Early Learning and Cognitive Development Lab
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About
Our research team investigates how executive function skills – the neurocognitive skills that play a pivotal role in regulating our thoughts, feelings and actions – contribute to learning mathematics and science concepts in early childhood. Executive function skills are thought to play a role in academics by enabling children to focus on the task, shift between elements of a problem and remember and manipulate information in the mind. We examine the role executive function plays in doing and learning mathematics and science, how this role varies from one skill to another, across individuals and over time. We also examine the efficacy of educational interventions and instructional practices on children's development. To do this, we conduct research in schools, online and in the laboratory settings with preschool to third graders. We also use large, publicly available longitudinal and educational datasets to examine early learning and cognition across the lifespan. Across all lines of our research, we use advanced quantitative methods to help us better understand how children learn and develop.
Key Research Areas
- Executive function
- Mathematics and numeracy development
- STEM achievement
- Early childhood development
- Quantitative methods
Recent Publications
- Ernst, J. R., Mazzocco, M. M. M., & Carlson, S. M. (2025). Concurrent and predictive associations between executive function and numerical skills in early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 250, 106113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106113
- Ernst, J. R., Pan, S. E., & Carlson, S. M. (2024). Remote assessment of the association between early executive function and mathematics skills. Infant and Child Development, e2534. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2534
- Grenell, A., Ernst, J. R., & Carlson, S. M. (2024). Preschool children’s science learning: Instructional approaches and individual differences. Early Education & Development, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2024.2360884
- Ernst, J. R., Pan, S. E., & Mazzocco, M. M. (2023). Where and what children count during shared reading of early math books. Cognitive Development, 67(101342). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2023.101342
- Prager, E. O., Ernst, J. R., Mazzocco, M. M., & Carlson, S. M. (2023). Executive function and mathematics in preschool children: Training and transfer effects. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105663
- Ernst, J. R., Grenell, A., & Carlson, S.M. (2022). Associations between executive function and early math and literacy skills in preschool children. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 3, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2022.100201