what's on your mind?

Our brain is such a fascinating thing! Researchers have been studying the functions and capabilities of our brains for hundreds of years. Around the 1840s researchers began to focus on the frontal lobes and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Then, around the 1960s and 1970s, research honed in specifically on the executive functions (EF) of the PFC in an attempt to name and understand what the prefrontal lobes do. "The term 'EF' came out of these earlier efforts to understand the neuropsychological functions mediated by the prefrontal or premotor regions of the brain" (Barkley, 2020, p. 1).

However, the researchers disagreed over an operational definition of EF. Initially, definitions of EF were too vague, leaving "considerable opportunity for misinterpretation" (Barkley, 2020, p. 2). Connecting to the lack of an agreed-upon definition of EF, disagreements arose around assessing EF activity and capacities. Most importantly, an overall theoretical construct of EF was missing! Scientists and researchers could not formulate a singular theory of executive function. Barkley's book, Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved, defines EF within an "extended phenotype" model, provides a hierarchy of EF development along with eight specific EF capacities, and a discussion of EF assessments that match the mental functions associated with EF.

To understand brain function, Barkley (2020) begins with a discussion on developing a foundation to understand executive function better by "viewing EF as an extended phenotype" (p. 37). A phenotype, according to a simple Google search, is a set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment." Barkley (2020) uses Dawkins' definition of an extended phenotype as "a suite of neuropsychological abilities that create profound effects at a considerable distance and across lengthy time spans from the genotype that initially forms them" (p. 37). Barkley applies the concept of an extended phenotype to define EF as self-regulation - "a form of self-directed action aimed at modifying one's behavior so as to make a future goal, end, or outcome more or less likely to occur. EF can, therefore, be initially defined as those self-directed actions needed to choose goals and to create, enact, and sustain actions towards those goals, or more simply as self-regulation to achieve goals: EF = SR" (p. 60).

Barkley (2020) provides a hierarchical overview of the 5 levels of EF.

Pre-Executive Level At this level, the central nervous system is working on "routine primary neuropsychological functions" (attention, memory, spatial and motor functions, etc.) Behavior is automatic and driven by operant conditioning.

Executive Functioning Levels

LEVEL 1: Instrumental - Self-Directed Level (internalized mental processes; self-regulation)

At this level, self-awareness develops, and behavior is self-directed: attention, sensory-motor actions (nonverbal working memory; imagination), private speech (verbal working memory; verbal thoughts), appraisal (emotion-motivation), and play (innovation and problem-solving). Also, at this level, inhibition and self-restraint develop.

LEVEL 2: Methodical-Self-Reliant Level (self-directed actions)

At this level, methods are used to develop and attain near-term goals. During this time, behavior includes self-management, self-organization and problem-solving, self-restraint, self-motivation, self-regulation of emotions, social independence, social predation or parasitism, and social self-defense.

LEVEL 3: Tactical-Reciprocal Level (social behaviors)

At this level, tactical use of methods is used to attain midterm goals through the use of daily social exchanges (sharing, turn-taking, and reciprocity) and group living (lower proportion of individual dispersal). The beginning of economic behavior, such as trading and social interdependence or using others to attain goals, emerges at this stage.

LEVEL 4: Strategic-Cooperative Level

At this level, strategic planning using a set of tactics is used to achieve long-term goals through the use of social cooperative learning with a division of labor while acting in unison to achieve common goals and shared benefits spread across a larger group rather than individual benefit. At the second stage of this level, principles guide strategic planning for long-term goals meant to benefit not only one's own interests but also the interests of others. This principled-mutualistic stage results in the origin of colonies, cities, states, and countries.

(Barkley, 2020, p. 63).

At each of the hierarchical levels, 8 developmental capacities arise. "These eight developmental parameters change with maturation of the PFC and drive the outward extension of the EF phenotype into daily human personal, social, community, and cultural activities. They can be thought of as emerging neuropsychological capacities that influence human action" (Barkley, 2020, p. 68).

Spatial Capacity

"...the spatial distance over which the individual contemplates a goal and the necessary means to attain it" (p. 68). Included in this category is the cognitive capacity to be able to rearrange and organize the surrounding physical environment to achieve a goal. "A radius of environmental self-organization that grows in scope with development" (p. 69).

Temporal Capacity

"...reflects how far into the future the individual is capable of contemplating a goal" (p. 69). This includes when to begin preparing and planning and developing a sense of timing and timeliness of actions. This capacity interacts with the spatial capacity "because taking actions across geographical distances (space) also requires time" (p. 69..

Motivational Capacity

"...refects the personal valuation of a delayed consequence, future goal, or outcome that the individual is contemplating" (p. 69). This capacity pairs with the first two as the individual contemplates their work and their goal - "the more highly valued or preferred the consequences, the more willing the individuals are to increase the time delay and the spatial distances needed to attain the goal" (p. 69). Achieving goals takes time and effort.

Inhibitory Capacity

"...the extent to which and the duration over which individuals must inhibit their responses to prepotent events, restrain their actions, and otherwise subordinate their immediate interests for the sake of the goal" (p. 70).

Conceptual/Abstract Capacity

"...reflects the degree of abstractness of any rules that are being considered and followed to attain the goal" (p. 70). This ranges from simple to complex, specific to general, concrete to abstract, and self-directed to highly conceptual concepts.

Behavioral-Structural Capacity

"...the degree of behavioral complexity and hierarchical structuring of the actions needed to bridge the time period and the distance between the moment and the contemplated goal" (pp. 70-71). This involves structuring appropriately sequenced actions to achieve a goal.

Social Capacity

"...the number of other individuals with which the individual must interact, reciprocate, and cooperate so as to effectively attain the goal being contemplated" (p. 71).

Cultural Capacity

"...the degree of cultural information and devices or scaffolding that the individual is adopting to attain the goal" (p. 71). The author is referring to culture as shared information "inherited from prior generations and created and shared within the current one." The author states that cultural information is not passively shared but rather "actively adopted by individuals" through a "reciprocal interplay."

(Barkley, 2020, pp. 68-73)

The author continues on to discuss the concept of vicarious learning, also known as observational learning, and how the development of EF depends on this unusual human adaptation. Barkley (2020) states, "observational learning provides the human with a form of experiential theft, or more accurately, plagiarism" (p. 73). In other words, the individual watches the actions of others and reimagines themselves in that situation. By doing so, the individual uses revisualization to adjust and readjust their own behavior and actions to copy the actions of others. The result can also be to suppress future action if the observed behavior results in failure. Through the spreading of information and behavior patterns via vicarious learning, "humans develop a protoculture" (p. 74).

Finally, the author finishes this section of the book with an overview of the Pre-Executive Level and Zones. The rest of the book focuses each chapter on one specific hierarchical level, EF disorders, and assessments for managing EF deficits, which I will not go into here but will instead be a separate blog post.

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What is really going on in the minds of learners? How do they self-regulate? What are they thinking about while they navigate around their learning environment? How do they decide what to work on first? Or what goals to accomplish? My research includes a deep dive into the study of the executive functioning capacities of the prefrontal cortex and how it relates to the Montessori and non-Montessori classroom environments. Are there things in the classroom that promote or prevent/help or hinder EF development?

This was the first book that I dove deeply into regarding EF. I appreciated the background information regarding early research and the disagreements among scientists. That helped me understand the foundations of EF in relation to studying the brain.

The hierarchical levels of development of EF and the 8 capacities have helped me narrow the focus of my research topic. I am very interested in knowing exactly what aspects of the physical classroom environment assist in the development of the 8 capacities and aid in the progression through the EF hierarchical levels. I think I want to specifically focus on the motivational, spatial, and inhibitory capacities, but I think I might need to read the rest of this book to determine if it is possible to separate the capacities and only study a few of them. Many of the capacities seem intertwined and deeply relational. I am very excited to continue my research on EF and the PFC and how its development is connected to the classroom environment!

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Barkley, R. A. (2020). Executive functions: What they are, how they work, and why they evolved. The Guilford Press.

The musical inspiration behind this post... What's on Your Mind, by Information Society