What is executive function? Your guide to unlocking cognitive potential

Imagine the final moments of a championship game—you’re under pressure to make split-second decisions. Or perhaps you’re handling a high-stakes project with multiple deadlines at work. Performing successfully during these moments requires one critical capability: executive functioning.

Executive functioning is the brain’s command center, responsible for regulating thoughts, emotions, and actions. It powers skills such as focus, adaptability, and self-control, making it essential for success across all domains—from sports and academics to aging gracefully and thriving professionally.

What Is Executive Functioning? A Deep Dive into the Brain’s CEO

Executive function is an umbrella term referring to the cognitive processes that manage our conscious efforts. It’s like having a CEO in our brains, organizing tasks, solving problems, and keeping everything on track.

Located in the prefrontal cortex, these functions enable humans to respond to complex challenges by combining focus, flexibility, and emotional regulation. Without executive function skills, daily tasks like planning a workout, navigating a busy schedule, or remembering key information become strenuous.

The Core Components of Executive Functioning

Executive function is not one skill that you can point at and hone, like your short-term memory. Rather, it is a complex system of components that operate together to manage every aspect of your conscious efforts. It is needed to listen in class, attend important meetings, and get along with your peers.

1. Working Memory

Working memory is in charge of how you keep and use information on the fly. It acts like a mental notepad, helping you remember steps, sequences, or details while completing a task. Unlike short-term memory, which only stores information, working memory is the function that allows you to manipulate it. 

For example, when attending a meeting, your working memory helps you absorb information and respond. However, you'll also need cognitive flexibility to solve problems and inhibitory control to wait your turn to speak.

Key Takeaways:

• Strong working memory skills enable you to manipulate information on the go.
• Weak working memory may lead to errors, forgotten information, and reduced productivity.

2. Inhibitory Control and Self Regulation

You can think of inhibitory control as the angel on your shoulder that prevents you from doing things that are detrimental to your goals. It helps you regulate your behavior, emotions, attention, and cognition so that you can resist distractions, think before you speak, and act deliberately and according to your goals. 

3. What Happens When Inhibitory Control and Self-Regulation Go Wrong?

For adults, inhibitory control can seem easy, because when it’s working properly, we tend to take it for granted. However, this executive function is extremely difficult for children to acquire. Most of us witnessed—first-hand or otherwise—a child’s tantrum at least once. 

This is the usual setting:

You're on your weekly supermarket trip. Long queues. Adults waiting for their turn. All wear varying expressions of boredom, stress, anger, or dismay at having to waste precious time waiting in line. Most adults have the inhibitory control and self-regulation needed to wait without bursting into tears or throwing tantrums. Children, on the other hand, do not.

When faced with this conundrum, children will often start screaming at their disgruntled parents because they have to wait in line or because they want to eat candies right now. They will think the world is going to end and cease to exist if their wishes and needs are not met immediately.

This may seem like an exaggeration, but for a young child who has yet to master even the basic level of inhibitory control, denied gratification truly feels like the end of the world. 

Parents may often mistake this behavior for disobedience, but the fact of the matter is that children want to learn and receive praise for their behavior. Thankfully, with time, patience, and training, inhibitory control can become second nature.

What You Should Know:

• Weak inhibitory control can lead to impulsive decisions, poor productivity, and emotional busts.
• Strong inhibitory control helps you maintain focus, manage stress effectively, build discipline, and avoid mistakes. 

4. Cognitive Flexibility

Arguably one of the most desired executive functions, cognitive flexibility keeps the human mind nimble and sharp. When you need to adapt to new rules or circumstances, change perspectives, come up with a creative solution to a pesky problem, or switch between tasks rapidly, you rely on cognitive flexibility. It’s also a critical skill in times of rapid change.

In both children and adults, weak cognitive flexibility often manifests as rigidity. Tests that measure cognitive flexibility typically show children a set of shapes and colors, asking them to catalog them. On the first attempt, the child is asked to organize the shapes by color, which they succeed in doing. 

The tricky part happens when the child is asked to sort the pictures by shape. They might nod their understanding, but then continue to arrange the pictures by color. They believe they have performed the requested task, but as their cognitive flexibility is not developed enough, they are unable to switch between tasks.

People work throughout their lives to develop and improve their cognitive flexibility, not only so they can switch easily between tasks. This executive function is critical for empathy, as it helps you switch between perspectives and adjust to changes. It builds on working memory and inhibitory control, powering creative problem-solving skills and the ability to collaborate effectively.

Fun Fact:

A child’s executive functioning is often compared to a developing air traffic control system. As they grow, these skills improve, ensuring they can manage this mental "traffic" of thoughts, emotions, and decisions.

Executive Function Throughout Life: Why It Matters

Various aspects affect the development of executive function. While genes play a key role in our potential, our environment shapes how we utilize and improve on this baseline. Research indicates the foundation for our executive functions is laid in infancy, but the prime development time occurs between ages 3-5, and continues to develop during adolescence.

Is it Possible to Improve Executive Functions?

The good thing is that most children (and adults!) want to learn and advance—all they need is to acquire the right techniques. Often called “scaffolding,” these techniques utilize games and role-playing to improve executive functions. For example, playing video games can improve your brain’s plasticity.

Why scaffolding? Because these techniques offer the support needed in the beginning. As you learn and improve, you no longer need these scaffolds. In fact, research indicates that once you internalize these techniques, they become automated. Once that happens, you no longer need to consciously pay attention to the task.

The Conscious-Automated Balance

There is a fascinating balance between our executive functions and our automated system. Most literature points to an undeniable truth—people who are experts in their field often work automatically. They have internalized complex techniques and massive amounts of information so that they can work without having to exert their working memory or other functions. 

A huge part of what makes experts experts is their ability to automate work, as it helps free their conscious attention to perform additional tasks. Once the new skill becomes automated, it can seem like the expert is stuck at a certain level. At this point, you need to de-automate and use your executive function to level up. 

It is amazing what you can do once you learn to harness the power of your executive function. Have you ever seen a nurse handling several life-saving tasks while speaking compassionately to a patient? This is possible because of a balance between the nurse’s automated system and executive functions.

How to Unlock Your Cognitive Potential

Improving executive functioning requires targeted strategies that engage the brain’s cognitive skills. Mastermind offers an innovative and science-backed approach to enhancing these abilities.

Our cognitive training program combines cutting-edge tools like virtual reality (VR), gamified exercises, and personalized assessments to strengthen working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, self-regulation, and more.

• Personalized Cognitive Assessments: Track progress with regular reassessments across key skills like memory, focus, decision-making, and visual/auditory processing.
• Eye Movement Training: Strengthen eye control and visual processing with exercises like saccades, fixation, and near/far shifts.
• Immersive Training Games: Engage in fun exercises that enhance cognitive function by creating efficient neural pathways, leveraging VR and tablet gaming to target key performance skills.

The Mastermind training program is ideal for anyone looking to boost their executive function skills including athletes, business professionals, students, and seniors, offering solutions for each group’s unique cognitive demands.

Key Takeaways

Executive functioning is the foundation of success in every aspect of life. Whether you are aiming for athletic excellence, academic achievement, or professional growth, strengthening these skills will enhance your performance and resilience.

By focusing on working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and self-regulation, you can unlock your brain’s full potential. Remember, the best time to start is today, so keep practicing your skills to foster a sharper, more adaptable, and focused mind.