#021 Executive Functioning is More than One Skill

ISSUE #021 | EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING IS MORE THAN ONE SKILL

THE INSIGHT

“Executive function” gets talked about as though it were one thing.

It is not.

Executive function is an umbrella term that includes related but distinct abilities such as inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility.

That distinction became especially important in one of the studies I examined this week because physical activity and fitness did not relate to every executive-function outcome in exactly the same way.

That matters.

Because saying something “improves executive function” can hide the most useful part of the finding:

Which executive function?

WHAT THE RESEARCH TELLS US

Luo and colleagues studied 127 preschool-aged children between ages 3 and 6.

Children wore accelerometers to measure physical activity, completed a shuttle-run measure of cardiorespiratory fitness, and completed direct tasks assessing inhibitory control and working memory.

The results were not uniform.

Children who spent more time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity performed better on inhibitory-control measures. Children with higher cardiorespiratory fitness also performed better on inhibitory-control measures and showed better working-memory performance.

The researchers had actually predicted that the relationships might differ across executive-function domains because those abilities follow different developmental trajectories.

There is an important limit here.

This was a correlational study.

It does not prove that increasing children's physical activity caused their inhibitory control to improve. The study shows a relationship, not causation.

Another study I examined this week adds another caution. Bausela Herreras found different patterns depending not only on the executive-function skill being rated but also on who was doing the rating. Teachers reported age-group differences across all BRIEF-P executive-function areas, while parent ratings did not show significant differences in inhibition or working memory.

So even the way we measure executive function can change the picture.

WHY IT MATTERS

That makes broad claims much less useful.

“Movement helps executive function.”

Which one?

“His executive function is weak.”

Which part?

“The program improved executive function.”

How was it measured?

A child may struggle to stop an impulsive response but do fairly well remembering information.

Another child may wait beautifully for a turn yet lose track of a three-step direction.

Those difficulties may look similar from the outside because both children can appear “distracted” or “not listening.”

But the cognitive demand underneath the behavior is different.

And if the demand is different, the way we practice it may need to be different too.

RESEARCH FOR THE REAL WORLD

Consider two movement games.

In one, children run until a signal tells them to stop.

That puts a heavy demand on inhibitory control: suppressing an action that is already underway.

In another, children have to remember a sequence such as jump, crawl, kick, and return.

That places a stronger demand on working memory because information has to be held and used.

Both are movement.

Both may be challenging.

But they are not asking the brain to do exactly the same thing.

That is why I am becoming much more careful with the phrase “executive-function training.”

The better question is:

Which executive function is this activity actually asking the child to use?

THE BIGGER QUESTION

If we want to build children's executive function intentionally, are we actually measuring and practicing the specific capacity we think we are building?

SOURCE

Bausela Herreras, E. (2024). Comparative study of the development of executive functions in children: Transition from the first cycle to the second cycle of early childhood education. Brain Sciences, 14(12), 1273. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14121273

Luo, X., Herold, F., Ludyga, S., Gerber, M., Kamijo, K., Pontifex, M. B., Hillman, C. H., Alderman, B. L., Müller, N. G., Kramer, A. F., Ishihara, T., Song, W., & Zou, L. (2023). Association of physical activity and fitness with executive function