The Development of Executive Function

Abstract

Research on executive function has grown dramatically over the past three decades. Even though the term emerged only 40 years ago, the concept of executive function can be traced back to far earlier clinical and empirical research on the frontal lobes. After a brief overview of the history of executive function, we discuss influential theories of executive function. We next review the development of the prefrontal cortex and the neural substrate, which has been associated with executive function, and summarize research on particular component processes of executive function. Research on executive function faces a variety of methodological challenges that we review in the next section. The sources of executive function development are examined in the next section, with particular emphasis on the ways in which social factors and language facilitate its development. Our next section summarizes research of executive function on two other domains of functioning, namely, social understanding and academic achievement. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that executive function should be studied as a distributed process that develops as a result on the child's embodied interaction within a social context.

Explicit and Implicit Verbal Response Inhibition in Preschool-Age Children Who Stutter

“…In a button-press version of the grass-snow task, for example, the prepotent responses of pressing the grass button when hearing the word grass and the snow button when hearing the word snow must be suppressed; the child is asked to press "grass" in response to the word snow and vice versa. Prepotency in these tasks is magnified because both the stimulus and response set are identical (Müller & Kerns, 2015;Simpson & Riggs, 2005, 2009. As a result, a correct response on one trial (e.g., pressing "grass" when hearing "snow") is also the incorrect response on a subsequent trial (e.g., pressing "grass" when hearing "grass").…”

“…Although it would have been ideal to include congruent conditions, doing so would have potentially compromised the integrity of the tasks. In particular, it would have added a response or task shifting component, which involves the ability to flexibly switch from one way of responding to another in response to a change in rules (Garon et al, 2008;Müller & Kerns, 2015). That is, children would have to switch from using a congruent rule-pressing the button that is associated with the word or sound they hear-to an incongruent rule-pressing the button that is opposite to the word or sound they hear-and vice versa.…”

Game-like Tablet Assessment of Approaches to Learning: Assessing Mastery Motivation and Executive Functions

“…Executive functions provide an important foundation for learning in education settings (Zelazo, Blair, & Willoughby, 2016). EF are required for the highlevel regulation and control of action, thought, and emotions, and seem to be based in the prefrontal cortex (Diamond, 2013;Müller & Kerns, 2015;Zelazo & Müller, 2010). Many researchers agree that the three core EF components are essential for both behavioral and physical health as well as success in school and in life (Blair & Raver, 2015;Diamond, 2013;McClelland et al, 2007;Zelazo et al, 2016).…”

Developmental <b><i>g:</i></b> Lost in the Construct Jungle

“…Demetriou et al discuss the differentiation hypothesis, but their theory fails to address two important empirical findings. First, it is unclear how the integration/differentiation process of their model integrates the developmental trajectory of EF [e.g., Lee, Bull, & Ho, 2013;Müller & Kerns, 2015]. The second issue regards how level of ability interacts with age during the process of differentiation.…”

“…Within a functional framework, language may turn out to play a crucial role in cognizance and higher-order cognitive control processes, and its role may change with development [Müller & Kerns, 2015]. Within a functional framework, relational complexity would be tied to the structuring activity of cognitive processes and not to complexity of concepts because the latter are constituted by the structuring activity of the mind ].…”