Lecture_12_Executive Function Flashcards

1
Q

Executive Function

A
  • High-level cognitive processes
  • Often associated with the frontal
    lobes
  • Control lower-level processes in the service of goal-directed behavior
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Frontal Lobes Functions

A
  1. Motor control
  2. Eye movements
  3. Emotional and reward processing
  4. Executive function
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Which cortex is most closely linked to executive function?

A
  • Prefrontal lobes
  • Some parts of parietal lobes
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Phineas Gage

A
  • Left prefrontal cortex damage
  • Dysexecutive syndrome
  • Difficulties in planning, decision making, and disinhibition
  • Personality change
  • Disorganized behavior
  • Impulsive, reckless, and vulgar
  • Impaired prospective memory
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Operant Conditioning & Goal Directed Behavior

A
  1. Reinforcer or outcome devaluation: Rats were made to feel sick when eating the food that had been the reinforcer
  2. Rats no longer like the food
  3. Rats showed very rapid extinction
    - Conclusion: Pushing lever is a goal-directed behavior not just habit
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

EF is Intelligent Goal-Directed Behavior

A

Being able to alter actions in response to the circumstances
- Not all goal-directed behavior is intelligent: Magnet analogy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

History of the Concept of EF

A
  1. Computer science
  2. Frontal lobes: Karl H. Pribram
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Computer Science

A

Programs that control other programs
1) Automatic Supervisor
2) General Motors Executive System
- Used information processing as a model to understand the mind

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Karl H. Pribram

A

proposed that the frontal lobes may function like the ‘executive controllers’ in computers

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Baddeley’s Model of Working Memory

A
  1. Central executive’
  2. Visuospatial Sketchpad
  3. Phonological Loop
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Shallice’s Supervisory Attentional System

A

The first formal model of EF
- Control of action
- Provide top-down influence on contention scheduling when the task is conflicted, novel, or complex

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Contention scheduling

A
  • Links between perceptions and actions
  • Handle and balancing automatic behavior
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Criticism of Baddeley’s Model and Shallice

A

EF most likely fractionates into different parts

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Duncan’s Multiple Demand System

A

A common pattern of brain activations occur when ever people perform complex, attention demanding tasks
- Planning and executing actions to achieve sub-goals
- EF + fluid intelligence
- Frontal lobe + some parietal lobe

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Artificial Intelligence’s Evidence of EF

A

Systems perform more efficiently when they identify sub-goals, rather trying from the start to achieve the end goal

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Dysexecutive Syndrome

A
  • Disorganized behavior
  • Forgets to do things
  • Sexually inappropriate
  • Swearing
  • Insensitivity
17
Q

Executive Function Measurements

A
  • Phonemic Fluency Test
  • Wisconsin Card Sort Test
  • Cognitive Estimation Test
  • Trail Making Test
  • Hayling Test
  • Digit Span Test
  • Towers of Hanoi
  • Stroop Task
18
Q

Phonemic Fluency Test

A

Saying words that begin with a letter

19
Q

Wisconsin Card Sort Test

A

Sorting card cards into categories and adapting when the sort rule changes

20
Q

Cognitive Estimation Test

A

Estimating the number of camels in the Netherlands

21
Q

Trail Making
Test

A

Alternating between two task requirements

22
Q

Hayling Test

A

Completing sentences with a final word that makes no sense

23
Q

Digit Span Test

A

Repeating a string of numbers in reverse order

24
Q

Towers of Hanoi

A

Planning moves to achieve an end goal state

25
Stroop Task
Naming the color of ink that color name words are written in, e.g., RED
26
Diversity and Unity of EF
1. Response inhibition 2. Task switching 3. Working memory
27
Response Inhibition
Stopping yourself from doing something
28
Task Switching
Being able to do one thing, and then easily change to another
29
Working Memory
Holding information in your mind so that you can use it
30
EF in Adolescent Behaviors
Frontal lobe white matter full maturity at perhaps aged 25 - Uncontrolled behaviour - E.g. Anti-social behavior
31
Problem with dysexecutive syndrome patients that have high IQ and EF
- The cognitive tests are just not the right way to measure EF in real life - The tests are very short, and very constrained - EF are best measured over longer periods (when attentional problems would happen more) and in more natural, less constrained contexts
32
Multiple Errands Test
Shopping with a list of tasks to perform - Hospital, private homes, museums
33
Jansari Assessments of Executive Functions (JEF)
A role-play scenario in an office or Computer-game format - Planning (e.g., arrange furniture for a meeting) - Prioritization (e.g., setting a meeting agenda) - Creative thinking (e.g., solve unexpected problems)
34
What Use is the Concept of Executive Function?
1. A transdiagnostic marker of psychopathology - E.g. psychotic, bipolar and unipolar depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders 2. Predict workplace performance better than intelligence, or personality - E.g. Hayling Test 3. Complex working memory tasks predict real-life performance - E.g. Reading Span Test is highly correlated with reading comprehension ability
35
Frontal Lobology
Misconception that frontal lobe function and executive function are the same thing - It is too easy to blame every bit of abnormal behaviour on executive function impairments or frontal lobe dysfunction