Adversity Is Associated With Lower General Processing Speed Rather Than Executive Functioning.
Exposure to adversity may impair executive functioning (EF; i.e., deficit frameworks), but could also enhance, or leave intact, specific EF abilities (i.e., adaptation frameworks). Both frameworks often use raw performance (e.g., speed) to estimate EF ability. However, this approach (a) conflates di...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Experimental Psychology. General Vol. 154; no. 11; pp. 3010 - 3029 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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American Psychological Association
Nov2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=189179833&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 189179833 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00963445 EPG jtl: Journal of Experimental Psychology. General issn: 00963445 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2025 vid: 154 iid: 11 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 189179833 10.1037/xge0001812 ppf: 3010 ppct: 19 formats: tig: atl: Adversity Is Associated With Lower General Processing Speed Rather Than Executive Functioning. aug: au: Vermeent, Stefan Schubert, Anna-Lena Frankenhuis, Willem E. affil: Department of Evolutionary and Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam Department of Psychology, Utrecht University Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security, and Law, Freiburg, Germany Department of Psychology, University of Mainz keyword: adversity drift diffusion modeling executive functioning structural equation modeling adversity drift diffusion modeling executive functioning structural equation modeling ab: Exposure to adversity may impair executive functioning (EF; i.e., deficit frameworks), but could also enhance, or leave intact, specific EF abilities (i.e., adaptation frameworks). Both frameworks often use raw performance (e.g., speed) to estimate EF ability. However, this approach (a) conflates different cognitive processes and (b) generally does not distinguish specific EF abilities from processes that are shared across EF tasks, such as general processing speed. Here, we integrate deficit and adaptation frameworks by building bridges with mathematical and cognitive psychology. Specifically, we use cognitive modeling (drift diffusion modeling) to isolate different cognitive processes: speed of information accumulation, response caution, and speed of stimulus encoding and response execution. We then use structural equation modeling to investigate whether associations between adversity and cognitive processes are task-general or ability-specific. We recruited 1,061 participants from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences panel. Participants completed a basic processing speed task, two inhibition tasks, and three attention-shifting tasks. We measured self-reported exposure to threat and material deprivation in childhood and adulthood. Exposure to threat (but not deprivation) in adulthood was negatively associated with task-general processing speed. After accounting for task-general processes, the remaining variance was not related to either inhibition or attention-shifting ability. Nonpreregistered analyses showed that childhood exposure to deprivation and threat was negatively associated with (a) general processing speed and (b) task-specific information accumulation. The latter reflected unique features of individual tasks, rather than specific EF abilities. Taken together, these results suggest that adversity researchers may overestimate associations between adversity and specific EF abilities when analyzing raw performance. Public Significance Statement: Decades of research suggest that adversity impairs executive functioning abilities, such as inhibition and attention shifting. These conclusions are often derived from analyzing raw performance, such as response times or accuracy. We use cognitive modeling to reveal that self-reported adversity is associated with general processing speed, but not specific executive functioning abilities. This suggests that adversity research may overestimate the extent to which adversity is associated with executive functioning abilities. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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