Executive function: Reflection, iterative reprocessing, complexity, and the developing brain

“Children with lower SES show lower levels of EF skill, even controlling for general cognitive skills (e.g., Farah et al., 2006; Masten et al., 2012; Mezzacappa, 2004; Noble, Norman, & Farah, 2004; Obradović, 2010).”

“information and re-appraising of prior knowledge and experience is thought to be necessary for the development of executive functions and to reduce cognitive load and can be encouraged through intentional instructional practices (Zelazo, 2015).”

“Zelazo (2015) noted that the situations in which top-down regulation through EF is necessary vary on a continuum from purely cognitive challenges (calling for “cool EFs”) to motivationally significant situations (calling for “hot EFs”).”

“More broadly, self-regulation skills are associated with greater engagement in school, increased likelihood of graduating from college, and better health and wealth in adulthood (e.g., Zelazo, 2015).”

“As outlined previously, PFC neuromaturation is critical to efficient executive function, self-regulation, and emotion regulation (e.g., Beauchaine & Zisner, 2017; Palacios-Barrios & Hanson, 2019; Zelazo, 2015).”

“…that EF includes the cognitive processes that children need to pay attention and switch focus when needed (cognitive flexibility), remember instructions (working memory), and demonstrate self-control (inhibitory control) (Best & Miller, 2010; Zelazo, 2015; Zelazo, Blair, & Willoughby, 2016).”

“Executive functions, domain-general-developmental changes and training effects The development of the executive functions identified by Carey et al. (2015) as the motor of domaingeneral changes is directly addressed by Philip Zelazo (2015) in his article.”

“One theory (i.e., iterative reprocessing theory (IR)) (Cunningham and Zelazo, 2007; Zelazo, 2015) posits that situations involving novel, uncertain, or conflicting information require individuals to pause and reflect on their course of action.”

“School transition and readiness are crucially supported by executive functions (EFs), the higher order cognitive skills that enable self-regulation of attention, behavior, and emotions through the use of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility (Diamond, 2013; Zelazo, 2015).”

“…of brain plasticity, rapid development of the neurocognitive processes supporting EF skills in this developmental window, and the growing prevalence of preschool attendance and scholarships for low-income children to gain access to high quality early childhood education (e.g., Zelazo, 2015).”

“The two types of EF are typically brought together to bear on realworld problems (e.g., Zelazo, 2015).”

“This is consistent with other studies (e.g., Xu et al., 2013), and theoretical models that relate neural immaturity at the level of the prefrontal cortex, with limited reflective capacity and rule representation (Brydges et al., 2014; Diamond, 2002; Zelazo, 2015).”

“Finally, cognitive flexibility allows to selectively switch between mental processes, behavioral responses, perspectives and strategies (Zelazo 2015).”

“In contrast, children who show mixed forms of aggression demonstrate intact neurocognitive skills, skills that facilitate the successful implementation of top–down goaldirected behavior [66].”

“…Reprocessing Model, being able to develop, understand, and utilize more complex rule representations enables children to engage their WM, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control in overt behavior while supporting adaptability and flexibility in different environments and tasks (Zelazo, 2015).”

“Furthermore, the findings presented here support previously-advanced theoretical frameworks of EF suggesting that reflection, or the ability to process information while taking context into account, is critical to children’s successful engagement of EF (Zelazo, 2015).”

“This social process is theoretically related to reflection and the reiterative reprocessing of representations of self, others, and world (Zelazo, 2015), as well as the related capacity to observe one’s mind from the stance of a witness (Engler, 1984).”

“Successful problem solving relies on executive functioning (EF) skills (e.g., working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility), which are important for regulating goal-directed behavior (Zelazo, 2015).”

“[39].”

“…to practice self-control early in life may shape the neural substrates that support it (Diamond & Lee, 2011; Doebel, Michaelson, & Munakata, 2017; Zelazo, 2015), resulting in reciprocal, cascading effects (Karmiloff-Smith, 1998; Smith & Thelen, 2003) that make it easier for children to exercise…”

“Consider a seminal theory of developmental change in children’s performance in the DCCS task, the cognitive control and complexity theory (Bunge & Zelazo, 2006; Zelazo, 2015; Zelazo & Frye, 1998).”

“…literatures on executive function, emotion regulation, and emotion dysregulation implicate functional subdivisions of the PFC in suppressing strong approach and avoidance tendencies in the service of goal-directed behavior (see Beauchaine & Cicchetti, 2019; Goldin et al., 2008; Zelazo, 2015).”

“…3 abilities: working memory (or updating), involved in storing and manipulating information; inhibition and resisting interference; and cognitive flexibility, as reflected by how easily individuals can switch between different sets of rules or different tasks (Blair & Diamond, 2008; Zelazo, 2015).”

“The representational abilities maintained by working memory are also thought to be instrumental in the process of reflection—the deliberate, conscious thought about mental representations that creates a degree of psychological distance from the current experience (Zelazo, 2004; Zelazo, 2015).”

“Cognitive flexibility involves thinking about something in multiple ways (Diamond, 2013; Zelazo, 2015, for reviews).”

“, 2017], and the causal effect of cognizance and reflection training on other mental functions [Christoforides et al., 2016; Espinet et al., 2013; Zelazo, 2015].”

“Because reflection is a metacognitive skill that requires practice [45], creating opportunities for iteration [46] will guide children in developing their skills.”

“…of the task at hand – of the thought, feeling, or impulse that is being consciously controlled – and allows one to hold it up to the light for inspection, take a pause, regroup, reappraise, and then respond in a contextually appropriate way that is commensurate with one’s goal (Zelazo, 2015).”

“Alternatively, IGT-based decision-making may be better construed as a form of hot executive function (EF), because performance requires cognitive control processes associated with vmPFC that operate in affective contexts (e.g., Kerr & Zelazo, 2004; Zelazo, 2015).”

“Iterative reprocessing of information, as is done by reflectively returning attention again and again to a certain object of focus, promotes cognitive control and flexibility (Zelazo 2015).”

“For example, cognitive skills summarized under executive function are necessary for deliberate reasoning, intentional action, emotion regulation, complex social functioning, and adaptation to changing circumstances (Zelazo, 2015).”

“, 2000; Miyake & Shah, 1999), and considered an essential capacity for reflective learning in childhood (Zelazo, 2015).”

“Relatedly, the iterative reprocessing model postulates that contexts with novelty, ambiguity, uncertainty, or contradictory information necessitate people to pause and reflect before decision-making [19].”

“EF refers to a set of cognitive processes that involves working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility and regulation of emotion and attention (Diamond, 2013; Zelazo, 2015).”

“In this way, they also demonstrated critical reflection by seeking “psychological distance” from their own experiences [37].”

“, inhibition) and in formulating and maintaining more complex sets of rules (i.e., working memory and cognitive flexibility; Zelazo, 2015).”

“According to Zelazo (2015), because of the relatively high level of brain plasticity, “the preschool period may be a window of opportunity for the cultivation of fundamental EF skills via well-timed, targeted scaffolding and support” (p. 64).”

“According to Zelazo's iterative reprocessing model (Zelazo, 2015) which defines a continuous reciprocal relationship between EFs and cognitive development, it is highly probable that a bidirectional relationship is frequently triggered between the specific alterations of a certain disorder and…”

“The executive function governs the selfregulatory skills involved in the conscious, goal-directed modulation of thought, emotion, and action (Zelazo, 2015); therefore, higher executive function may have a motivating effect on tennis training, which, in turn, could result in improvement of…”

“…brain develops from the bottom up starting in the lower brainstem and with the brainstem nuclei acting as precursors to higher levels of brain development and with the ultimate development of Brodmann areas that have both structural and functional differences (Zelazo, 2015; Onofrj et al., 2022).”

“Second, prefrontal cortex is broadly implicated in executive functions such working memory and cognitive control (Bunge and Zelazo, 2006; Casey et al., 1997, 1995; Cohen et al., 1994; Perone et al., 2018; Shallice and Burgess, 1991; Zelazo, 2015), which are thought to be important for transitioning to more complex con…”

“In cognitive flexibility tasks such as the DCCS, having more opportunities to practice the initial rule strengthens children’s active mental representations of this rule, and therefore makes shifting to a new rule more challenging (see Doebel & Zelazo, 2015).”

“EF and Reflection Reflection, in the cognitive sense, is a process by which mental representations (construals) are processed and reprocessed over time, so that additional considerations can be incorporated into the new and revised construal (Zelazo, 2015).”

“Specifically, children may need to use language to engage with and relate positively to peers (Gallagher, 1993), and they may rely on inner speech to direct and guide their behaviors in accordance with rules (Zelazo, 2015).”

“Indeed, most real-world problems enlist a blend of hot and cold EF when action must be planned and implemented with respect to a goal that holds some motivational/emotional significance (Zelazo, 2015).”

“These findings may also suggest that the association is related to the explicit nature of the mixed music-math instruction in the intervention programs (Zelazo, 2015).”

“EF abilities are associated with the conscious control of thought and action, and their development has been related to the maturation of the frontal lobe—particularly the prefrontal cortex (PFC; Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Bunge & Crone, 2009; Casey, Getz, & Galvan, 2008; Zelazo, 2015).”

“Starting from these premises, cold EFs require more conscious control, mental effort and critical analysis compared with hot EFs [6,7].”

“…index of externally cued executive function, with successful performancedepending on skills inmaintaining andupdating representations of task rules, inhibiting representations of no-longer-relevant rules, and shifting flexibly to acting on representations of new rules (Zelazo et al., 2013).”

“For example, the iterative reprocessing model of EF skills assumes that EF development depends, at least in parts, on cognitive and neural processes associated with the reflection abilities of children (Zelazo, 2015).”

“including inhibition (the ability to suppress impulses and natural, habitual or dominant behavioral responses), working memory (the ability to hold and process new and already stored information) and cognitive flexibility (the ability to switch perspectives or one’s focus of attention) [11,12].”

“Romer and Pizzagalli [6], Cunningham, Zelazo, Packer, and Van Bavel [7], and Zelazo [8], suggested that the reflection and selection actions require proper neurocognitive performance, including the updating of the contents of working memory, switching between mental sets, inhibiting a predominant response, and effecti…”

“Although consisting of multiple distinguishable skills (e.g., working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility), EF skills work in tandem to guide thoughts and behaviors by facilitating planning, problem solving, and enabling purposeful goal pursuits (Zelazo, 2015).”

“The current discussion about mastering executive control in development basically refers to the acquisition of self-directed actions that may enable the individual to place the three attention components under intentional control (Zelazo 2015).”

“EF is a set of cognitive processes that enable deliberate, top-down regulation of thought, behavior, and emotion [19, 20].”

“El cambio refleja la capacidad de cambiar selectivamente entre diferentes procesos mentales y respuestas (Zelazo, 2015).”

“…of brain development, neuroplasticity, and instructional approaches that can better support at-opportunity students and more appropriately identify interventions to mitigate and protect against poverty-related learning challenges (Blair & Raver, 2015; Zelazo, 2015; Zelazo et al., 2016).”

“According to the iterative reprocessing model, self-regulation is influenced by top-down processes, such as inhibition and reflection, and by bottom-up processes, such as arousal, anxiety, and motivation (Zelazo 2015).”

“Executive efficiency, often expressed as an ability to focus attention on stimuli or representations of relevance to the current goal; inhibit focusing on and processing of irrelevant information, which may pop in because the world is always informationally richer compared to current needs; and relevantly shift betwee…”

“…to a set of neurocognitive processes involved in goal-directed behavior (Blair & Raver, 2015; Carlson, Zelazo, & Faja, 2013; M€uller & Kerns, 2015; Zelazo, 2015) that includes working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility (Miyake et al., 2000; see also, Brydges, Fox, Reid, &…”