Popular Models of Executive Function

Most models of executive function work to categorize the cognitive functions involved in helping us direct our actions toward a goal. Many models of executive function are broken down into components or core skills to help capture the many cognitive attributes. 

Noted developmental cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Adele Diamond consolidates the research on executive function, explaining it to be: “a family of top-down mental control processes needed when you have to concentrate and pay attention, when going on automatic or relying on instinct or intuition would be ill advised or insufficient or impossible” (Burgess & Simons, 2005; Espy, 2004; Miller & Cohen, 2001, as cited in Diamond, 2013, p. 136). In other words, our executive function allows us to accomplish tasks that require concentration, effort, or the flexible coordination of our memory and inhibitions. To accomplish this, she asserts that there are three core aspects of executive functions: Inhibitory Control, Working Memory, and Cognitive Flexibility. 

• Inhibitory Control: Helps us to direct our attention, thoughts, behavior, and emotions in service of a goal. Inhibitory control allows us to ignore distractions, resist impulses, and change our behavior in order to accomplish a task. 
• Cognitive flexibility: Allows us to consider different perspectives or approaches to problems. It helps us adjust to new demands or rules. Cognitive flexibility lets us shift our attention from one task to another or shift our priorities. Specifically, when we are stuck, it allows us to assess what the task requires and to shift our attention accordingly. 
• Working Memory: Allows us to hold multiple pieces of important information in our memory and then work with or manipulate them to help with the execution of a goal or activity. 

Dr. Thomas E. Brown explains executive function in terms of a music conductor: “Regardless of their expertise, the musicians need a competent conductor who will select the piece to play, make sure they start playing at the same time and stay on tempo, fade in the strings and then bring in the brass, and manage them as they interpret the music. Without an effective conductor, the symphony will not produce good music” (Brown, 2007, p.23). In other words, Dr. Brown believes that we need a “conductor” to coordinate what he believes are the six clusters of executive function, to achieve goals. The six clusters are activation, focus, effort, emotion, memory, and action. Brown’s widely circulated article, Executive Functions: Describing Six Aspects of a Complex System, explains these clusters and their impact. 

Dr. Russell A. Barkley’s theories focus on seven core skills. He believes that individuals with intact executive function skills exhibit the following when working towards a goal: Self-awareness, Inhibition, Non-Verbal Working Memory, Verbal Working Memory, Emotional Self-Regulation, Self-Motivation, and Planning and Problem Solving. Read this Barkley article to learn more about how these areas work together to support executive function.

Drs. Peg Dawson and Richard Guare state in their book Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention (2018) that “Executive skills allow us to organize our behavior over time and override immediate demons in favor of longer-term goals. Through the use of these skills, we can plan and organize activities, sustain attention, and persist to complete a task. Executive skills enable us to manage our emotions and monitor our thoughts in order to work more efficiently and effectively. Simply stated, these skills help us to regulate our behavior” (Dawson and Guare, 2018, p. 3). They believe the following five skills are necessary to set and achieve goals and solve problems: planning, organization, time management, working memory, and metacognition, and that the following skills help us see the task to the end: response inhibition, emotional control, sustained attention, task initiation, flexibility, and goal-directed persistence. To understand more about how these areas work together to help coordinate the executive functions, read this article. 

Dr. Lynn Meltzer’s theory of executive function focuses on the cognitive processes that help with goal setting, cognitive flexibility and flexible thinking, organizing and prioritizing, working memory, and self-monitoring (Meltzer, 2010, 2014, 2018). Meltzer illustrates executive function difficulties using the image of a funnel to explain how easily students with executive function challenges can become overwhelmed with information. She writes: “Students who struggle with these executive function processes often experience frustration and failure. They begin to feel that their brains are ‘clogged’ with information. Executive function strategies help students to ‘unclog the funnel’ and prevent increasing difficulties as the complexity and pace of the curriculum intensify” (Meltzer, 2010, 2015, 2018).

In other words, students with executive function challenges often feel that their brains are overwhelmed with information. When they are expected to complete tasks related to the processing of information, they often can’t figure out where and how to begin, determine ways to solve problems when they arise, or persevere when they are stuck. Meltzer suggests that students need explicit strategies related to goal-setting, prioritizing and organizing, shifting flexibility, accessing information in working memory, and self-monitoring to help them manage classroom demands. To understand more about Meltzer’s thinking related to how executive function skills support literacy, explore this article.

Impact on Schooling

The executive functions are key to success in school. They work to support access and use of essential literacy skills necessary for academic success. When our executive functions are intact, they allow us to reason to “use knowledge purposefully and put it into practice” (Zelazo 4). In other words, when we have good executive function, we can coordinate the necessary cognitive skills to understand a complex reading, execute the steps to finish a set of math problems, or write a research paper. Executive function skills enable us to complete work and achieve our goals. Put simply, executive function helps us to get things done.  

References

Barkley, R.A. (2012). Executive functions: what they are, how they work, and why they evolved. Guilford Press. 

Brown, T.E. (2007). A new approach to attention deficit disorder. Educational Leadership. 64, 22-27. 

Christodoulou, J. (2025, January 21). Executive function among readers with dyslexia [Webinar]. Landmark Outreach. https://www.landmarkoutreach.org/

Dawson, P.,& Guare, R. (2018). Executive skills in children and adolescents: a practical guide to assessment and intervention. Guilford Press. 

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

Meltzer, L., & Greschler, M. (2016). Executive Function Strategies: The Building Blocks for Reading to Learn – International Dyslexia Association. Dyslexiaida.org. https://dyslexiaida.org/executive-function-strategies-the-building-blocks-for-reading-to-learn/

Newhall, P.W. (2014). Executive function: foundations for teaching and learning. Landmark School Outreach Program.