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Individual Differences in Working Memory and Higher-Ordered Processing: The Commentaries

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Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition

Part of the book series: The Springer Series on Human Exceptionality ((SSHE))

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Abstract

Executive functions (EF) are those higher-level cognitive activities that include the monitoring and self-regulation of attention, thought, and action, and the ability to plan behavior and to inhibit inappropriate responses. These cognitive control processes are voluntary and effortful and have been described as providing a system for overriding routine or reflexive behavior in favor of more situationally appropriate and adaptive behavior (Shallice, 1988). As such, these processes are integrally tied to the functioning and development of working memory (WM) (see Cowan & Alloway, 2009). The significance of EF is evident in developmental conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, and fetal alcoholism spectrum disorder that are characterized by poor executive functioning across a variety of behavioral domains. Executive functioning activities are immature in infancy and toddlerhood but develop slowly over the preschool years and continue to be fine-tuned into adolescence. For example, research shows that 2-, 3-, and most 4-year-olds consistently perform poorly on a variety of tasks that require the ability to inhibit a prepotent but inappropriate response in a conflict task (e.g., dimensional switching), to demonstrate the theory of mind reasoning (e.g., false belief task), to mentally represent an object in two different ways simultaneously (e.g., the appearance-reality distinction task), or to execute a plan (e.g., motor sequencing tasks). In contrast, 5- and 6-year-olds succeed on these tasks, although some of the more sophisticated iterations of these will not be successfully performed until later childhood or adolescence (for a discussion see Goswami, 2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Memorial University, St. John’s, NF, Canada

    Mary L. Courage

  2. Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YF, UK

    Mark L. Howe

  3. School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 654 Cherry Street, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0170, USA

    Małgorzata Ilkowska & Randall W. Engle

  4. Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Al. Mickiewicza 3, 31-120, Cracow, Poland

    Małgorzata Kossowska & Jarosław Orzechowski

  5. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Edward Orehek & Arie W. Kruglanski

  6. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, 26170, NC, 27402-6170, USA

    Jennifer C. McVay & Michael J. Kane

  7. Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Chodakowska 19/31, 03-815, Warsaw, Poland

    Magdalena Marszał-Wiśniewska

  8. Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland

    Dominika Zajusz

  9. Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Cognitive Studies, Chodakowska 19/31, 03-815, Warsaw, Poland

    Grzegorz Sedek & Aneta Brzezicka

Authors
  1. Mary L. Courage
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  2. Mark L. Howe
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  3. Małgorzata Ilkowska
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  4. Randall W. Engle
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  5. Małgorzata Kossowska
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  8. Jennifer C. McVay
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  9. Michael J. Kane
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  10. Magdalena Marszał-Wiśniewska
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  11. Dominika Zajusz
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  12. Jarosław Orzechowski
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  14. Aneta Brzezicka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jarosław Orzechowski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Al. Mickiewicza 3, Cracow, 31-120, Poland

    Aleksandra Gruszka

  2. Dept. Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Dyer Hall 217, Cincinnati, 45221, USA

    Gerald Matthews

  3. Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Al. Mickiewicza 3, Cracow, 31-120, Poland

    Blazej Szymura

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Courage, M.L. et al. (2010). Individual Differences in Working Memory and Higher-Ordered Processing: The Commentaries. In: Gruszka, A., Matthews, G., Szymura, B. (eds) Handbook of Individual Differences in Cognition. The Springer Series on Human Exceptionality. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1210-7_25

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