Developing Cognitive Control

Abstract

The ability to flexibly break out of routine behaviors develops gradually and is essential for success in life. We discuss three key developmental transitions toward more flexible behavior. First, children develop an increasing ability to overcome habits by engaging cognitive control in response to environmental signals. Second, children shift from recruiting cognitive control reactively, as needed in the moment, to recruiting cognitive control proactively, in preparation for needing it. Third, children shift from relying on environmental signals for engaging cognitive control to becoming more self-directed. All three transitions can be understood in terms of the development of increasingly active and abstract goal representations in prefrontal cortex.

Latent structure of executive function in five- and six-year-old children: A longitudinal study

“…The semantic fluency task was used to measure the capacity to shift from different categories (Miyake et al, 2000; see also Munakata, Snyder, & Chatham, 2012). The total number of correct words is recorded.…”

Executive function: Reflection, iterative reprocessing, complexity, and the developing brain

“…Please cite this article in press as: Philip David Zelazo, Executive function: Reflection, iterative reprocessing, complexity, and the developing brain, Developmental Review (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.dr.2015.07.001 viewed as a shift from hotter to cooler aspects of EF (see also Munakata, Snyder, & Chatham, 2012). In general, on this view, the development of prefrontal cortical circuitry proceeds in a bottom-up fashion that parallels well-documented age-related changes in the complexity of the rules that children can formulate, maintain in working memory, and use when solving problems.…”

The development of prospective memory in children: An executive framework

“…Executive functions develop rapidly in the early childhood years (see Carlson, 2005;Davidson, Amso, Anderson, & Diamond, 2006;Garon, Bryson, & Smith, 2008;Munakata, Snyder, & Chatham, 2012;Zelazo, Carter, Reznick, & Frye, 1997) but continue to develop across adolescence and into early adulthood (see Best & Miller, 2010 for a review). Advances in executive control rely on development of the prefrontal cortex, which slowly matures over childhood and adolescence and reaches maturity in the early 20s (e.g., Anderson, Anderson, Northam, Jacobs, & Catroppa, 2001;Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006;De Luca et al, 2003;Huizinga, Dolan, & van der Molen, 2006).…”