Executive Function

What is Executive Function?

Executive function is a family of cognitive processes that helps us control attention, hold information in mind and adjust what we do. We use these processes to plan, follow instructions, solve problems and manage competing tasks.

Core executive functions

Diamond's review (2013) describes three core functions: inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility.

• Inhibition helps us resist an immediate response.
• Working memory lets us hold information and work with it.
• Cognitive flexibility helps us shift perspective or change our approach.

These functions work together without being identical. In Miyake and colleagues' study (2000), measures of shifting, updating and inhibition were related but separable, and contributed differently to complex tasks.

Why it matters

Planning a task is not a single mental operation. It can require remembering the goal, resisting distractions and changing course when something stops working. Executive function gives us a way to describe those demands more precisely.