Scholify essay do diverse executive functions
- 1. Do diverse executive functions develop along differential trajectories? Executive function is an umbrella term for cognitive functions that are concerned with selection, scheduling and coordination of computational processes that are responsible for perception, memory and action. Incomplete development of executive functions could account for many of the errors children make and so studying the maturation underlying their development is key to understanding childrens performance. The atypical development of executive function may underlie disorders such as autism and ADHD and so research in this area has important clinical implications. These diverse executive functions develop throughout childhood but do not follow a unitary time-scale. Executive functions are not informationally encapsulated (Beveridge et al) and operate relatively independently. This supports the notion that these functions develop along differential trajectories. A number of studies have distinguished between certain functions such as ability to maintain set in the face of distraction and the ability to switch set without perseveration and found the ages at which adult level of errors was reached differed between the different executive functions studied. A wide variety of tasks must be used in order to assess the diversity of executive function and each of these tasks has their advantages and disadvantages. In particular the Wisconsin card sorting task has been criticised for its complexity. These critical evaluations should be taken into account when assessing the evidence for the theory that executive functions develop along differential trajectories. For more, visit www.scholify.com