I. The Development of Executive Function

Abstract

(from the book) This chapter examines theories of and empirical research on executive function. The authors show that research on executive function has grown dramatically over the last 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. The authors review influential theories of executive function, working memory, inhibition, computational modeling, and hierarchical accounts. They next review the development of the prefrontal cortex, which is considered the neural basis of executive function, and summarize research on particular component processes of executive function. In the next sections they address, in turn, the methodological challenges in research on executive function; sources of the development of executive function, with particular emphasis on the ways in which social factors and language facilitate its development; and summaries of research of executive function in two other domains of functioning-social understanding and academic achievement. The authors conclude the chapter with the suggestion that executive function should be studied as a distributed process that develops as a result of the child's embodied interactions within a social context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)