Executive function Reflection, iterative

Executive function: Reflection, iterative reprocessing, complexity, and the developing brain Zelazo

EF is typically measured behaviorally as three skills: cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control

EF varies along a continuum from “hot EF” to “cool EF”  Hot EF

flexible reappraisal of whether to approach or avoid a salient stimulus, deliberate emotion regulation

Cool EF relatively arbitrary or decontextualized tasks

At the func- tional level of cognition, reflection is the deliberate, sustained consideration (and re-consideration) of something in the context of goal-directed problem solving. Reflection occurs when one interrupts an ongoing stream of consciousness or action, and actively considers one’s situation, or construes it in a way that is experienced as “stepping back” and achieving some degree of psychological distance on one’s experiences

The preschool period may be a particularly sensitive period for the development of reflection – the acquisition of reflection skills – because this is a period of rapid growth in reflection, as seen, for example, in cor- related rapid improvements in EF skill and flexible perspective taking, or theory of mind