Can we fix executive function interventions and be more effective at helping people succeed in life?

You know how painful memories can stick with you? I've got one like that. It was about ten years ago that a colleague asked me to lunch to talk about executive function (EF) skills. A few of her family members had just been diagnosed with deficits in EF skills (e.g., working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility) and she wanted to know how to improve those skills and help them succeed in school and life. When I shared that the research, to date, hadn't really identified many successful EF interventions with effects on life skills, she sunk deep in her chair. "So, is this the best they will get?" she asked. I wish I had answered better. I wish I had said that, yes, EF skills are important but what's even more important is how we learn to use them. I wish I had said that there were lots of intermediate skills, which mediate the relationship between EF skills and life outcomes, that are amenable to intervention. But by focusing on the literature on EF interventions and their lack of transfer to real-world outcomes, I didn't give her the kind of hope I should have.

The good news is that we did talk about referrals to EF and neuropsychologist experts in the area, and her work with them led to many great outcomes for her family members. And now, I have a better framing for that conversation. Zelazo et al. (2024) have published a very readable explanation of what EF skills are, why we haven't found transfer between EF interventions and life skills, and what to do about it. In essence, they argued that there are intermediate skills, which they call EF-based life skills, that can be improved via interventions and do mediate the relationship between EF and real-world outcomes. So, we might work really hard to try to improve someone's working memory (i.e., an EF core skill), with no effects on their academic performance or social relationships. But, if we instead focused on helping them set better goals, learn better strategies, and get better at perspective-taking (i.e., EF-based life skills), then we might see the changes in real-world outcomes we are looking for. And, we might even see positive changes in core EF skills, because, while developing their EF-based life skills, people would learn to use their EF core skills more effectively.

Another part of the article that I really like is their focus on a civic-scientific approach to intervention design. Basically, that means researchers should develop interventions in partnership with the people they are trying to help, to respect those people's agency and make the interventions relevant, authentic, and useful. Civic science reminds me of research on implementation science and participatory action science, which have been prominent in education intervention research for some time. I'm thrilled to see cognition researchers exploring these methods. I think they are a promising way to develop effective EF (life-skills) interventions and I'd be thrilled to see this article push the field in such a direction. So, hopefully the next time I'm asked to lunch to talk about EF interventions, I'll be able to provide a better response and a little more hope.