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384 REVERSIBLE DISORDERS OF BRAIN DEVELOPMENTor anterior cingulate/cognitive control function. In conclusion, different aspectsof early experience affect different systems of the developing brain. Cognitivestimulation influences the development of language, whereas social/emotionalnurturance affects the development of memory but not language.ConclusionsMany risk factors and protective factors have been identified for adolescence, somerelated to the psychological functioning of individuals themselves and some to theirlife circumstances. Strong executive function is a psychological trait that has a wellestablishedprotective role with respect to drug abuse, crime, and other negative lifeoutcomes (e.g., Giancola, Martin, Tarter, Pelham, & Moss, 1996). It is also associatedwith reduced risk for major psychopathologies, many of which are likely tofirst appear in adolescence or young adulthood, including schizophrenia (see Changet al., this volume). Language ability is also predictive of adolescent outcome (Beitchmanet al., 2001). The research described in this chapter relates individual differencesin these and other abilities to differences in socioeconomic status.We used the framework of cognitive neuroscience to parse cognitive ability intoa set of component systems, which we assessed behaviorally using tasks adaptedfrom the cognitive neuroscience literature. Our findings indicate that both executiveand language function vary with SES. By subdividing executive function intoanatomically and functionally different systems, we found that working memoryand cognitive control have the strongest relationship to SES. Although previousstudies of executive function and adolescent risk did not discriminate among differentsystems of executive function, their measures included tasks that tax thesesystems, particularly cognitive control (Giancola et al., 1996). In contrast, we couldfind no detectable relationship between SES and reward processing, another formof executive function that is predictive of real-world life outcomes (Mischel, Shoda,& Rodriguez, 1989).In addition to assessing the relationship between SES and neurocognitive function,we have begun to seek the specific causal factors responsible for this relationship.The results of our preliminary study suggest that the quality of cognitivestimulation and social/emotional nurturance early in childhood both affect neurocognitivefunction in middle school. Language ability seems particularly sensitiveto cognitive stimulation, and memory ability seems particularly sensitive tosocial/emotional nurturance. Our measures of childhood experience did not accountfor variability in any of the prefrontal/executive systems.The preliminary findings summarized here must be confirmed with additionalresearch, using different study populations and different assessment methods. Inthe meantime, we can provisionally conclude that SES does bear a significantrelationship with neurocognitive functions known to play a role in adolescent