Executive Function (EF) is a highly complex, interrelated set of the cognitive process composed of multiple components: attention (sustain and selective), cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibitory control (simple and complex) and problem-solving skill. These skills play a crucial role in the development where deficit in EF could lead to academic failure and a lifelong dissatisfaction. Research has found integral relationship between EF and emotion regulation(ER) suggesting children with weak EF skills are likely exhibit weak ER abilities. The current study is aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a curriculum-based intervention program designed to promote EF skills and through that, increase children’s ER abilities. Program design includes group and individual activities placed in play corners within classroom setting. Seventy-eight preschoolers from 3 Hong Kong nursery schools were divided into control and program group. A multi-informant pre- and post- program evaluation including teacher questionnaires and a battery of EF and ER tasks completed by participants was used. The program group completed a 20-weeks program delivered by trained classroom teacher. Program benefits are found in promoting working memory, inhibitory control, “Hot” EF problem-solving and cognitive flexibility skills. Improvements in ER abilities and decreased of overall emotion, and behavioral post-program is also found. The gains in ER are observed to be correlates with gain in problem-solving and inhibitory control of EF components. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Psychology

Schizophrenia is the ninth leading cause of disability worldwide (e.g., Lopez et al., 2006), and is a devastating psychiatric illness. Although diagnosis is made based upon the occurrence of positive and negative symptoms (First, Spitzer, Gibbon & Williams, 1995), it is the cognitive symptoms that are most strongly associated with functional outcome (Green, 1996 ). Cognitive control, including the ability to appropriately update relevant information and resist interference from irrelevant information, is critical for flexible and adaptive goal-directed behavior, and is among the most frequently noted of the cognitive symptoms in schizoprenia (Barch, 2005; Barch & Smith, 2008). Despite this, deficits in cognitive control are unaffected by medications used to treat the clinical symptoms of the disorder (Greene et al, 2008). Understanding both the behavioral and the neural mechanisms that comprise this deficit is thus of paramount importance. Although deficits in cognitive control in schizoprenia have been extensively studied, a number of questions still remain. Here, I ask two main questions: First, is cognitive control impaired globally, or are only certain aspects of cognitive control impaired in schizophrenia? I found that that there are (at least) two different selection mechanisms, and that people with schizophrenia are impaired in only one of these: dysregulation in left posterior ventrolateral prefrontal cortex correlates with impaired behavioral performance on a working memory task, suggesting that deficits in inhibiting irrelevant information from working memory is the crux of the deficit. Second, I asked whether the nature of the information affects cognitive control. I found that people with schizophrenia are able to deploy cognitive control processes more effectively than healthy controls in cases in which salient, emotional information competes with active cognitive goals, suggesting specific underlying deficits in emotional processing.

Recent research has shown mindfulness practices to be correlated with traits frequently associated with high Executive Functioning (EF) individuals such as greater attention to specific tasks, greater working memory capacity, and the improved ability to inhibit behaviors or emotions. These three traits are highly correlated with each other, and provide an accurate assessment of an individual’s level of Executive Functioning. This study was designed to examine how individual traits associated with Mindfulness such as ‘non-judgement’ can influence attention, working memory and inhibition. This study used three self-administered questionnaires to assess traits associated with mindful individuals and three EF tests to measure performance in inhibition, task shifting and updating working memory tasks. Results showed that certain mindfulness variables from the Freberg Mindfulness Inventory and Five Facet Mindfulness Questioniare, were correlated with performance on working memory tasks while mindfulness experience was not. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Completing activities of daily life relies on using both cognitive and physical resources efficiently, but these are affected by age. This may be due either to an age-related reduction in the resources we have available for carrying out tasks or to a reduction in our ability to use these resources efficiently. These resources comprise a set of processes called executive functions (EF), which collectively allow us to plan, initiate and monitor our performance of activities. Control and allocation of these resources is attributed to a central mechanism, sometimes called the central executive or executive attention, but the parameters that determine how resources are allocated are not well understood. Even simple or apparently automatic activities, such as walking, require attention, meaning that when task demands increase, for example when walking and speaking on the phone, there is a loss of efficiency in both tasks. The dual-task (DT) paradigm is an empirical means of examining the way attentional resources are allocated between two tasks by comparing their performance together in relation to how well they are carried out singly. Asking people to perform a cognitive task, such as counting backwards or spelling, while walking provides a reasonably naturalistic way to examine how flexibly older adults can divide their attention between the two tasks. Manipulating the demands of the task, either by increasing the difficulty of the cognitive task or instructing the participants to focus on one task or the other (prioritisation) should illuminate the strategies they use to allocate their available attention between the two tasks ask task demands vary. To explore this hypothesis a cohort of physically and cognitively healthy community-dwelling older adults (mean age = 72.3 years) took part in three studies. In the first experiment, 72 participants completed 8 single and dual-task conditions with varying cognitive load (counting back in 3s and 7s) and attention prioritisation (no prioritisation, prioritising walking and prioritising counting). Instructing the participants to prioritise walking in the DT when counting back in 7s produced the best walking and counting performance and this was predicted their score on a standardised measure of cognitive flexibility. In second part of the study, 68 of the participants were tested 12 months later when there was improvement in both their single and dual-task performances. There was also decline in concurrent walking and counting performance, but only when attention was allocated to walking in preference to the cognitive task. Both the improvements and the decline in performance after the 12-month period were predicted by a standardised test for EF at T1. In the third study a separate group of older adults (73.2 years) was trained to walk rhythmically to music, to further investigate the external manipulation of resource-allocation during concurrent walking and counting. Their performances were compared to 2 control groups who did not receive the same intervention procedures. Overall findings from this doctoral research demonstrate that explicitly manipulating attention-allocation during concurrent walking and cognitive activity improved healthy older adults' walking and counting performance and this was strongly associated with better cognitive flexibility. After 12 months, subtle decline in ability to allocate attention to walking during the DT, when attentional-demands were high, was also predicted by cognitive flexibility in an EF task. Together, these findings illuminated the role of executive attention in a rapidly-changing complex task when the ‘wrong' prioritisation could result in a fall. Observing healthy older adults' cognitive flexibility in allocating attention to walking, when required, revealed that executive attention was key to the future maintenance of their current functional well-being.

執行功能指代一系列高水平的認知加工過程。情緒狀態被證明對執行功能具有重要影響。然而，以往研究大多關注消極情緒的影響效應。本研究則借助實驗操作（研究1）和行為問卷（研究2），以國內青少年為被試，考察並比較了不同動機強度的積極情緒如何作用執行功能。此外，執行功能、積極情緒作為獨立的兩個變量，均被證明能夠有效預測青少年的問題行為與社交技能，但是以往鮮有研究探討它們對於這些結果變量的共同預測效力，據此，研究2還對這一問題作了分析。 / 研究1包括兩個實驗，分別考察有/無動機傾向（實驗1）與高/低動機強度的積極情緒（實驗2）對執行功能的影響效應。兩個實驗均為隨機對照設計，並用數字字母任務、Go/No-go任務、Flanker任務、線索回憶任務、N-back任務來測量基本的執行功能，包括定勢轉換、抑制能力、工作記憶刷新。實驗1隨機向每個被試呈現具有不同情感色彩的視頻短片，以此誘發：中性狀態、有動機傾向的積極情緒（興趣）、無動機傾向的積極情緒（逗樂、寧靜）以及動機強度不同的兩種消極情緒（緊張、厭惡）。實驗2則誘發中性狀態以及高/低動機強度的興趣。兩個實驗均測量了情緒誘發前後被試的生理喚醒作為控制變量。研究2用問卷評估了執行功能、不同動機強度的積極情緒、外向/內向的問題行為、五種基本的社交技能，並用回歸模型分析變量間的關係。 / 研究1結果顯示在控制了生理喚醒的效應后：（1）興趣仍顯著損害了所有執行任務表現，興趣動機強度越高，損害越傾向於嚴重；（2）相比中性狀態，逗樂與寧靜均未對執行任務表現造成顯著影響；（3）厭惡較之緊張，前者傾向於更嚴重地損害執行任務表現。研究2的重要結果有，在控制了性別、年齡與大五人格特質的效應后：（1）不論動機強度如何，積極情緒越多就傾向於導致執行功能越差；（2）執行功能在積極情緒與結果變量之間發揮中介作用。可見，動機強度調節著情緒對執行功能的影響效應。研究結果的理論及實踐啓發將在論文中作討論。 / Executive functions (EFs),an umbrella term encompassing various high-level cognitive processes, play an important role in child and adolescent development. Extensive evidence indicates that emotions exert great impact on EFs. However, previous studies mostly concerned the effects of negative emotions on EFs. The primary purpose of this study was to add to the literature by examininghow EFs were influenced by positive emotions that varied in motivational intensity among Chinese adolescents, using an experiment (Study 1) and through behavioral means (Study 2). Given that EFs and positive emotions have been separately proven as strong predictors to problem behaviors and social skills, Study 2 also explored their joint effect in predicting these outcome variables. / Study 1 comprised two experiments, which respectively compared the effects of motivating versus non-motivating positive emotions (Experiment 1 ) and of high-versus low-motivating positive emotions (Experiment 2). Both experiments employed the randomized controlled design and utilized the Number-Letter task, the Go/No-go task, the Flanker task, the Cued Recall task, and the N-back task to assess the fundamental EFs, i.e., set shifting, inhibition-related functioning, and working memory updating. Experiment 1 used film clips to induce hilarity, serenity, interest, anxiety, disgust, and neutral state. Whereas hilarity and serenity are non-motivating positive emotions, interest is the typical motivating positive emotion. Disgust has higher motivational intensity than anxiety. In Experiment 2, three emotional states were induced: low-motivating interest, high-motivating interest, and neutral state. Participants’ physiological arousal (i.e., blood pressure and pulse rate) were measured both before and after the emotion induction in two experiments, in order to control the potential influence of physiological arousal on executive performance. / In Study 2, behavioral measures were used to assess motivating/non-motivating positive emotions, EFs, externalizing/internalizing behaviors, and five basic social skills (i.e., social adaptability, social perception, social confidence, social expressiveness, and impression management). Regression analyses were conducted to explore the interrelationship between these constructs. / Results of Study 1 revealed that after controlling for physiological arousal: (1) interest impaired performance in all five executive tasks, with higher motivational intensity tending to aggravate the impairment; (2) hilarity and serenity, as compared with neutral state, did not cause significantly discrepant performance across all five executive tasks; (3) disgust, as compared with anxiety, tended to cause more severely impaired EFs. Results of Study 2 included that after controlling for demographic and personality variables: (1) high degree of motivating/non-motivating positive emotions tended to predict poor EFs; (2) EFs mediated the relationship between motivating/non-motivating positive emotions and behavioral social outcomes. These results confirmed that motivational intensity modulated the influences of emotions on EFs.Emotions high in motivational tendency were more likely to impair EFs. Possible explanation is that such emotions are linked with specific action urges to acquire desired objects, which could impel the individual to focus cognitive resources on the goal-pursuit and thus narrow down the flexibility and complexity of cognitive processing. Practical implications in simultaneously intervening emotionality and EFs to enhance children and adolescents’ behavioral social functioning will be discussed. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Zhou, Ya. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-113). / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendixes includes Chinese.

Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterised by a range of behaviours that include excessive motor activity and distractibility. Motor coordination problem is often a feature. It is therefore likely that motor control mechanisms are implicated in ADHD and then executive function associated with it. After a literature review on the correlation between cognition and movement (chapter 1), the novel VSWM (chapter 2) and sequential learning (chapter 3) tasks are introduced. Based on the typical Corsi tapping task, participants were instructed to either move their hand to the stimulus presented on the computer screen or tap the keyboard when they saw it, while trying to remember the location and order of the stimuli. The results suggest that movements deteriorate VSWM in both ADHD and control groups (chapter 2) while they had a tendency to improve learning performance in healthy but not ADHD participants (chapter 3). It was posited that the results from both tasks could have been influenced by differences in the ability to concentrate on the task and difficulty in controlling movements. Two other experiments were used to test this assumption and eliminate any confounds from the memory and learning tasks. The results from chapter 4, which looks at divided attention, indicate a significantly higher response rate in the ADHD compared to the healthy participants, while showing no significant deficit in fine motor but rather on the attentional control (chapter 5) in ADHD participants. These findings are summarised in chapter 6 and discussed in terms of 1) the relationship between movement and cognitive function, 2) the causation of the VSWM deficit in ADHD, and 3) the potential use these tasks may have in a clinical setting as an assessment tool or cognitive training program for people with ADHD.

Assessment of executive functioning in neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., autism) is a crucial aspect of neuropsychological evaluations. The executive functions are accomplished by the supervisory attentional system (SAS) and include such processes as inhibition, switching, and planning. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tends to present similarly to other neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ADHD). For example, ASD and ADHD may share similar etiological underpinnings in the frontostriatal system of the frontal lobe. Research on executive functioning in ASD has been mixed, thus the precise nature of executive functioning deficits in ASD remains equivocal. In recent years, simulation technologies have emerged as an avenue to assess neurocognitive functioning in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders impacting frontostriatal function. Simulation technology enables neuropsychologists to assess neurocognitive functioning within a testing environment that replicates environments in which the subject is likely to be in everyday life, as well as present controlled, real-world distractions, which may be better able to tap “hot” executive functions. A Virtual Classroom Continuous Performance Test (CPT) has been used successfully to assess attention in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders impacting frontostriatal function. The current study aimed to investigate executive functioning in individuals with high functioning ASD using a new construct driven Stroop assessment embedded into the Virtual Classroom. Group differences were found in the Virtual Classroom with distractions condition, indicating individuals with ASD may be more vulnerable to external interference control than neurotypical individuals.

Executive Function is conceptualized in this study as the ability to form (the planning functionality obtained through initiation and working memory), maintain (response selection and the ability to self-regulate and inhibit) and switch (cognitive flexibility, mental tracking, organization and sequencing) mental processes in order to effect a positive outcome. The present research is a quasi-experimental study embedded in the Positivist tradition that sets out to empirically evaluate the Executive Function profile of seropositive adolescents (n = 29) emerging from a low socio-economic background and currently on a managed ART programme when compared to a healthy contrast group (based on age, socio-demographic and educational system). As a quantitative study, Executive Function was operationalized through the use of multiple tests of Executive Function such as the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function Colour Word Interference Test (D-KEFS CWIT), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Trail Making Test Part B (TMT-B). As the study formed part of a larger study that included additional neurocognitive tests, including the WISC-R, selected subtests from the WISC-R were used to validate specific arguments relating to the study. The results showed that HIV positive adolescents were inclined to have poorer Executive Function performance especially under situations of higher cognitive load when compared to the unaffected group. The implications of these results are discussed in this research.

Working memory is a mental system that is related to cognitive control and higher cognition. Although the topic of working memory is well researched, there is a great deal of debate about the mechanisms that drive individual differences in working memory capacity. Moreover, little is known about the direct relationships between different types of working memory tasks. The present study uses structural equation modeling to examine three varieties of working memory task: The complex span, running memory span, and visual arrays. It is found that, while complex and running span performance is directly predicted by immediate memory and retrieval from long-term memory, visual arrays is directly predicted by attention control. Despite these differences, all tasks are found to be united by executive attention, which is conceptualized as an executive process that is apparent across several types of attention and memory task. A second analysis examines the relationship between working memory and general fluid intelligence. It is concluded that, while executive attention accounts for the largest portion of the correlation between working memory and fluid intelligence, immediate memory and retrieval from long term memory are also critical to explaining this relationship.

To be accepted into social groups, individuals must internalise and reproduce appropriate group conventions, such as rituals. The high fidelity copying of such rigid and socially stipulated behavioural sequences places heavy demands on executive function abilities. Given previous research showing that challenging executive functioning also improves it, it was hypothesised that prolonged engagement in ritualistic behaviours would improve executive functioning in children, in turn improving their ability to delay gratification. A three month circle-time-games intervention with primary school children in two contrasting cultural environments (Slovakia and Vanuatu) was conducted. In both environments we found the intervention improved children's executive function and in turn their ability to delay gratification. Moreover, these effects were amplified when the intervention task was imbued with ritual, rather than instrumental, cues. The findings presented in this thesis have potentially far-reaching implications for child-rearing and educational practices, suggesting ritual participation may be necessary for the cultivation of future mindedness.