What are the four key domains of executive function?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The four domains are inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning.
• Response inhibition: Inhibition refers to the ability to voluntarily and deliberately suppress irrelevant or interfering information or impulses. Inhibition is the part of executive function that allows individuals to withhold inappropriate or irrelevant responses or ignore distracting stimuli to give appropriate responses.
• Cognitive flexibility: It refers to the ability to think about one activity and then shift thinking to another activity or how you are thinking about that activity. It is like “switching mental gears.”Flexible thinking allows individuals to switch gears and look at something differently, it allows the ability to unlearn old ways of doing things that might not be working, and flexible thinking plays a role in most types of learning (academic or functional skills).
• Working memory:It refers to the ability to maintain and manipulate incoming information received through visual or verbal. It is a temporary storage system that is necessary for processing complex thoughts.The processes involved in working memory include conserving information for short periods of time and context-relevant updating of information. Working memory plays an important role not only in processing complex cognitive information, but it is also essential to social cognition and interpersonal interactions. Working memory involves remembering all the steps needed to reach a goal.For example, the task of getting ready for school requires that a child remembers all the steps in the morning routine, such as dressing, eating, brushing teeth, getting the backpack together, etc.
• Planning: It refers to the ability to order one’s steps in a logical sequence so that a goal can be reached.Usually, children can set a goal, such as drawing a picture of a house, and then successfully carry out the plan. Planning and reaching a goal involves setting the goal, understanding the steps needed to reach the goal, ordering the steps logically, and staying on task to ultimately reach the goal.