The term ‘Executive Function‘ is often used to describe higher order human functioning. Different experts mean different semi-related things when they use the phrase ‘Executive Function‘, which leads to confusion when comparing various academic papers on Executive Function. Approximately, Executive Function frequently means working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, time management, planning, and task initiation. Various authors and researchers will argue about every aspect of this quick list, and where in the brain each of these is housed.

Executive Function Definition Confusion

Frustratingly, there is no actual definition for what is and is not meant by Executive Function. Paul Burgess is accredited with stating that there is no “process-behaviour correspondence”, that is there is no single behavior that can in itself be tied to executive function, or indeed executive dysfunction, hence why it is so difficult to define. Effectively, it makes sense that we have an Executive Function, but examining what that is end up becoming recursive (the EF can’t be measured directly, so indirect measurements are needed, which then presuppose assumptions about how that is affected by EF, now loop again), or very vague (it’s the thing that humans do). Many people have proposed various models (discussed in brief below) for how the Executive Function works, but each of theses assumes certain inclusion and exclusion of Executive Function aspects, which then effectively change what is meant by Executive Function.

Approximately, Executive Function generally refers to the manual (rather than automatic) cognitive processing of the current circumstances to identify problems, solve those problems and then execute those solutions. Since that exact steps of this process is in debate, different people include or exclude different processes / traits in the list of what is in and out of the Executive Function, leading to many experiments and research papers measuring and talking about different semi related things, confounding the entire field of academic writing.

Cognitive psychology, neurologist, general psychologists and other fields all have their own working definitions for what is and what is not the ‘Executive Function’. Even within this fields there is debate about what exactly is meant and included with Executive Function. Much research is done on ‘Executive Dysfunction‘, when people are struggling with the Executive Function, and from there you would assume this would be where the Executive Function elements are muted or absent, but often the dysfunction elements are described quite differently to Executive Function.

Even with such a simple description, manual rather than autopilot, we have some problems. Often people talk about Executive Dysfunction to indicate when people are having problems, implying that Executive Dysfunction is the opposite of Executive Function. While their intent is fair, Executive Dysfunction is often described in terms that are different to the terms we would commonly use for Executive Function. For example, a failure initiating and doing tasks that should be relatively automatic. Recall that Executive Function is primarily the tasks you take cognitive present manual control of – not the automatic things you should be doing, aka autopilot – for example brushing your teeth in the morning and at night.

History

Using this idea, that Executive Functions are consciously chosen actions versus the more automatic aspects of our actions, we can place the origins of Executive Function approximately to Donald Broadbent, a British psychologist, around the 1940s. Broadbent drew a distinctive difference between ‘automatic processes’ and ‘controlled processes’. In this description, he proposed the notion of ‘selective attention’, a precursor to what we call Executive Function today.

Psychologist Alan Baddeley (1986) proposed a system as part of his model of working memory, which he called “Central Executive”. He argued that there must be a component that short term memory must be manipulated, and a function must exist to enable this. An example of this would be mental arithmetic or recalling a puzzle piece, turning it in your mind and finding common edges with other pieces.

Michael Posner proposed, circa 1980s, that there is a sub part of the attention system could be considered an ‘executive’ branch, which is responsible for focusing attention on selected environment aspects. This was further developed by Tim Shallice, a British neuropsychologist (1988), that this attention is controlled by a ‘supervisory system’, which can override various automatic responses to enact plans of intention.

[Source: Wikipedia]

What is Executive Function

Executive Function is a manual cognitive process to make reasoned decisions, often referred to as “top down” decision making. That is, when we cannot rely on an automatic choices or reflex and subsequent action (fast and low energy, aka “bottom up”), we need to cognitively think about what the circumstance is, figure out what the challenge / problem is, solve how to navigate that, then initiate the relevant chosen actions (slow and high energy / exhausting). To use our Executive Function, we need to be present in the moment, rather than on autopilot.

A caution that Executive Dysfunction has a different assumption, than meaning just not doing some step in the Executive Function. Executive Dysfunction is often used to refer to the failure of executing tasks that should be automatic (bottom up), such as brushing teeth.

Executive Function Models

Top-down inhibitory control

This model argues that it is through learning to inhibit certain autonomous actions that people exercise Executive Function.

Working Memory Model

Baddeley’s multicomponent model of working memory, which is composed of a central executive system that regulates three subsystems: the phonological loop, which maintains verbal information; the visuospatial sketchpad, which maintains visual and spatial information; and the more recently developed episodic buffer that integrates short-term and long-term memory, holding and manipulating a limited amount of information from multiple domains in temporal and spatially sequenced episodes.

Supervisory attentional system (SAS)

In this model, contention scheduling is the process where an individual’s well-established schemas automatically respond to routine situations while executive functions are used when faced with novel situations. In these new situations, attentional control will be a crucial element to help generate new schema, implement these schema, and then assess their accuracy. [SAS Wikipedia]

Self-regulatory Model

Primarily derived from work examining behavioral inhibition, it views executive functions as composed of four main abilities.[56] One element is working memory that allows individuals to resist interfering information. [clarification needed] A second component is the management of emotional responses in order to achieve goal-directed behaviors. Thirdly, internalization of self-directed speech is used to control and sustain rule-governed behavior and to generate plans for problem-solving. Lastly, information is analyzed and synthesized into new behavioral responses to meet one’s goals. Changing one’s behavioral response to meet a new goal or modify an objective is a higher level skill that requires a fusion of executive functions including self-regulation, and accessing prior knowledge and experiences.

Problem-Solving Model

A model of executive functions is a problem-solving framework where executive functions are considered a macro-construct composed of subfunctions working in different phases to

1. Represent a problem
2. Plan for a solution by selecting and ordering strategies
3. Maintain the strategies in short-term memory in order to perform them by certain rules, and then
4. Evaluate the results with error detection and error correction.

Lezak’s Conceptual Model

One of the most widespread conceptual models on executive functions is Lezak’s model. This framework proposes four broad domains of volition, planning, purposive action, and effective performance as working together to accomplish global executive functioning needs. While this model may broadly appeal to clinicians and researchers to help identify and assess certain executive functioning components, it lacks a distinct theoretical basis and relatively few attempts at validation.

Miller and Cohen’s model

In this model, Miller and Cohen stated that selective attention mechanism is in fact just a special case of cognitive control – where biasing occurs in the sensory domain. They contend that the PFC can exert control over

• Input (sensory) or output (response) neurons
• memory,
• emotion.
• Cognitive control is mediated by reciprocal PFC connectivity with the sensory and motor cortices, and with the limbic system.

“Cognitive control” is applied to any situation where a biasing signal is used to promote task-appropriate responding, and control thus becomes a crucial component of a wide range of psychological constructs such as:

• Selective attention
• Error monitoring
• Decision-making
• Memory inhibition
• Response inhibition.

Miyake and Friedman’s model

Miyake and Friedman’s propose that there are three aspects of executive functions:

• Updating:
  • the continuous monitoring and quick addition or deletion of contents within one’s working memory.
• Inhibition:
  • The capacity to supersede automatic responses for more effective ones in a given situation.
• Shifting:
  • the cognitive flexibility to switch between different tasks or mental states.

Research into Miyake and Friedman’s Model of EF suggests:

1. The unity and diversity aspects of executive functions
   • That is, that while updating, inhibition, and shifting are related, they are each distinct different entities of Executive Function.
2. Much of one’s EF skills are inherited genetically, as demonstrated in twin studies.
3. Clean measures of executive functions can differentiate between normal and clinical or regulatory behaviors, such as ADHD.
4. Longitudinal studies demonstrate that EF skills are relatively stable throughout development

Banich’s “Cascade of Control” Model

A sequential cascade of brain regions involved in maintaining attentional sets in order to arrive at a goal. In sequence, the model assumes the involvement of the posterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the mid-DLPFC, and the posterior and anterior dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

Executive Functions (elements)

Even if the model is different, many people discuss similar elements that they think must be a part of the Executive Function. Unfortunately, many of these has some variance in their specific definitions, depending on the model, the researcher and the era.

Core Executive Function Elements

These are the most common elements that the majority of the models agree must be a component of Executive Function.

• Working memory
  • A cognitive system with limited capacity that temporarily holds and manipulates information for immediate, complex tasks like reasoning, learning, and comprehension. [Source: Wikipedia, Working Memory]
• Inhibitory Control
  • Inhibition [response inhibition (self-control—resisting temptations and resisting acting impulsively) [Source: “Executive Functions”, 2014, Adele Diamond]
• Cognitive Flexibility
  • Cognitive flexibility (including creatively thinking “outside the box,” seeing anything from different perspectives, and quickly and flexibly adapting to changed circumstances) [Source: “Executive Functions”, 2014, Adele Diamond]

[Source: “Executive Functions”, 2014, Adele Diamond]

Common Executive Function Elements

These elements are less agreed upon, but are common enough that we will cover them here.

• Emotional Regulation
  • The ability to manually regulate one’s emotion.
  • For example: you recognise you are more upset than the circumstances require, so you calm yourself down.
• Time management
  • Knowing what time it is.
  • Accurately estimating how long a thing should take to do.
  • Monitoring how long it has actually taken.
  • Being able to stop doing a task because of time.
• Planning
  • Deciding how to do a thing.
• Task initiation
  • Beginning a task.
• Organisation
  • Deciding how to do a task.
  • Putting things in an order.
• Self monitoring
  • Connected to interoception.
  • Do you need to go to the toilet, are you hungry, are you happy?
• Prioritisation
  • Deciding what order to do tasks.
  • This can be prioritised on urgency, or for efficiency.
• Interference Control
  • Selective attention and cognitive inhibition. [Source: “Executive Functions”, 2014, Adele Diamond]

References

Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750

Wikipedia Contributors. (2019, May 14). Working memory. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory

Wikipedia Contributors. (2025, September 14). Supervisory attentional system. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation.

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