Time Isn’t of the Essence: Activating Goals Rather than Imposing Delays Improves Inhibitory Control in Children

摘要

Is it easier to inhibit inappropriate behaviors if we pause before acting? An important finding for theory and intervention is that children’s inhibitory control improves if an adult imposes a delay before children can act. Such findings have suggested that the passage of time allows impulsive urges to passively dissipate. However, prior studies that imposed delays also added reminders about what children should be doing, which may have aided children’s activation of goal-relevant information. We tested this possibility by independently manipulating delays and task-reminders, and measuring 3-year-old’s abilities to inhibit opening boxes in a goo-go box-search task. Task-reminders, but not adult-imposed delays, improved children’s response inhibition. However, as in prior work, children’s spontaneous delays predicted better response inhibition. These results challenge a causal role for the passage of time, suggest that spontaneous delays index other processes that improve inhibitory control, and highlight the importance of goal-activation in developing inhibitory control.