Preschoolers' endogenously-triggered self-regulation

Studies collecting behavioral evidence from 8- to 12-year-olds and young adults and neurological evidence from young adults suggest independent, dissociable processes for voluntarily regulating behavior that has been internally versus externally generated. In the present study, the ability to self-regulate socially-learned demands when initiated within the individual (endogenously-triggered self-regulation) and outside the individual (exogenously-triggered self-regulation) are explored among preschoolers using a new task. Data were collected from 83 three-, four-, and five-year-old children attending a university-affiliated preschool. Analyses were conducted across the whole sample and by half-year age groups (e.g., 3-3.5 years). Results indicated preschoolers can demonstrate regulation for endogenously-triggered demands in the new task. Evidence is also presented suggesting endogenously-triggered performance on the task is dissociable from exogenously-triggered performance on the task. Further, cross-sectional comparisons of performance on the test trials by half-year age groups indicated a fairly linear increase of proportion demonstrating regulation on endogenous trials from younger to older age groups and a U-shaped pattern of proportion demonstrating regulation on exogenous trials (i.e., decreased through 4-4.5 age group and then increased). The new regulation task and the importance of studying endogenously-triggered regulation are discussed in light of the findings.