Executive Functions

Executive Functions (EF)

• Monitoring and Control of thought, action, and emotion, to effectively achieve one’s goals

EF

• Related to:

1. Impulse Control
2. Self Control
3. Emotion Regulation

EF

• Specific EFs featured heavily in the literature:

1. Inhibition
2. Task Switching
3. Working Memory
4. Paying Attention
5. Planning

EF

Automatic vs. Controlled Processing

Why do we care about EF?

• Poorer EF skills lead to poorer outcomes later in life:
• Difficulties at school
• Difficulties in relationships
• Physical and Mental Health Problems
• Financial Difficulties
• Aggression/Violence/Criminal Convictions
• Substance Use/Abuse

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Study

EF and Health

EF and Wealth

EF and Crime

Development of EF

• From reflexes in infancy to flexible mature control of behaviour in adulthood
• Not so much individual difference in infants, but lots of individual difference in adults
• The “A Not B” Error in Infancy
• Major advances in preschool years
• Compare a “Terrible Two” and a First Grader
• Adolescence is another period of major EF development

EF in Adolescence

How do we observe EF in children (preschoolers)

• Observation of Children’s behaviour (Marshmallow Test)
• Parent and Teacher Reports
• Controlled Experimental Tasks (playing games!)

EF in Children’s Games (in the real world)

Tasks measuring Inhibitory Control

• Pinball
• Bear/Dragon Task: “Do what the teddy bear says, but NOT what the dragon says”

Task for measuring Task Switching (Set Shifting)

Dimensional Change Card Sort

Tasks for measuring Working Memory

Backward Digit Span

The role of EFs in Theory of Mind

Expression Account vs. Emergence Account

1. Expression Account: Infants have a ToM, they just lack the EF necessary to express that knowledge
2. Emergence Account: EFs are necessary for ToM knowledge to emerge.

Problems with the ‘Expression’ Account

• Even in a Violation-of-Expectation (VOE) study, some EFs are still required to form the expectation

EFs in ‘Unexpected Transfer’ False Belief (FB) task

For an infant to have the expectation that an agent will act on a FB they must:

1. Remember where an object actually is (requires working memory)

2. to some extent represent the agent’s perspective (more working memory)

3. form an expectation about how the agent will behave based on the agent’s belief (inhibit the expectation that would be informed by the infant’s own knowledge)

Reducing EF demands = FB tasks can be passed earlier!

• Change the Sally-Anne task such that Anne takes the object away with her when she leaves.
• In this new version, most 2.5 year olds answered correctly (78% = significantly above chance).

Does EF skill predict ToM training?

• Train children who fail ToM tasks
• Question: Which children will benefit from the training?
• Answer: Only children with better EF skills
• Suggests that EF is necessary for ToM

EF in China vs. USA

ToM in China vs. USA

But are EF and ToM related in both cultures?

China vs. USA

• EF and ToM correlated in both US and China
• Chinese kids outperform US kids at EF
• But no different at ToM
• Therefore, EF is not sufficient for ToM

Children’s Decisions Making: Saying no to the marshmallow

Delay of Gratification

Children’s Decisions Making: Saying no to the marshmallow

• Walter Mischel
• Stanford Marshmallow Experiments
• 1960s
• Resisting a smaller more immediate reward to receive a larger one later
• 1 marshmallow now vs. 2 if you wait

Environmental Reliability & Delay of Gratificaton

Strategies on the Marshmallow Test

• Attentional Disengagement (look away, close eyes)
• Mental Distraction (think about something else)
• Distancing (think about the “cool” rather than the “hot” properties)

Distancing

What Factors Affect Development of EF?

• Brain Maturation (Prefrontal Cortex)
• Temperament (Emotion Regulation)
• Gender (hormonal differences)
• Culture
• Parenting (Modeling Behaviours)
• Environmental Contingencies

Parental Influences

• Self-control more likely when parents have control themselves
• Children demonstrate less control when parents are very strict
• Giving children more opportunities to regulate their own behavior fosters self-control

Environmental Contingencies

• Reliable vs. Unreliable Environment Conditions
• Unreliable Condition = after waiting for new set of art supplies (instead of using the old cruddy art supplies), the children are told that “we don’t have the new art supplies after all”

Environmental Contingencies

Next week: Dr Tia Neha will discuss the role of Whanau in child development