I am curious to know is there a way to behaviorally disassociate processing speed and executive function in a single task.
I have found one study (Article Processing Speed, Executive Function, and Age Differences in...
) where the authors manipulated presentation time of a list of words. The rationale was that longer presentation time would engage more executive function as more detailed encoding would be done.Using the above mentioned rationale can be manipulate timing in a stroop task and expect more accuracy on longer presentation time than on lower presentation time?
Also can we apply the same principle to other executive function tasks??
Would be grate if someone could share their views on this
Thanks
Vatsal
Dear Vatsal,
that’s some good question, indeed.
However, I wonder if – in the light of the multifaceted nature of what we nowadays tend to understand by “executive functions (EF)” (a set of general-purpose control processes that regulate one’s thoughts and behaviors, like response inhibition, interference control, working memory updating, set shifting, and sometimes also planning; see, e.g. Diamond, 2013, or Friedman & Miyake, 2017) – it would be wise to intend to assess EF with one single test at all (depending, of course, what aspect(s) of EF (and its possible relation to age, as in the Bunce & Macready study from 2005) you’re after).
Also, to me it seems that the backward digit span task used by Bunce & Macready might be more closely related to working memory as such (i.e. a combination of maintenance and manipulation of attentional perceived information, typically assessed by complex span tasks) than to one of the above-mentioned processes which are typically identified as specific EFs. (Of course, WM is, by some authors, also captured under the “umbrella term” of EF; see Diamond) The verbal fluency tasks, on the other hand, seem to specifically assess subjects’ access to long-term memory.
Finally, the concept of “processing speed” might require some more specification. In the Bunce & Macready study this was pretty much confined to speed of feature recognition and (choice) reaction time. What about speed of higher-order mental manipulations like maths-work?
So, all in all I’d suggest to be more specific on what you actually want to test, and which one of the various EF and/or WN models currently under debate you might prefer.
References EF:
Friedman, N.P. & Miyake, A. (2017). Unity and diversity of executive functions: Individual differences as a window on cognitive structure. Cortex 86, 186 – 204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2016.04.023
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive Functions. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 64, 135-168. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750 ·
Reference WM:
Wilhelm, O., Hildebrandt, A., & Oberauer, K. (2013). What is working memory capacity, and how can we measure it? Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 4, Article 433. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00433
Dear Klaus Blischke
Thank you for your reply. I surely understand that EF is multifaceted and using a single measure will only produce a small image. As with processing speed which I see as a speed at which any cognitive (either higher or superficial) process functions. For instance how fast a person can calculate a given math problem in their head or how fast a person can recognize an object.
Thus, my question is: can we behaviorally test the dynamics between processing speed and different facets of executive function?
As I mentioned earlier in my question that running a stroop task with longer presentation time it is possible to expect more accuracy than at a brief presentation time. If processing speed really affects executive function the accuracy will suffer. Thus, using the same principle can we manipulate time and expect similar trend in other executive function tasks??
Thanks
Vatsal
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