Child Studies in Diverse Contexts www.e-csdc.org 2012. Vol. 2, No. 2, 123-132 http://dx.doi.org/10.5723/csdc.2012.2.2.123 Child Studies in Diverse Contexts, 2012, 2(2) 123 1 Executive function, which refers to the processes required for the conscious control of thought, emotion, and action, develops rapidly during preschool years (Zelazo, Qu, & Müller, 2005). Better executive function in childhood has been linked to better school readiness, academic performance, and mental health during later years (e.g., Blair & Razza, 2007; Moffitt, Arsenault, Belsky, Dickson, Hancox, Harrington, et al., 2011). Although executive function can be understood as a domain-general functional * Corresponding Author: Philip David Zelazo, Professor, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA. E-mail: zelazo@umn.edu, or Li Qu, Assistant Professor, Division of Psychology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637332. E-mail: quli@ntu.edu.sg construct, a distinction may be made between the more purely cognitive, “cool” aspects, and the relatively “hot” affective aspects of executive function (e.g., Zelazo, Qu, & Kesek, 2009; Zelazo & Müller, 2002; Zelazo et al., 2005). Whereas cool executive function is more likely to be elicited by relatively abstract, decontextualized problems, hot executive function, including affective decision making, is invoked for problems that are motivationally significant because they have meaningful consequences -rewards or punishers. Hot executive function develops in parallel with cool executive function, and both are parts of an interactive functional system (Prencipe, Kesek, Affective Decision-Making among Preschool Children in Diverse Cultural Contexts Li Qu *1 Gao Shan 2 Cindy Yip 3 Hong Li 4 Philip David Zelazo 5 1 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2 Southwest University, China 3 University of Toronto, Canada 4 Liaoning Normal University, China 5 Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, USA The current study examined 3- and 4-year-olds’ affective decision-making in a variety of cultural contexts by comparing European Canadian children to Chinese Canadian, Hong Kong Chinese, and mainland Chinese children (N = 245). All children were tested with a delay of gratification task in which children chose between an immediate reward of lower value and a delayed reward of higher value. Results showed that Chinese Canadian and Hong Kong Chinese children chose more delayed rewards than European Canadian children, with mainland Chinese children showing a trend toward more delayed rewards. Across cultures, 4-year-olds chose more delayed rewards than 3-year-olds; and among 4-year-olds, girls made more such choices than boys. The findings are consistent with previous findings that exposure to Chinese culture is associated with better cool executive function, but they also highlight the importance of examining development across diverse cultural contexts. Keywords: preschool, executive function, affective decision-making, culture