Development of a version of the self-ordered pointing task: a working memory task for Brazilian preschoolers.

Objective: Working memory is a fundamental cognitive function and is predictive of outcomes and achievement in a wide range of domains from an early age. The focus of this study was to develop a computerized Brazilian version of the Self-Ordered Pointing Task (SOPT) for preschoolers and to provide initial normative and validation data for this task.

Methods: The sample of the present study was composed of 248 children aged 3 (n = 41), 4 (n = 88) and 5 (n = 119) years from 13 private and public schools in Belo Horizonte.

Staying and shifting patterns across IGT trials distinguish children with externalizing disorders from controls.

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is the most widely instrument used in the assessment of affective decision-making in several populations with frontal impairment. The standard performance measure on the IGT is obtained by calculating the difference between the advantageous and the disadvantageous choices. This standard score does not allows the assessment of the use of different strategies to deal with contingencies of gain and losses across the task.

Do general intellectual functioning and socioeconomic status account for performance on the Children's Gambling Task?

Studies that use the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and its age-appropriate versions as indices of affective decision-making during childhood and adolescence have demonstrated significant individual differences in scores. Our study investigated the association between general intellectual functioning and socioeconomic status (SES) and its effect on the development of affective decision-making in preschoolers by using a computerized version of the Children's Gambling Task (CGT). We administered the CGT and the Columbia Mental Maturity Scale (CMMS) to 137 Brazilian children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old to assess their general intellectual functioning.