Abstract

While Asian preschoolers acquire executive functions (EFs) earlier than their Western counterparts (e.g., Sabbagh, Xu, Carlson, Moses & Lee 2006), little is known about whether this advantage persists into later childhood and adulthood. Addressing this gap, the current study presented four computerised executive function (EF) tasks (providing measures of inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility and planning) to a large sample (n = 1,427) of 9- to 16-year-olds and their parents living in the United Kingdom and in Hong Kong. Highlighting the importance of combining developmental and cultural perspectives, our findings showed both similarities and contrasts across sites. Specifically, adult EF performance did not differ across sites and age-related changes in EF for both children and parents as well as a modest intergenerational correlation appeared culturally invariant. In contrast, school-aged children and young adolescents in Hong Kong outperformed their UK counterparts on all four EF tasks, consistent with previous findings from preschool children.