Week 1 - Executive Functions Flashcards

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1
Q

What are School Psychologists experts in?

A
  1. Learning
  2. Behavior
  3. Mental health
  4. School systems
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2
Q

What do school psychologists provide?

A
  1. Academic, behavioral and mental health support
  2. Evaluation, assessment, and data analysis
  3. Consultation with teachers and families
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3
Q

What do school psychologists support?

A
  1. Struggling and diverse learners
  2. Student achievement and well-being
  3. School - family communication
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4
Q

How do school psychologists promote positive behavior and mental health?

A
  • Promote student motivation and engagement
  • Conduct psychological and academic assessments
  • Individualize instruction and interventions
  • Manage student and classroom behavior
  • Monitor student progress
  • Collect and interpret student and classroom data
  • Reduce inappropriate referrals to special education
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5
Q

How do school psychologists support diverse learners?

A
  • Assess diverse learning needs
  • Provide culturally responsive services to students and families from diverse backgrounds
  • Plan appropriate Individualized Education Programs for students (with disabilities)
  • Modify and adapt curricula and instruction
  • Adjust classroom facilities and routines to improve student engagement and learning
  • Monitor and effectively communicate with parents about student progress
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6
Q

How do school psychologists create safe, positive school climates?

A
  1. Prevent bullying and other forms of violence
  2. Support social-emotional learning
  3. Assess school climate and improve school connectedness
  4. Implement and promote positive discipline and restorative justice
  5. Implement school-wide positive behavioral supports
  6. Identify at risk students and school vulnerabilities
  7. Provide crisis prevention and intervention services
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7
Q

What is executive functioning?

A
  1. Concentration
  2. Juggling multiple demands
  3. Adapting to changing circumstances
  4. Working with others
  5. Dealing with setbacks
  6. Inhibiting immediate rewards
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8
Q

Consequences of low EF

A
  1. Worse school performance
  2. Difficulty keeping jobs
  3. Lower income
  4. Difficulties maintaining relationships
  5. increased risk for mental health problems
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9
Q

Definition EF

A

Umbrella term for various cognitive processes that give rise to goal-directed behavior

  1. Novel & demanding situations
  2. Flexible adjustment
  3. Adaptive behavior, creativity
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10
Q

What are the three core components of EF

A
  1. Working Memory
  2. Inhibitory control
  3. Cognitive Flexibility
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11
Q

What is working memory?

A

The ability to hold information in
mind (maintenance) and mentally
work with it (manipulation)

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12
Q

What is inhibitory control?

A

The ability to suppress interfering
thought and actions that are not
relevant to the task at hand

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13
Q

Cognitive flexibility

A

The ability to change one’s
perspective or approach to a
problem, flexibly adjusting to new
demands, rules, or priorities

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14
Q

In which clinical groups is EF impaired?

A
  1. ADHD
  2. Learning disabilities
  3. Depression
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15
Q

Measure of simple EF

A
  1. Go/No-Go Task
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16
Q

Advantages of measures of simple EF?

A

Advantages:
* Better predictor of EF problems in daily life
* Better predictor of school performance

Disadvantages:
* More difficult to identify disability
* More difficult to track development

17
Q

Measure of Complex EF

A
  1. Tower of London
  2. Stroop Task
  3. Delayed Gratification task
  4. Dimensional Change Card Sorting Test
  5. WCST
18
Q

Tower of London

A

Measures: spatial problem solving, planning

Task difficulty increases
with the number of
moves needed to solve
the problem

19
Q

Stroop Task

A

Measures: automatic response inhibition

20
Q

Delayed gratification task

A

Measures: self-regulation, inhibition

21
Q

Dimensional Change Card Sorting Test

A

Measures: cognitive flexibility, switching and shifting

22
Q

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

A
  1. More difficult than DCCS
  2. No explicit instructions about rule
  3. No instruction when rule changes
  4. You have to infer sorting rule based on
    feedback
23
Q

Brief/Brief-2

A
  • Often used in clinical practice or school setting to
    assess executive functioning in 5-18 year
  • Filled out by teachers and/or parent
  • BRIEF-2 also 11-18 year olds can fill out a form
24
Q

Brain regions of EF

A
  1. Dorsolateral PFC: Working Memory
  2. Orbitalfrontal Cortex: Inhibition
  3. Medial PFC: Cognitive Flexibility
25
Q

Neuroscience methods

A
  1. Patients with frontal lobe damage
  2. NFL Players
  3. Imaging healthy brains of children and adolescents
  4. Task related fMRI
26
Q

Feedback learning

A
  1. Learning from previous behavior
    * Essential to learn from feedback on your behavior in order to learn
  2. Multiple executive functions
    * In order to learn from feedback you rely on multiple executive functions, such as working memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibition
27
Q

What does feedback learning predict?

A

Feedback learning performance and neural activity predict Real-world Learning:
* Reading fluency
* Mathematics

28
Q

What happens to executive functions in adolescence?

A

Impulsive, not thinking about long-term
consequences, difficulty planning

No deficits in executive functions

PFC better than in childhood (although
not fully developed yet) but peak in
emotional sensitivity

29
Q

Which executive brain area develops relatively late?

A

DLPFC

30
Q

By what is behavior influenced during adolescence

A

Cognitive and emotional brain regions

Adolescents are driven by immediate rewards

31
Q

What was the result of the marshmallow test?

A

Test predicted performance on the emotional
go/no-go task 40 years later!

Ability to suppress GO reaction to happy
faces in adulthood is associated with ability
to
self-regulate at age 4

Implications:
* Individual differences appear early in
development
* Can we improve EF? Effective
interventions