Chronological age and biological maturity are separately positively associated with inhibitory control and working memory in boys and girls.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional observational study
PubMed 42339254 · doi:10.3389/fcogn.2025.1565625
What was done
A cross-sectional study evaluated 736 young people (400 female, 336 male; mean age 12.3 ± 1.3 years) across two testing occasions following familiarization. Participants completed the Stroop test to assess inhibitory control and the Sternberg paradigm to assess working memory. Chronological age and biological maturity were calculated for each participant. Linear regression models were run separately by sex to compare models using chronological age against models using biological maturity for each cognitive task.
What was found
Higher chronological age and biological maturity were both associated with superior performance on inhibitory control and working memory. In boys, biological maturity models were a significantly better fit than chronological age models. In girls, chronological age models were a better fit than biological maturity models. No effect sizes, correlation values, or test statistics were reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
These findings suggest that biological maturation plays a distinct role in adolescent executive function development, particularly in boys, indicating that developmental cognitive research should consider biological maturity alongside chronological age.
Limits
The cross-sectional design cannot establish developmental trajectories or causality. The abstract does not provide exact effect sizes, p-values, or the method used to assess biological maturity. Cognitive assessment was restricted to two specific laboratory tasks.