Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T13:47:50.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Development Patterns of Executive Functions in Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2013

Lorena Canet Juric ,
María M. Richards ,
Isabel Introzzi ,
María Laura Andrés  and
Sebastián Urquijo
Lorena Canet Juric*
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina)
María M. Richards
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina)
Isabel Introzzi
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina)
María Laura Andrés
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina)
Sebastián Urquijo
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Lorena Canet Juric. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Psicología. Funes, 3250. Cuerpo V. Nivel III. 7600. Mar del Plata. Buenos Aires (Argentina) E-mail: canetjuric@mdp.edu.ar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Executive Functions (EF) exercise control over an individual’s conduct and thinking through a set of functionally independent processes, among which are cognitive flexibility (reactive and spontaneous), working memory and planning. The development patterns of these components appear to have stages of acceleration and deceleration during childhood. Studies analyzing their development in Spanish-speaking children were not found in our area. Therefore, this study will analyze the development patterns of the cited executive functions with the objective of establishing relationships and comparisons, and identifying the stages of acceleration and stagnation for each component. The study’s sample consists of 274 schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 8 (119 in first grade, 61 in second grade and 94 in third grade). Participants were evaluated using the following instruments from the Neuropsychological Assessment of Children test battery (known by the acronym ENI in Spanish): Verbal Fluency (semantic and phonemic); Cognitive Flexibility; Mexican Pyramid; and Backward Digit Span. Three different development patterns were detected, as well as different interactions between the executive components. Additionally, three empirical types were established based on the patterns and relationships between components.

Keywords

executive functionscognitive flexibilityworking memoryplanningdevelopment patterns
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 16 , 2013 , E41
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, P. (2002). Assessment and development of executive function (EF) during childhood. Neuropsychology, Development, and Cognition. Section C, Child Neuropsychology, 8(2), 71–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/chin.8.2.71.8724 Google Scholar
Arán Filippetti, V. (2011). Funciones ejecutivas en niños escolarizados: Efectos de la edad y del estrato socioeconómico [Executive functions in school-aged children: age and socioeconomic status effects]. Avances en Psicología Latinoamericana, 29, 98–113 Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255, 556–559. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1736359 Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. (1995). Working memory. In Gazzaniga, M. S. (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences (pp. 755–764). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (1997). Human memory: Theory and practice (Rev. ed.). Hove, UK: Psychology Press. Google Scholar
Baldo, J. V., Shimamura, A. P., Delis, D., Kramer, J., & Kaplan, E. (2001). Design and verbal fluency in patients with frontal lobe lesions. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 7, 586–596. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1355617701755063 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barceló, F., & Knight, R. T. (2002). Both random and perseverative errors underlie WCST deficits in prefrontal patients. Neuropsychologia, 40, 349–356. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(01)00110-5 Google Scholar
Berg, D. (2008). Working memory and arithmetic calculation in children: The contributory roles of processing speed, short-term memory, and reading. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 99, 288–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2007.12.002 Google Scholar
Bull, R., Espy, K. A., & Senn, T. E. (2004). A comparison of performance on the Towers of London and Hanoi in young children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 743–754. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00268.x Google Scholar
Bull, R., Espy, K. A., & Wiebe, S. (2008). Short term memory, working memory, and executive functioning in preschoolers: Longitudinal predictors of mathematical achievement at 7 years. Developmental Neuropsychology, 33, 205–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/87565640801982312 Google Scholar
Burgess, P. W. (1997). Theory and methodology in executive function Research. In Rabbitt, P. (Ed.), Methodology of frontal executive function. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Burgess, P. W., & Shallice, T. (1996). Response suppression, initiation and strategy use following frontal lobe lesions. Neuropsychologia, 34, 263–272. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(95)00104-2 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collette, F., Hogge, M., Salmon, E., & van der Linden, M. (2006). Exploration of the neural substrates of executive functioning by functional neuroimaging. Neuroscience, 139, 209–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.05.035 Google Scholar
Chen, C., & Stevenson, H. W. (1988). Cross-linguistic differences in digit span of preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 46, 150–158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0022-0965(88)90027-6 Google Scholar
Daneman, M. (1991). Working memory as a predictor of verbal fluency. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 20, 445–464. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01067637 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 450–466. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(80)90312-6 Google Scholar
Deák, G. O. (2004). The development of cognitive flexibility and language abilities. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 31, 271–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2407(03)31007-9 Google Scholar
Dehn, M. J. (2008). Working memory and academic learning. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
De Luca, C. R., Wood, S. J., Anderson, V., Buchanan, J. A., Poffitt, T. M., Mahony, K., & Pantelis, C. (2003). Normative data from the Cantab. I: Development of executive function over the lifespan. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 242–254. http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/jcen.25.2.242.13639 Google Scholar
Diamond, A. (2002). Normal development of prefrontal cortex from birth to young adulthood: Cognitive functions, anatomy, and biochemistry. In Stuss, D. T. & Knight, R. T. (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp.466–503). London, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, A., Kirkham, N., & Amso, D. (2002). Conditions under which young children can hold two rules in mind and inhibit a prepotent response. Developmental Psychology, 38, 352–362. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0012-1649.38.3.352 Google Scholar
Durand, M., Hulme, Ch., Larkin, R., & Snowling, M. (2005). The cognitive foundations of reading and arithmetic skills in 7–10-year-olds. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 91, 113–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2005.01.003 Google Scholar
Eslinger, P. J., & Grattan, L. (1991). Perspectives on the developmental consequences of early frontal lobe damage: Introduction. Developmental Neuropsychology, 7, 257–260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/87565649109540493 Google Scholar
Eslinger, P. J., & Grattan, L. M. (1993). Frontal lobe and frontal-striatal substrates for different forms of human cognitive flexibility. Neuropsychologia, 31, 17–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(93)90077-D Google Scholar
Espy, K. A., Kaufmann, P. M., Glisky, M. L., & McDiarmid, M. D. (2001). New procedures to assess executive functions in preschool children. The Clinical Neuropsychology, 15, 46–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/clin.15.1.46.1908 Google Scholar
Gerstadt, C. L., Hong, Y. J., & Diamond, A. (1994). The relationship between cognition and action: Performance of children 3 ½ - 7 years old on a Stroop-like day-night test. Cognition, 53, 129–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(94)90068-X Google Scholar
Gilhooly, K. J., Wynn, V., Phillips, L. H., Logie, R. H., & Della Sala, S. (2002). Visuo-spatial and verbal working memory in the five-disc Tower of London task: An individual differences approach. Thinking and Reasoning, 8, 165–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13546780244000006 Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., & Hitch, G. J. (1993). Developmental changes in short–term memory: A revised working memory perspective. In Collins, A. F., Gathercole, S. E., Conway, M. A., & Morris, P. E. (Eds.), Theories of Memory (pp. 189–209), Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., & Pickering, S. J. (2001). Working memory deficits in children with special educational needs. British Journal of Special Education, 28, 89–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8527.00225 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., Pickering, S. J., Ambridge, B., & Wearing, H. (2004). The structure of working memory from 4 to 15 years of Age. Development Psychology, 40, 177–190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.2.177 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., Willis, C., Emslie, H., & Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Phonological memory and vocabulary development during the early school years: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 28, 887–898. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0012-1649.28.5.887 Google Scholar
Grant, D. A., & Berg, E. A. (1948). A behavioral analysis of degree of reinforcement and ease of shifting to new responses in a weigl-type card sorting problem. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38, 404–411. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0059831 Google Scholar
Glass, G. V., Peckham, P. D., & Sanders, J. R. (1972). Consequences of failure to meet assumptions underlying the fixed effects analysis of variance and covariance. Review of Educational Research, 42, 237–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1169991 Google Scholar
Godefroy, O., Cabaret, M., Petit-Chenal, V., Pruvo, J. P., & Rousseaux, M. (1999). Control functions of the frontal lobe: Modularity of the central-supervisory system. Cortex, 35, 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70782-2 Google Scholar
Heaton, R. K. (1981). Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Hitch, G. J. (2002). Developmental changes in working memory: A multicomponent view. In Graf, P. & Ohta, N. (Eds.) Lifespan development of human memory (15–37) . Massachusetts, MA: A Bradford Books.Google Scholar
Huizinga, M., Dolan, C.V., & van der Molen, M. W. (2006). Age-related change in executive function: Developmental trends and a latent variable analysis. Neuropsychologia, 44, 2017–2036. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.01.010 Google Scholar
Hurks, P., Vles, J., Hendriksen, J., Kalff, A., Feron, F., & Kroes, M. (2006). Sematic category fluency versus initial letter fluence over 60 seconds as a measure of automatic and controlled processing in healthy school-aged children. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 28, 684–695. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803390590954191 Google Scholar
Isaacs, E. B., & Vargha-Khadem, F. (1989). Differential course of development of spatial and verbal memory span: A normative study. British Journal of Development Psychology, 7, 377–380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1989.tb00814.x Google Scholar
Janssen, G., De Mey, H., Egger, J., & Witteman, C. (2010). Celeration of executive functioning while solving the Tower of Hanoi: Two single cases studies using protocol analysis. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 10, 19–40.Google Scholar
Johnson, M., & Munakata, Y. (2005). Processes of change in brain and cognitive development. Trends in Cognitive Science, 9, 152–158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.01.009 Google Scholar
Kail, R., & Salthouse, T. A. (1994). Processing speed as a mental capacity. Acta Psychologica, 86, 199–225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-6918(94)90003-5 Google Scholar
Koren, R., Kofman, O., & Berger, A. (2005). Analysis of word clustering in verbal fluency of school-aged children. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 20, 1087–1104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acn.2005.06.012 Google Scholar
Klimkeit, E. I., Mattingley, J. B., Sheppard, D. M., Farrow, M., & Bradshaw, J. L. (2004). Examining the development of attention and executive functions in children with a novel paradigm. Child Neuropsychology, 10, 201–211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09297040409609811 Google Scholar
Kromrey, J. D., & La Rocca, M. A. (1995). Power and Type I error rates of new pairwise multiple comparison procedures under heterogeneous variances. Journal of Experimental Education, 63, 343–362. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1995.9943469 Google Scholar
León-Carrión, J., & Machuca-Murga, F. (2001). Recuperación espontánea de las funciones cognitivas después de daño cerebral severo: ¿Cuándo están establecidas las secuelas neurocognitivas? [Spontaneous recovery of cognitive functions after severe brain injury: When are neurocognitive sequel established?] Revista Española de Neuropsicología, 3, 58–67.Google Scholar
Letho, J. (1996). Are executive function tests dependent on working capacity? The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49a, 29–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/027249896392793 Google Scholar
Lezak, M. D. (1995). Neuropsychological assessment (3 rd.ed.) New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4 th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lipina, S. J., Martelli, M. I., Vuelta, B. L., Injoque-Ricle, I., & Colombo, J. A. (2004). Pobreza y desempeño ejecutivo en alumnos preescolares de la ciudad de Buenos Aires (República Argentina). [Poverty and executive achievement in pre-school students of the city of Buenos Aires (Argentine)] Interdisciplinaria: Revista de Psicología y Ciencias Afines, 21, 153–193.Google Scholar
Luciana, M. (2003). Practitioner review: Computerized assessment of neuropsychological function in children: Clinical and research applications of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Testing Automated Battery (CANTAB). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 649–663. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00152 Google Scholar
Matute, E., Roselli, M., Ardila, A., & Ostrosky-Solís, F. (2007). Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil (ENI). Manual de aplicación [Child Neuropsychological Evaluation (ENI). Aplicattion manual] . México: El Manual Moderno - UNAM.Google Scholar
Matute, E., Chamorro, Y., Inozemtseva, O., Barrios, , Rosselli, M., & Ardila, A. (2008). Efecto de la edad en una tarea de planificación y organización (‘pirámide de México’) en escolares.[Age effects in a planning and organization task (‘ pyramid of Mexico ‘) in students]. Revista de Neurología, 47, 61–70.Google Scholar
Matute, E., Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., & Morales, L. (2004). Verbal and non-verbal fluency in Spanish speaking children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 26, 647–660. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326942dn2602_7 Google Scholar
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P, Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., & Howerter, A. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobes” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1999.0734 Google Scholar
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (Eds.) (1999). Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Musso, M. (2010). Funciones ejecutivas: Un estudio de los efectos de la pobreza sobre el desempeño ejecutivo.[Executive functions: A study about the impact of the poverty on executive Performance] Interdisciplinaria, 27, 95–110.Google Scholar
Narodowski, M., & Nores, M. (2000). ¿Quiénes quedan y quiénes salen? Características socioeconómicas en la composición de la matrícula en las escuelas públicas y en las escuelas privadas en la Argentina [Who stay and who out? Socioeconomic characteristics in the composition of enrollment in public schools and private schools in Argentina] Buenos Aires, Argentina: Fundación Gobierno y Sociedad.Google Scholar
Nieto, A., Galtier, I., Barroso, J., & Espinosa, G. (2008). Fluencia verbal en niños españoles en edad escolar: Estudio normativo piloto y análisis de las estrategias organizativas.[Verbal fluency in school-aged Spanish children: Normative data and analysis of clustering and switching strategies] Revista de Neurología, 46, 2–6.Google Scholar
Ostrosky-Solis, F., Ardila, A., Rosselli, M., López-Arango, G., & Uriel-Mendoza, V. (1998). Neuropsychological test performance in illiterate subjects. Archives of Clinical Neuropsycholy, 13, 645–660. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/arclin/13.7.645 Google Scholar
Owen, A. M., Downes, J. D., Sahakian, B. J., Polkey, C. E., & Robbins, T. W. (1990). Planning and spatial working memory following frontal lobe lesions in man. Neuropsychologia, 28, 1021–1034. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(90)90137-D Google Scholar
Pennington, B. F., & Ozonoff, S. (1996). Executive functions and developmental psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 51–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1996.tb01380.x Google Scholar
Roselli, M., Jurado, M., & Matute, E. (2008). Las funciones ejecutivas a través de la vida [The executive functions across the lifespan]. Revista Neuropsicología, Neuropsiquiatría y Neurociencias, 8, 23–46.Google Scholar
Sanchez Carpintero, R., & Narbona, J. (2001). Revisión conceptual del sistema ejecutivo y su estudio en el niño con trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad [Executive system: A conceptual review and its study in children With attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Revista de Neurología, 33, 47–53.Google Scholar
Seaman, M. A., Levin, J. R., & Serlin, R. C. (1991). New developments in pairwise multiple comparisons: Some powerful and practicable procedures. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 577–586. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.110.3.577 Google Scholar
Sergeant, J. A., Geurts, H., & Oosterlaan, J. (2002). How specific is a deficit of executive functioning for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder? Behavioural Brain Research, 130, 3–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4328(01)00430-2 Google Scholar
Shallice, T. (1982). Specific impairments in planning. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B. Biological Sciences, 298, 199–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1982.0082 Google Scholar
Simon, H. A. (1975). The functional equivalence of problem solving skills. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 268–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(75)90012-2 Google Scholar
Soprano, A. M. (2009). Cómo evaluar la atención y las funciones ejecutivas en niños y adolescentes [How to evaluate the attention and the executive functions in children and teenagers] . Buenos Aires, Argentina: Paidos.Google Scholar
Stahl, L., & Pry, R. (2005). Attentional flexibility and perseveration: Developmental aspects in young children. Child Neuropsychology, 11, 175–189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/092970490911315 Google Scholar
Swanson, H. L., & Howell, M. (2001). Working memory, short-term memory, and speech rate as predictors of children’s reading performance at different ages. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 720–734. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-0663.93.4.720 Google Scholar
Troyer, A. K. (2000). Normative data for clustering and switching on verbal fluency tasks. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22, 370–378 http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/1380-3395(200006)22:3;1-V;FT370 Google Scholar
Unsworth, N., Redick, T. S., Heitz, R. P., Broadway, J. M., & Engle, R. W. (2009). Complex working memory span tasks and higher-order cognition: A latent-variable analysis of the relationship between processing and storage. Memory, 17, 635–654. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658210902998047 Google Scholar
van der Sluis, S., de Jong, P. F., & van der Leij, A. (2007). Executive functioning in children, and its relations with reasoning, reading, and arithmetic. Intelligence, 35, 427–449. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2006.09.001 Google Scholar
Villodre, R., Sánchez-Alfonso, A., Brines, L., Nuñez, A. B., Chirivella, J., Ferri, J., & Noé, E. (2006). Fluencia verbal: Estudio normativo piloto según estrategias de “agrupación” y “saltos” de palabras en población española de 20 a 49 años [Verbal fluency tasks in a Spanish sample of young adults (20–49 years of age): Normative data of clustering and switching strategies]. Revista de Neurología, 21, 124–130.Google Scholar
Welsh, M. C. (2002). Developmental and clinical variations in executive functions. In Molfese, D. L. & Molfese, V. J. (Eds.), Developmental variations in learning: Applications to social, executive function, language, and reading skills (pp. 139–185). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Welsh, M. C. (2002). Developmental and clinical variations in executive functions. In Molfese, D. L. & Molfese, V. J. (Eds.), Developmental variations in learning: Applications to social, executive function, language, and reading skills (pp. 139–185). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Welsh, M. C., Satterlee-Cartmell, T., & Stine, M. (1999). Towers of Hanoi and London: Contribution of working memory and inhibition to performance. Brain and Cognition, 41, 231–242. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/brcg.1999.1123 Google Scholar
Welsh, M. C., Pennington, B. F., & Groisser, D. B. (1991). A normative-developmental study of executive function: A window of prefrontal function in children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 7, 131–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/87565649109540483 Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., Craik, F. I. M., & Booth, L. (2004). Executive function across the life span. Acta Psychologica, 115, 167–183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2003.12.005 Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., Carter, A., Reznick, J. S., & Frye, D. (1997). Early development of executive function: A problem-solving framework. Review of General Psychology, 1, 198–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//1089-2680.1.2.198 Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., & Muller, U. (2002). Executive function in typical and atypical development. In Goswami, U. (Ed.), Handbook of childhood cognitive development (pp. 445–469). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., & Frye, D. (1997). Cognitive complexity and control: A theory of the development of deliberate reasoning and intentional action. In Stamenov, M. (Ed.), Language structure, discourse, and the access to consciousness (pp. 113–153). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., & Reznick, J. S. (1991). Age-related asynchrony of knowledge and action. Child Development, 62, 719–735. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1131173 CrossRefGoogle Scholar