Assessment and Development of Executive Function (EF) During Childhood

By Peter J. Anderson. Child Neuropsychology: A Journal of Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence, 2002

2,196 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This review paper outlines the issues associated with the assessment of executive function (EF) in children and adolescents, and describes the developmental profile of executive processes across childhood. At the outset, EF is defined, and cognitive and behavioral impairments associated with executive dysfunction (EDF) are described. A developmental model of EF is proposed incorporating four discrete but inter-related executive domains (attentional control, cognitive flexibility, goal setting, and information processing) which operate in an integrative manner to enable “executive control”. Characteristics that constitute traditional EF measures are discussed, as are the problems associated with test interpretation. The ecological validity of EF tests and neuropsychological assessment procedures are examined, and adjunct methods of measurement are presented to enable a more comprehensive and valid assessment of EF. Based on developmental and normative studies, the maturation of executive domains is mapped. Attentional control appears to emerge in infancy and develop rapidly in early childhood. In contrast, cognitive flexibility, goal setting, and information processing experience a critical period of development between 7 and 9 years of age, and are relatively mature by 12 years of age. A transitional period is thought to occur at the beginning of adolescence, and shortly after “executive control” is likely to emerge. In order to confirm our current understanding of EF development and further enhance our understanding of brain-behavior relationships, longitudinal studies incorporating structural and functional neuroimaging are required.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health, Psychiatry and Mental health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/23c2d3f2192973b1dcbef67e9a263acb985a197d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

In Psychiatry and Mental health

Citations in the corpus

Specifying Links Between Executive Functioning and Theory of Mind during Middle Childhood: Cognitive Flexibility Predicts Social Understanding (2015, methodology): “One goal of this study was to specify the developmental trajectory of executive-functioning components and theory of mind from 7 to 12 years of age in response to recent calls for additional research focusing on middle childhood (Anderson, 2002; Best & Miller, 2010; Best et al., 2009).”
The Classroom as a Developmental Context for Cognitive Development: A Meta-Analysis on the Importance of Teacher–Student Interactions for Children’s Executive Functions (2018, background): “Both the PFC and the three core EFs continue to progress at a more gradual rate until adolescence or even young adulthood (P. Anderson, 2002; Diamond, 2002; Zelazo & Carlson, 2012).”
Attentional control and the Simple View of reading (2009, background): “Attentional control refers to the ability to inhibit automatic or prepotent responses that are irrelevant and initiate alternative responses that are more relevant (e.g., Anderson, 2002; Baddeley, 1986; Norman & Shallice, 1986; Shallice, 1988).”
The Elusive Nature of Executive Functions: A Review of our Current Understanding (2007, background): “Development of executive abilities has been shown to occur rapidly through childhood in spurts that have been aligned with the maturation of the frontal lobe (Anderson 2002).”
The development of prospective memory in children: An executive framework (2014, background): “Cognitive flexibility continues to develop between 7 and 9 years of age and is relatively mature by 12 years according to findings by Anderson (2002).”
Executive functioning predicts academic achievement in middle school: A four-year longitudinal study (2016, background): “…on a task, attending to a teacher, following rules, and suppressing counterproductive impulses; when students are successful in these tasks, they are considered to be exhibiting high EF (Anderson, 2002; Blair, 2002; Blair & Razza, 2007; Diamond & Lee, 2011; Isquith, Gioia, & Espy, 2004).”
The Relationship Between Media Multitasking and Attention Problems in Adolescents: Results of Two Longitudinal Studies (2017, background): “Attentional processes, more generally, are oftentimes subsumed under the term “ executive functions ” (Anderson, 2002).”
Effects of Mindful Awareness Practices on Executive Functions in Elementary School Children (2010, background): “Working memory, mental set-shifting, and response inhibition are examples of core executive functions that map onto dimensions of behavioral self-regulation (Anderson, 2002; Blair & Diamond, 2008).”
Conceptualising engagement with digital behaviour change interventions: a systematic review using principles from critical interpretive synthesis (2016, background): “aged 18 years or older) were included, as it was expected that different factors might influence engagement in children and adult populations due to different cognitive abilities [37].”
Executive Function: Implications for Education. NCER 2017-2000. (2016, background): “Despite the long history and widespread use of performance-based assessments of EF, researchers have frequently raised concerns about their ecological validity (Anderson 2002; Barkley and Murphy 2010, 2011; Burgess et al. 1998; Chaytor, Schmitter-Edgecombe, and Burr 2006; Kenworthy et al. 2008; Sbor”
A Developmental Perspective on Executive Function (2010, background): “, continued responding based on the previous mental set) would indicate shifting failures (Anderson, 2002).”
Adolescent Maturity and the Brain: The Promise and Pitfalls of Neuroscience Research in Adolescent Health Policy (2009, neutral): “This allows nerve impulses to travel throughout the brain more quickly and efficiently and facilitates increased integration of brain activity [17].”