Childhood rituals and executive functions

摘要

Repetitive and ritualistic behaviours (RRBs) are a feature of both typical and atypicaldevelopment. While the cognitive correlates of these behaviours have been investigatedin some neurodevelopmental conditions these links remain largely unexplored in typicaldevelopment. The current study examined the relationship between RRBs and executivefunctions (EF) in a sample of typically developing children aged between 37 and 107months. Results showed that cognitive flexibility, and not response inhibition orgenerativity, was most strongly associated with the frequency of RRBs in this sample.In younger children (<67.5 months) cognitive flexibility was significantly associated with`Repetitive Behaviours' but in older children (>67.5 months) cognitive flexibility wasassociated with both 'Just Right' and 'Repetitive Behaviour', suggesting that the associationbetween EF and RRBs may become stronger with age in typically developing children.