Individual Differences in Inhibitory Control Skills at Three Years of Age

Sixty-eight 3-year-old children participated in an investigation of inhibitory control (IC). Child IC was measured using various tasks in order to determine the impact on child performance of manip-ulating task demands. Performance on a nonverbal IC task, but not performance on more difficult motivational or traditional IC tasks, was explained by medial frontal electroencephalographic activ-ity and by language abilities. Because of the unique relations of nonverbal IC with concurrent developmental measures, and because of its potential to predict later social problems, we con-clude that it is important to include nonverbal IC measures in investigative IC batteries in early childhood. Inhibitory control (IC) is a key executive function of great importance to the developing child. It is involved in the inhibition of a dominant response, including the inhibition of thoughts and behav-iors that are not relevant to the task at hand. Such control processes are vital to a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. The ability to withhold incorrect responses translates to practical childhood skills such as raising one’s hand before speaking in the classroom (Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009) and inhibiting the urge to use physical aggression in response to a peer who stands in the way of one’s goals (Rhoades, Greenberg, & Domitrovich