A Dynamical Reconceptualization of Executive-Function Development

Executive function plays a foundational role in everyday behaviors across the life span. The theoretical understanding of executive-function development, however, is still a work in progress. Doebel proposed that executive-function development reflects skills using control in the service of behavior...

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Veröffentlicht in:Perspectives on psychological science Jg. 16; H. 6; S. 1198 - 1208
Hauptverfasser: Perone, Sammy, Simmering, Vanessa R., Buss, Aaron T.
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.11.2021
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
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ISSN:1745-6916, 1745-6924, 1745-6924
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Zusammenfassung:Executive function plays a foundational role in everyday behaviors across the life span. The theoretical understanding of executive-function development, however, is still a work in progress. Doebel proposed that executive-function development reflects skills using control in the service of behavior—using mental content such as knowledge and beliefs to guide behavior in a context-specific fashion. This liberating view contrasts with modular views of executive function. This new view resembles some older dynamic-systems concepts that long ago proposed that behavior reflects the assembly of multiple pieces in context. We dig into this resemblance and evaluate what else dynamic-systems theory adds to the understanding of executive-function development. We describe core dynamic-systems concepts and apply them to executive function—as conceptualized by Doebel—and through this lens explain the multilevel nature of goal-directed behavior and how a capacity to behave in a goal-directed fashion across contexts emerges over development. We then describe a dynamic systems model of goal-directed behavior during childhood and, finally, address broader theoretical implications of dynamic-systems theory and propose new translational implications for fostering children’s capacity to behave in a goal-directed fashion across everyday contexts.
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ISSN:1745-6916
1745-6924
1745-6924
DOI:10.1177/1745691620966792