Synonyms
Cognitive flexibility; Set shifting
Definition
Mental flexibility is the ability to shift a course of thought or action according to the changing demands of a situation. Flexibility can involve perceptual, cognitive, and/or behavioral response dimensions that allow an individual to abandon a previous response set or pattern in order to generate an alternate that is better suited to the requirements of the situation at hand. It is one of the hallmark executive functions attributed primarily to the frontal lobes and is one of the key attributes that underlies the capacity for creative thought. On cognitive tests, mental flexibility can refer to the ability to track and systematically alternate between two response sets (e.g., as measured by fluency tests, the trail making tests) or to switch between attending or responding to different concepts or modalities (e.g., card sorting tests, Stroop color-word test, and interference tests). These cognitive-switching tasks are often...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Loftis, C. (2018). Mental Flexibility. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2123
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2123
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57110-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences