Topic
Executive function research, explained
17 open-access executive function studies, each with a flashcard deck and a quiz.
- Are stopping an action and ignoring distraction the same skill?
In 11- and 12-year-olds, the ability to stop an action and the ability to ignore distracting information turned out to be separate skills that are linked only because both lean on working memory.
- Do 'hot' and 'cool' self-control develop differently in teens?
Cool, purely cognitive control skills improved steadily through the teenage years, while risk-related decision making peaked in mid-adolescence and was unrelated to the cool skills.
- Do children struggle with memory demands or physical self-control?
Even when memory demands are kept low, children struggle to act against their natural physical impulses.
- Does screen time at age two predict toddlers' executive function?
Toddlers who watched more screens at two years old did somewhat worse on self-control and working-memory tasks a year later, even after accounting for their earlier abilities.
- Do flanker and Simon tasks really measure self-control?
Scores on popular conflict tasks were barely predicted by skills thought to train inhibition and did not relate at all to people's self-rated self-control or impulsivity.
- Do kids with weaker self-control show riskier eating habits?
In ordinary schoolchildren, the 'cool' thinking-control skills hung together as one ability, the emotional 'hot' tasks did not, and weaker cool control went with some riskier eating styles only in girls.
- Do childhood self-control and brain responses predict preteen behaviour?
Children's performance on attention-control tasks at age 8 predicted the same tasks four years later, and brain responses to losses in a gambling game predicted less thrill seeking and better school ratings at 12.
- Can mindfulness and reflection games boost preschoolers' self-control?
Low-income preschoolers who played mindfulness and 'stop and think' games for six weeks ended up ranked higher on self-control tasks than classmates who carried on as usual, but the advantage was small and did not beat a literacy-lesson control.
- Do different types of executive function tests predict school success?
Cognitive tests of working memory and shifting predict math and spelling performance, but teacher ratings of these skills only provide unique value for spelling.
- Can binaural beats make thinking more flexible?
Students who listened to 40 Hz binaural beats showed more than three times as much 'crosstalk' between two overlapping tasks as students who heard a plain tone, suggesting the beats made their mental control looser and more flexible.
- Do preschoolers' thinking skills start unified or separate?
Working memory, attention-shifting and inhibition were largely unrelated in 3-year-olds but became linked by age 4, suggesting these skills come together during the preschool years rather than start as one ability.
- How does early poverty lead to weaker school skills?
Children exposed to more poverty-related stress in infancy did worse in reading and maths by Grade 2, partly because they had weaker self-control and thinking skills and weaker kindergarten social skills that in turn held back those thinking skills.
- Does how children grasp relate to executive function?
Children who more consistently used their right hand and reached into right-side space first while grasping had better parent-rated executive function, whereas how fast they finished the tasks was unrelated.
- Can classroom mindfulness boost young children's self-control?
Young children whose teachers wove brief mindfulness activities into the school day improved more in mental flexibility and in teacher-rated attention than children still waiting for the program, though not on a test of inhibition.
- Do preschool motor skills travel with executive function?
In 394 four-year-olds, TGMD-2 motor scores correlated with NIH Toolbox executive function (r = 0.33); locomotor skills predicted inhibition, working memory, and flexibility, while object control predicted only inhibition.
- What predicts preschoolers' executive functions a year later?
Preschoolers' own characteristics (earlier executive function, being a girl, higher family status, better fine motor skills and visual perception) predicted their executive functions a year later, while parenting, siblings and physical activity did not.
- Does doing The Daily Mile for longer boost pupils' minds?
Children who had done The Daily Mile for more than a few months were slightly fitter, but they did not think better or feel better than children who did not take part.