intraindividual change across EF performance-particularly at the onset of adolescence and for hot facets. The findings offer new explanations for contradictory results from variable-oriented research on hot EF development. Furthermore, by disaggregating unique longitudinal EF transitions, differentiated patterns of stability and change were revealed. The findings provide a basis for future research and applications targeting individual EF strengths and weaknesses during development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)

Adolescent development · Child development · Cognition · Developmental psychology · Early childhood · Executive functions · Perspective (graphical · Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology