Retiring the Central Executive

Abstract

Reasoning, problem solving, comprehension, learning and retrieval, inhibition, switching, updating, or multitasking are often referred to as higher cognition, thought to require control processes or the use of a central executive. However, the concept of an executive controller begs the question of what is controlling the controller and so on, leading to an infinite hierarchy of executives or “homunculi”. In what is now a QJEP citation classic, Baddeley [Baddeley, A. D. (1996). Exploring the central executive. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A, 5–28] referred to the concept of a central executive in cognition as a “conceptual ragbag” that acted as a placeholder umbrella term for aspects of cognition that are complex, were poorly understood at the time, and most likely involve several different cognitive functions working in concert. He suggested that with systematic empirical research, advances in understanding might progress sufficiently to allow the executive concept to be “sacked”. This article offers an overview of the 1996 article and of some subsequent systematic research and argues that after two decades of research, there is sufficient advance in understanding to suggest that executive control might arise from the interaction among multiple different functions in cognition that use different, but overlapping, brain networks. The article concludes that the central executive concept might now be offered a dignified retirement.

Anosognosia and self-correction of naming errors in aphasia

“…Our study was limited in its use of a single test of executive function, chosen because of its suitability for assessing people with language difficulties. Executive functioning is known to fractionate (Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, Witzki, Howerter, & Wager, 2000;MacPherson & Della Sala, 2005;Logie, 2016) and we did not explore which of its component processes may be involved in the different aspects of awareness for language difficulties. Related to this point, it would have been useful to have included measures of attention and prospective memory in the study, as these are implicated in some accounts of error monitoring in other domains of cognition (Dockree et al, 2015;O'Keeffe et al, 2007;Maher et al, 1994).…”

Challenges to Ego-Depletion Research Go beyond the Replication Crisis: A Need for Tackling the Conceptual Crisis

“… 3 Indeed, Logie (2016), a long-time proponent of the central executive (Baddeley and Logie, 1999), recently declared that the field is now ready to “retire” it.…”

Energization and spoken language production: Evidence from progressive supranuclear palsy

“…Although impairments to a range of executive functions are commonly reported following frontal lobe damage, there remains some debate regarding the processes associated with the frontal lobes. There is growing evidence against the notion of a unified central executive system, and in favour of a more diverse set of component functions that act together to allow for complex executive or cognitive control (e.g., Logie, 2016;Stuss, 2011).…”