How your brain's executive function works -- and how to improve it | Sabine Doebel

00:09:16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAC-5hTK-4c

Résumé

TLDRThe speaker shares their experience of learning to drive as an introduction to explaining executive function, a vital cognitive ability used to control our thoughts, emotions, and actions for achieving goals. They highlight its role in everyday tasks and how lapses can result in common absent-minded mistakes. The importance of executive function is underscored, as it predicts various positive life outcomes from childhood onwards. The talk criticizes the trend of using brain-training apps for improving executive function, arguing that real-world context is crucial for genuine enhancement. Experiments on children, such as the marshmallow test and dimensional change card sort, are cited to show how social context and motivation affect executive function. Strategies to improve it include being aware of context and using it to motivate strategies for achieving goals. Ultimately, knowing how context shapes behavior can lead to better self-improvement strategies.

A retenir

  • 🚗 Learning complex tasks like driving requires high executive function.
  • 🧠 Executive function involves controlling thoughts, emotions, and actions.
  • 🔄 Lapses in executive function lead to common mental errors.
  • 📚 It's predictive of success in various life areas.
  • ⚠️ Brain-training apps may not improve executive function effectively.
  • 👥 Social context influences children's decision-making.
  • 🔍 Real-world context is crucial for executive function improvements.
  • 🎯 Utilize strategies to enhance executive function in specific situations.
  • 📊 Tests like the marshmallow test assess executive function in children.
  • 🌟 Improve personal goals by understanding the impact of context.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:09:16

    The speaker begins by confessing that they only recently learned to drive, emphasizing the difficulty due to the need for intense executive function. Executive function is described as the ability to consciously control thoughts, emotions, and actions to achieve goals. It is crucial for breaking habits, planning, and resisting impulses, but it falters during lapses such as forgetting a meeting or pouring juice on cereal. Research shows it predicts academic and social success, health, and financial stability, garnering interest in ways to improve it. However, the speaker argues against trendy brain-training apps, suggesting they do not translate to real-world executive function improvement due to their narrow scope. Real improvement depends on understanding how context influences executive function usage.

Carte mentale

Mind Map

Questions fréquemment posées

  • What is executive function?

    Executive function is the ability to consciously control thoughts, emotions, and actions to achieve goals.

  • Why is context important for executive function?

    Context matters because it influences how we use executive function in real-life scenarios, making it more effective and relevant.

  • Can brain-training apps improve executive function?

    According to the speaker, brain-training apps cannot broadly improve executive function because they focus on narrow tasks outside real-world contexts.

  • What is the dimensional change card sort test?

    It's a test used to measure executive function in children by having them sort cards by different criteria, gauging their ability to adapt to new rules.

  • What is the marshmallow test?

    The marshmallow test measures delay of gratification and involves children choosing between one marshmallow immediately or two if they wait.

  • How does peer influence affect children's executive function in the marshmallow test?

    Children influenced by a peer group waiting for two marshmallows were more likely to wait for the extra reward themselves.

  • What can improve a child's performance on tasks requiring executive function?

    Teaching them strategies, such as minimizing distractions, can enhance executive function-specific performance.

  • Is executive function only applicable in childhood?

    No, it predicts various successful outcomes like social skills, academic achievement, and more, throughout life.

  • How can understanding context benefit personal goals?

    By designing environments that enhance motivation and implementing effective strategies, one can leverage context for personal growth.

  • How did children react to peer influences in the speaker's study?

    Children tended to mimic the perceived behavior of their group, indicating the impact of social context on decision-making.

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Sous-titres
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Défilement automatique:
  • 00:00:00
    Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz
  • 00:00:12
    So I have a confession to make.
  • 00:00:15
    I only recently learned how to drive.
  • 00:00:18
    And it was really hard.
  • 00:00:21
    Now, this wasn't an older brain thing.
  • 00:00:24
    Do you remember what it was like when you first learned how to drive?
  • 00:00:27
    When every decision you made was so conscious and deliberate?
  • 00:00:31
    I'd come home from my lessons completely wiped out mentally.
  • 00:00:35
    Now, as a cognitive scientist I know that this is because I was using
  • 00:00:38
    a lot of something called executive function.
  • 00:00:43
    Executive function is our amazing ability to consciously control our thoughts,
  • 00:00:48
    emotions and actions
  • 00:00:50
    in order to achieve goals ...
  • 00:00:52
    like learning how to drive.
  • 00:00:54
    It's what we use when we need to break away from habit,
  • 00:00:58
    inhibit our impulses and plan ahead.
  • 00:01:01
    But we can see it most clearly when things go wrong.
  • 00:01:05
    Like, have you ever accidentally poured orange juice on your cereal?
  • 00:01:08
    (Laughter)
  • 00:01:10
    Or, ever start scrolling on Facebook
  • 00:01:12
    and suddenly realize you've missed a meeting?
  • 00:01:14
    (Laughter)
  • 00:01:16
    Or maybe this one's more familiar:
  • 00:01:17
    Ever plan to stop at the store on the way home from work
  • 00:01:20
    and then drive all the way home instead on autopilot?
  • 00:01:23
    (Laughter)
  • 00:01:25
    These things happen to everyone.
  • 00:01:28
    And we usually call it absentmindedness,
  • 00:01:29
    but what's really happening
  • 00:01:31
    is we're experiencing a lapse in executive function.
  • 00:01:35
    So we use executive function every day in all aspects of our lives.
  • 00:01:40
    And over the past 30 years,
  • 00:01:41
    researchers have found that it predicts all kinds of good things
  • 00:01:45
    in childhood and beyond,
  • 00:01:47
    like social skills, academic achievement, mental and physical health,
  • 00:01:52
    making money, saving money
  • 00:01:54
    and even staying out of jail.
  • 00:01:56
    Sounds great, doesn't it?
  • 00:01:58
    So it's no surprise
  • 00:01:59
    that researchers like me are so interested in understanding it
  • 00:02:03
    and figuring out ways to improve it.
  • 00:02:07
    But lately, executive function has become a huge self-improvement buzzword.
  • 00:02:13
    People think you can improve it through brain-training iPhone apps
  • 00:02:16
    and computer games,
  • 00:02:17
    or by practicing it in a specific way, like playing chess.
  • 00:02:22
    And researchers are trying to train it in the lab
  • 00:02:25
    in the hopes of improving it and other things related to it,
  • 00:02:28
    like intelligence.
  • 00:02:31
    Well, I'm here to tell you
  • 00:02:32
    that this way of thinking about executive function is all wrong.
  • 00:02:36
    Brain training won't improve executive function in a broad sense
  • 00:02:40
    because it involves exercising it in a narrow way,
  • 00:02:43
    outside of the real-world contexts in which we actually use it.
  • 00:02:48
    So you can master that executive function app on your phone,
  • 00:02:51
    but that's not going to help you stop pouring OJ on your Cheeerios twice a week.
  • 00:02:55
    (Laughter)
  • 00:02:56
    If you really want to improve your executive function
  • 00:02:59
    in a way that matters for your life,
  • 00:03:01
    you have to understand how it's influenced by context.
  • 00:03:06
    Let me show you what I mean.
  • 00:03:07
    There's a great test that we use in the lab
  • 00:03:10
    to measure executive function in young children
  • 00:03:12
    called the "dimensional change card sort."
  • 00:03:15
    In this task, kids have to sort cards in one way --
  • 00:03:19
    like by shape --
  • 00:03:20
    over and over until they build up a habit.
  • 00:03:23
    And then they're asked to switch
  • 00:03:25
    and sort the same cards in another way,
  • 00:03:28
    like by color.
  • 00:03:31
    Now, really young kids struggle with this.
  • 00:03:34
    Three- and four-year-olds will usually keep sorting the cards in the old way
  • 00:03:37
    no matter how many times you remind them of what they should be doing.
  • 00:03:42
    (Video) Woman: If it's blue, put it here. If it's red, put it here.
  • 00:03:45
    Here's a blue one.
  • 00:03:47
    OK, so now we're going to play a different game.
  • 00:03:49
    We're not going to play the color game anymore.
  • 00:03:51
    Now we're going to play the shape game,
  • 00:03:53
    and in the shape game,
  • 00:03:54
    all the stars go here and all the trucks go here, OK?
  • 00:03:58
    Stars go here, trucks go here.
  • 00:04:00
    Where do the stars go?
  • 00:04:02
    And where do the trucks go?
  • 00:04:04
    Excellent.
  • 00:04:05
    OK, stars go here, trucks go here.
  • 00:04:07
    Here's a truck.
  • 00:04:10
    (Laughter)
  • 00:04:12
    Stars go here, trucks go here.
  • 00:04:14
    Here's a star.
  • 00:04:17
    (Laughter)
  • 00:04:19
    SB: So it's really compelling,
  • 00:04:21
    and it's really obvious when she fails to use her executive function.
  • 00:04:25
    But here's the thing:
  • 00:04:26
    we could train her on this task and others like it
  • 00:04:29
    and eventually she'd improve,
  • 00:04:31
    but does that mean
  • 00:04:32
    that she would've improved her executive function outside of the lab?
  • 00:04:36
    No, because in the real world, she'll need to use executive function
  • 00:04:39
    to do a lot more than switching between shape and color.
  • 00:04:43
    She'll need to switch from adding to multiplying
  • 00:04:46
    or from playing to tidying up
  • 00:04:48
    or from thinking about her own feelings to thinking about her friend.
  • 00:04:52
    And success in real-world situations depends on things
  • 00:04:55
    like how motivated you are and what your peers are doing.
  • 00:04:59
    And it also depends on the strategies that you execute
  • 00:05:02
    when you're using executive function in a particular situation.
  • 00:05:06
    So what I'm saying is that context really matters.
  • 00:05:11
    Now let me give you an example from my research.
  • 00:05:13
    I recently brought in a bunch of kids to do the classic marshmallow test,
  • 00:05:18
    which is a measure of delay of gratification
  • 00:05:20
    that also likely requires a lot of executive function.
  • 00:05:24
    So you may have heard about this test,
  • 00:05:26
    but basically, kids are given a choice.
  • 00:05:28
    They can have one marshmallow right away,
  • 00:05:30
    or if they can wait for me to go to the other room
  • 00:05:33
    and get more marshmallows,
  • 00:05:34
    they can have two instead.
  • 00:05:37
    Now, most kids really want that second marshmallow,
  • 00:05:41
    but the key question is: How long can they wait?
  • 00:05:44
    (Laughter)
  • 00:05:45
    Now, I added a twist to look at the effects of context.
  • 00:05:50
    I told each kid that they were in a group,
  • 00:05:53
    like the green group,
  • 00:05:55
    and I even gave them a green T-shirt to wear.
  • 00:05:58
    And I said, "Your group waited for two marshmallows,
  • 00:06:02
    and this other group, the orange group,
  • 00:06:05
    did not."
  • 00:06:06
    Or I said the opposite:
  • 00:06:07
    "Your group didn't wait for two marshmallows
  • 00:06:09
    and this other group did."
  • 00:06:12
    And then I left the kid alone in the room
  • 00:06:14
    and I watched on a webcam to see how long they waited.
  • 00:06:17
    (Laughter)
  • 00:06:21
    So what I found was that kids who believed
  • 00:06:25
    that their group waited for two marshmallows
  • 00:06:27
    were themselves more likely to wait.
  • 00:06:32
    So they were influenced by a peer group that they'd never even met.
  • 00:06:36
    (Laughter)
  • 00:06:37
    Pretty cool, isn't it?
  • 00:06:39
    Well, so with this result I still didn't know
  • 00:06:42
    if they were just copying their group or if it was something deeper than that.
  • 00:06:47
    So I brought in some more kids,
  • 00:06:49
    and after the marshmallow test, I showed them pictures of pairs of kids,
  • 00:06:54
    and I told them, "One of these kids likes to have things right away,
  • 00:06:57
    like cookies and stickers.
  • 00:06:59
    And the other kid likes to wait
  • 00:07:01
    so that they can have more of these things."
  • 00:07:03
    And then I asked them,
  • 00:07:05
    "Which one of these two kids do you like more
  • 00:07:07
    and who would you want to play with?"
  • 00:07:09
    And what I found was that kids who believed that their group waited
  • 00:07:13
    tended to prefer other kids who liked to wait for things.
  • 00:07:17
    So learning what their group did made them value waiting more.
  • 00:07:22
    And not only that,
  • 00:07:24
    these kids likely used executive function
  • 00:07:27
    to generate strategies to help themselves wait,
  • 00:07:30
    like sitting on their hands or turning away from the marshmallow
  • 00:07:33
    or singing a song to distract themselves.
  • 00:07:36
    (Laughter)
  • 00:07:39
    So what this all shows is just how much context matters.
  • 00:07:44
    It's not that these kids had good executive function or bad,
  • 00:07:47
    it's that the context helped them use it better.
  • 00:07:52
    So what does this mean for you and for your kids?
  • 00:07:56
    Well, let's say that you want to learn Spanish.
  • 00:07:59
    You could try changing your context
  • 00:08:00
    and surrounding yourself with other people who also want to learn,
  • 00:08:04
    and even better if these are people that you really like.
  • 00:08:07
    That way you'll be more motivated to use executive function.
  • 00:08:12
    Or let's say that you want to help your child do better on her math homework.
  • 00:08:16
    You could teach her strategies to use executive function
  • 00:08:19
    in that particular context,
  • 00:08:21
    like putting her phone away before she starts studying
  • 00:08:24
    or planning to reward herself after studying for an hour.
  • 00:08:29
    Now, I don't want to make it sound like context is everything.
  • 00:08:32
    Executive function is really complex, and it's shaped by numerous factors.
  • 00:08:37
    But what I want you to remember
  • 00:08:38
    is if you want to improve your executive function
  • 00:08:41
    in some aspect of your life,
  • 00:08:43
    don't look for quick fixes.
  • 00:08:45
    Think about the context
  • 00:08:47
    and how you can make your goals matter more to you,
  • 00:08:50
    and how you can use strategies
  • 00:08:51
    to help yourself in that particular situation.
  • 00:08:55
    I think the ancient Greeks said it best when they said, "Know thyself."
  • 00:09:00
    And a key part of this is knowing how context shapes your behavior
  • 00:09:05
    and how you can use that knowledge to change for the better.
  • 00:09:08
    Thank you.
  • 00:09:10
    (Applause)
Tags
  • executive function
  • cognitive science
  • learning
  • self-improvement
  • context
  • motivation
  • children
  • social influence
  • real-world application
  • strategy