Table 2. Description of the cognitive measures.
| Cognitive domain | Task | Description | Dependent variable(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic processing speed | |||
| Baseline speed a | A fixation cross in the centre of a computer screen changed unpredictably into a white square. Participants were required to press a key when the white square emerged. | Mean reaction time (ms) and variability (SD of reaction time in ms) c | |
| Social cognition | |||
| Facial Emotion Recognition | Facial Emotion Recognition a | Children were asked to judge whether the presented photograph showed the target emotion (happiness, sadness, anger or fear) or a non-target expression (1 of 8 different emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, surprise, shame, contempt), by pressing a mouse button. | Mean reaction time (ms) and % errors on four emotions |
| Face recognition | Face recognition a | Children were asked to identify a neutral target face in a display set that consisted of four neutral faces. | Mean reaction time (ms) and % errors |
| Prosody | Prosody a | Stimuli consisted of spoken sentences with a neutral content, presented through a headphone. Sentences were spoken in a happy, sad, angry or frightened manner. Children were asked to verbally identify the emotion with which the sentence was spoken out. | Mean reaction time (ms) and % errors |
| Executive functioning | |||
| Inhibition | Response Organization Objects a | Stimuli consisted of a horizontal gray bar with green or red moving squares. The task consisted of three blocks. In the first block, the moving square was colored green, and compatible responses were required. In the second block, the moving square was colored red, and incompatible responses were required. In the third block, the color of the moving square alternated randomly between green and red, and both compatible and incompatible responses were required. | Difference in % errors or mean reaction time (ms) between Block 1 (compatible trials only) and Block 2 (incompatible trials only). |
| Cognitive flexibility | Response Organization Objects a | See above | Difference in % errors or mean reaction time (ms) between compatible trials in Block 1 (compatible trials only) and compatible trials in Block 3 (mixed compatible and incompatible trials) |
| Visuo-Spatial Working Memory | Spatial Temporal Span a | Nine circles symmetrically organized in a square (3 by 3). Repeating the identified circles in the opposite order. | Number of correct targets in reversed (backward) order |
| Verbal Working Memory | Digit Span b | Repeating the numbers in the opposite order. | Number of correct reproduced sequences in reversed (backward) order |
| Visual pattern recognition | |||
| Pattern recognition task a | The stimulus was a predefined target pattern of 3 red and 6 white squares in a 3x3 matrix. After memorization of this target pattern children were asked to detect the target stimulus in a signal consisted of four patterns. | Mean reaction time (ms) and % errors |
Note.
a Amsterdam Neuropsychological Test (ANT) battery. For a full description of these tasks, please see (Oerlemans et al., 2013).
b Wechsler Intelligence Scales (Wechsler, 2000, 2002).
c Given the highly basic level of this task, virtually no errors are made by participants. The main indices are mean reaction time as well as the variability of reaction times. Both indices are correlated but also convey distinct underlying processes and are influenced by partly distinct etiological factors (see for instance). Therefore, both indices were included in the analyses.