The Nature and Organization of In dividual Differences in Executive Functions: Four General Conclusions

摘要

Executive functions (EFs)-a set of general-purpose control processes that regulate one's thoughts and behaviors-havebecome a popular research topic lately and have been studied in many subdisciplines of psychological science. This articlesummarizes the EF research that our group has conducted to understand the nature of individual differences in EFs and theircognitive and biological underpinnings. In the context of a new theoretical framework that we have been developing (theunity/diversity framework), we describe four general conclusions that have emerged. Specifically, we argue that individualdifferences in EFs, as measured with simple laboratory tasks, (a) show both unity and diversity (different EFs are correlatedyet separable), (b) reflect substantial genetic contributions, (c) are related to various clinically and societally importantphenomena, and (d) show some developmental stability.