Executive Functions

Question 1

Executive function

Answer 1

Organisation of goal-directed behaviour e.g. flexible adaptive responses to changing situations

Question 2

Working memory

Answer 2

• limited capacity
• short-term

Question 3

Where is working memory stored?

Answer 3

Parietal lobe

Question 4

Cognitive flexibility: standard test for children

Answer 4

Dimensional change card sorting test (Frye, Zelazo, Palfai, 1995)

Question 5

Wisconsin sorting task

Answer 5

Test of ‘set-shifting’
Similar to dimensional change card sort, but for adults
Rules change unannounced
Flexible response required

Question 6

Planning

Answer 6

Consciously organising a series of actions to reach a goal

Question 7

Working memory

Answer 7

• holding info in mind whilst carrying out a task
• updating representations as required

Question 8

Inhibitory control

Answer 8

Ability to ignore stimuli and to suppress habitual responses

Question 9

Inhibitory control test

Answer 9

STROOP test

Question 10

Inhibitory control in ADHD

Answer 10

• global deficits on tests of attention and executive function
  Poor performance on sustained attention and suppression of perpotent responses

Question 11

Direct connections

Answer 11

Connections from taste, olfactory and somatosensory but not orbitofrontal cortex

Question 12

Indirect connections

Answer 12

Connections from visual, auditory and somatosensory processing

Question 13

Miller, freedman and Wallace (2002)

Answer 13

Generalisation of behaviour-guiding principles from experience.