Working Memory, Cognitive Flexibility, and Inhibition
from Part III - Education and School-Learning Domains
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2022
Executive functions (EFs) comprise a set of cognitive skills harnessed for the regulation of behaviour and the pursuit of long-term goals. Sometimes referred to as cognitive control, this set of processes enables one to stay focused on a particular task and ignore distractions along the way (Diamond, 2013). There is some consensus that EFs can be decomposed into three core components, namely working memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibition (Miyake et al., 2000). Working memory (WM) allows the short-term retention and manipulation of information in mind (Baddeley, 1992); inhibitory control (IC) refers to the ability to suppress prepotent impulses and is also referred to as self-control or interference control (Logan et al., 1997); while cognitive flexibility (CF) is the ability to switch readily between different mental processes or task-demands (Eslinger & Grattan, 1993). These three EFs often operate jointly in a large variety of cognitive-development tasks. For the purposes of the present chapter, we also review the literature on attentional control (AC) (the ability to direct focus to the task at hand; Davidson et al., 2006).
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