Helping Students Improve Executive Cognitive Functioning

Stanley Teacher Preparation ProgramKaren OnderkoOctober 29, 2015and November 5, 2015

• All teachers can help students improve their executive functioning (EF) by:

– understanding more about EF – being tolerant of differences in EF– creating a supportive environment and

encouraging helpful skills

“In short, the executive cognitive functions permit an individual to engage actively with life; to respond flexibly to unfamiliar situations; to inhibit irrelevant or routine behavior when it is advantageous to do so; and to learn from experience in real time.”

- Jim Grigsby and David Stevens, Neurodynamics of Personality

The prefrontal cortex affects “many of the most quintessential attributes that define human nature: ambition, empathy, foresight, a complex personality, a sense of morality, and a sense of dignity as a human being.”

- V.S. Ramachadran, The Tell-Tale Brain

Executive Functioning• Formulation of plans• Anticipation of the possible consequences of an intended action• Organization of one’s approach to the solution of a problem• Taking an active approach to the solution of a problem rather than

passively responding with whatever comes to mind• Using an intention or plan to guide one’s ongoing behavior• Critically monitoring the accuracy of one’s performance, continually

comparing the outcome with what was intended (“insight”)• Initiation of purposeful, goal-directed activity under appropriate

circumstances• Responding adaptively to novel situations or stimuli• Inhibition of irrelevant or inappropriate behavior• Inhibition of distractibility• Keeping track of two or more activities simultaneously (working

memory)• Flexibly focusing and shifting attention• Understanding another person’s perspective

Stanley BPS 7 Goals for Learners(All examples of strong EF)

• Self-Awareness - including self-advocacy and confidence in one’s beliefs and abilities

• Collaboration – cooperation, communication and empathy

• Respect – as well as appreciation, for one’s role as a responsible community member

• Curiosity – including creativity, risk-taking and the ability to think anew

• Perseverance – finding success through hard work and internal motivation

• Academic Resourcefulness – problem solving, critical thinking, applying skills and concepts

• Joyful, Lifelong Learning – finding fulfillment in pursuing one’s passions

Examples of EF

• Poor EF: “Knee Defender” fight on board a United Airlines flight to Denver forces a diversion to Chicago.

• Good EF: Maria Joao Pires practices wrong piano concerto. But the show must go on.– http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/

100243153/pianist-maria-joao-pires-panics-as-she-realises-the-orchestra-has-started-the-wrong-concerto/

Damage to the frontal lobe

Damage to the frontal lobe (cont.)• Patient studied by Bryan Kolb and Laughlin

Taylor (p. 444, Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology)

– Prominent lawyer who underwent surgery to remove a midline meningioma in the frontal lobe

– Afterward, his IQ was still high (140!) and he had good memory for legal matters (convergent thinking)

– But he had difficulty motivating to go to work; preferred watching television

– He was disruptive and distracted at the office

– His partners preferred to consult with him by phone

Predictive Power of Executive FunctioningWalter Mischel’s 1968 Marshmallow Test

In a follow-up study in the 1980’s, the children who participated in the original research were teenagers. Mischel found that those who were not as good at delaying gratification were much more likely to have behavioral problems, both in school and at home. They struggled in stressful situations, often had trouble paying attention in class and had serious problems with their temper. The difference between a child who could only wait thirty seconds and a child who could wait fifteen minutes was that the high-delayer had an SAT score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than the child who couldn’t wait.

Most recent follow up:

Behavioral and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later

10.1073/pnas.1108561108 PNAS August 29, 2011

Researchers found that many of the low delayers in 1968 still had lower measures of self control upon neuropsychological testing and in fMRIs, showed less prefrontal activity than high delayers. Some, however did improve their ability to delay gratification.

Predictive Power of Executive FunctioningPsychol Sci. 2005 Dec;16(12):939-44.

Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents.

Duckworth AL, Seligman ME

Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania

Self-discipline of 140 8th grade students measured by self reports, teacher and parent reports and monetary choice questionnaires in the fall predicted final grades, school attendance and admittance to competitive HS program.

Replicated study of 164 8th grade students the following year with the addition of a behavioral delay-of-gratification task, a questionnaire on study habits and a group administered IQ test to the above measures.

Finding: Self-discipline (as measured in the fall) accounted for more than twice as much variance as IQ in final grades, school attendance and HS admittance…

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study

• Followed 1,037 individuals born in 1972-1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand

• Self-control during first decade of life was measured using nine measures of self control: observational ratings of children’s lack of control (ages 3 and 5); parent, teacher and self-reports of impulsive aggression, hyperactivity, lack of persistence, inattention and impulsivity (at 5,7,9 & 11 years old)

• Then, as 32-year old adults (with a 96% retention rate), health, wealth and crime outcomes were assessed by physical exams, blood tests, personal interviews, record searches and informant reports.

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study - Findings

• Children with less self control (i.e., children who were less persistent, more impulsive and had poorer attention regulation) 30 years later had:– Poorer health

– Greater likelihood of alcohol or drug problems

– More financial problems

– More single-parent child rearing

– More criminal convictions

than those with better inhibitory control as young children (controlling for IQ, gender, social class and home lives and family circumstances growing up).

Self-control gradient.

Moffitt T E et al. PNAS 2011;108:2693-2698

©2011 by National Academy of Sciences

All brains are not created equally

Some simple tasks that challenge EF

– Go/No-Go tasks• If I say red, squeeze my hand; if I say green, do

nothing.

• If I tap twice, you tap once; if I tap once you tap twice.

– Regulation of Sequential Movement Task• Fist-Edge-Palm

– Working Memory and Processing Speed Task

What causes differences• Brain development

– DNA– Parental experience - epigenetics

• Experience– Socioeconomic status– Trust/Support– Trauma– Success in school

• State– Success begets success

Anatomy of Executive Functioning

• Many regions of the brain are associated with executive functioning.

• Primary area is the prefrontal cortex (PFC)• Other areas affecting executive ability include:

– Cerebellum

– Basal ganglia

– Thalamus

Your prefrontal cortex links information back and forth across other brain regions and has the vastest neural network and the most reciprocal interconnections with other brain

structures.

“All neural roads eventually lead to the frontal lobes.”- Kolb & Whishaw, Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology

Executive Functions can be Trained by Strengthening Neural Connections

• Scenario 1: Poor EF leads to problems paying attention in class, completing assignments and inhibiting impulsive behaviors. School is less fun and the teacher is always getting annoyed with the student and complying with school demands is hard. The teacher comes to expect low self regulation and poor work and the children come to see themselves as poor students.

• Scenario 2: Children who have better EF are likely to be praised for good behavior, enjoy school more and want to spend more time working. Their teachers enjoy them and a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop is created.

• Results: One child wants out and doesn’t expect to succeed. The other wants in and fully expects to succeed.

Neuroplasticity is behind both scenarios

• In the brain, neurons that “fire together, wire together”• So neural networks that are repeatedly activated

become stronger and more efficient (and the opposite is also true)

• And practiced neural networks can become habits

• Think of a stream bed:

– The bed affects where the water flows

– But, the water flow itself can also change the course of the stream bed

Example of rapid brain change

(Casasanto, D. and Bottini, R. (2013), Spatial language and abstract concepts. WIREs Cogn Sci. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1271)

Improving Executive Functioning

Helps

• Age

• Habit

• State

• Exercise

• Focus

• Structure/certainty

• Choice

• Meditation

Hurts

• Age

• Habit

• State

• Injury/illness/disorder

• Distraction

• Chaos/uncertainty

Executive FunctioningAcross the Lifespan

• Executive functioning gradually develops in childhood.

• It becomes fully developed in the early to mid 20s• It tends to decline with age.

o 33.7% of people ≥ 60 years of age have executive impairment.

o Percent of persons who are impaired, by decade:• 60s - 20.4%• 70s - 33.5%• 80s - 52.3%• 90s - 64.9%

(From Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University)

Brain Activation for Habits

• fMRIs of brains in habit mode – PFC shows little activity

• Example of learning to drive

• Once the mechanics of driving are mastered, one can focus on navigation, defensive driving and can respond to dangerous situations

By Changing Habits, We Strengthen Executive Functioning

• We engage in habits unconsciously.• By drawing attention to them at the time they

occur, we become conscious of them.– This prevents them from being enacted automatically

and unconsciously.

– Repeatedly drawing awareness to a habit will disrupt its performance.

– Focusing attention helps strengthen connections in the prefrontal cortex.

• It’s still easier to do what is a habit than to inhibit the habit, or perform a novel behavior. BUT, new habits can be developed.

By Developing Habits, We Scaffold Executive Functioning

• EF involves the ability to initiate goal-directed, deliberate behavior, and to inhibit habitual, inappropriate, or irrelevant behavior.

• EF typically involves effort, so it goes against the grain to use EF rather than do what is easiest.

• Developing habits that support our executive functions can scaffold those efforts.

• What skills can be transferred to habit?

Positive General Habits for School

• Step-by-step approach to work; rely on visual organizational aids and schedules – review them often during the day

• Create checklists and to do lists – estimate how long tasks will take

• Break longer assignments into chucks and assign time frames for completing each chunk

Habits and State

• Procedural learning causes the things we do repeatedly to become habits.– They become automatic and nonconscious.

– Habits are very efficient, and we rely on them most of the time. They require less effort than deliberate action.

• Sometimes habits are not useful or adaptive.– Then we need to change them.

• Our state determines our level of motivation and how likely we are to rely on a habit or to use our executive functions.

Factors affecting State(and therefore EF)

• Stress

• Expectations/Mood

• Energy level

• Blood glucose levels

• Hormones

• Pain

• Poor health/Inflammation

• And many more….

Neuropsychological Model of Behavior Change

Neuroscientific Validation of Choice

Meditation

• Studies by:– Amishi Jha – work with DoD– Sarah Lazar – MRIs on brain matter and

cortical thickness

• Meditation Affects:– Neural connections in the prefrontal cortex– Executive functioning– State– Future state – ability to respond to stressors