Your working memory, cognitive flexibility, and self-regulation are core components of executive function (EF), an interrelated set of mental skills that lay the foundation for advanced cognitive ...

Does moving your body a little before studying make it easier to concentrate?When a child has trouble switching to homework ...

Chances are you’ve recently heard or read about the importance of “executive function”—the set of higher-order mental skills that allow us to plan and organize, make considered decisions, manage our ...

Executive function skills is a term we hear a lot these days—almost like a buzzword. But what does it mean, and how does it relate to ADHD? Executive function skills are brain-based abilities that ...

A one-on-one intervention framework can help high school students with ADHD improve their executive function habits.

Principal Ian Knox’s thoughtful opinion essay, “Kindergartners Are Struggling With Self-Regulation. How Principals Can Respond ” (July 8, 2025), centers on steps school leaders can take to respond ...

Kumar is the head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago and past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Pliskin is director of ...

Executive function describes a set of cognitive processes and mental skills that help an individual plan, monitor, and successfully execute their goals. The “executive functions,” as they’re known, ...

Speaking more than one language may benefit children’s executive function — especially those with autism spectrum disorder, a recent analysis suggests. The study, published in Autism Research, looked ...

Rachel Fairbank is a freelance science writer based in Texas. When she is not writing, she can be found spending time with her family, or at her local boxing gym. Even if you’ve never heard the term ...

Neuroscientists and educational psychologists are constantly learning more about how children learn and the various influences beyond IQ that affect cognition. Some research, like Carol Dweck’s on ...