Executive Functioning and
Sentence Comprehension
Sarah Key-DeLyria, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Portland State University
Learning Objectives
1. Define the categories of executive functions.
2. Define specific types of executive function skills within
the general categories.
3. Name tasks that are thought to test several specific
executive functions.
4. Name specific executive function skills that may be
used at different points during sentence comprehension.
Executive Functioning: What is it?
• A collection of constructs
GOAL FORMULATION1
PLANNING1,4,5,6,7
Sustained attention1,2
Not necessarily a component but required for successful planning
Hypothesizing and Hypothesis Testing6
Generate Alternatives4 or Verbal/ Design Fluency5,20
Problem Solving5,8,9
Decision making5
Rule Detection10
Strategizing4
Conceptual Framework1
Internally or Externally Generated1;
Requires at least Intention1,
Motivation1, and Self awareness1,2,3
CARRYING OUT
ACTIVITIES1
e.g., Initiate, Switch, Stop Sequence, Maintain,
in an Orderly & Integrated Manner
UPDATING4,5,7,9,15
SHIFTING & INHIBITION
Memory5,7,9,15
Working
Modify15 or Update
Information4,8,9,15 or Internal
representation4
Sequencing4
Manipulate information9
Monitoring of information4
•
•
•
DUAL TASK or TIME
SHARING 4,15,19
Allocate resources between tasks or
processes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Terms Referring to Shifting
Selectively attend to one and
inhibit* effect of other
stimuli2,5,15
Engage/Disengage
appropriately8
New operation despite
negative priming/ interference8
Mental Flexibility8,16
Cognitive Flexibility4,5,8,20
Cognitive Control17
Inhibitory Control16,18
Attentional Control16,18
Attention Shifting17
Set shifting8,15,16,17
Switching1,4,5,19
Shifting terms are mostly synonymous
but not always used with the same
definitions or tasks20.
Switching also refers to switching
repeatedly in the dual task sense.
Conflict resolution17
Shifting due to an internal
representation not compatible
with current demands
EFFECTIVE
PERFORMANCE1
Executive
Function
Categories
*Types of Inhibition11
• Motor response Inhibition12
• Cognitive Inhibition12,13
Suppresses irrelevant information
already in working memory
• Resistance to Interference13
Prevents irrelevant information from
entering working memory
• Unintentional Inhibition8,12
Can lead to reactive inhibition8
• Inhibition of prepotent
response4,8
• Current target requires a ‘no’
response but it required ‘yes’
recently14; Intentional
Inhibition8,12
•
Reactive Inhibition7,14
o Inhibition of Return (IOR)8,21
Target in a location that was
previously cued; IOR occurs after a
brief period of enhancement with
the initial cue
o Negative Priming8
Current target where a distractor
used to be
e.g., Monitor1,4, Self-Correct, Regulate Tempo & Intensity
Effective performance is required throughout many of the
above processes
1Lezak,
1982 2Stuss & Alexander,
2000
& Strauss, 1998
4Salthouse et al., 2003 5Alvarez &
Emory, 2006 6Lehto, 1996 7Grossman
et al., 2002 8Miyake et al., 2000
9Carpenter, Just, & Reichle, 2000
10Jurado & Rosselli, 2007 11Some
consider inhibition to be a possible
underlying feature of all EF
subcomponents (Miyake et al., 2000);
the inhibition types listed are not
necessarily mutually exclusive
12Harnishfeger, 1995 13Wilson & Kipp,
1998 14Jonides, Smith, Marshuetz,
Koeppe, & Reuter-Lorenz, 1998
15Collette & Van der Linden, 2002
16Mazuka, Jincho, & Oishi, 2009
17Novick et al., 2005 18Cowan, Fristoe,
Elliott, Brunner, & Saults, 2006
19Baddeley, 1996 20Flexibility is often
used loosely to refer to shifting,
switching or even to take many
viewpoints, especially in novel
contexts3. Spreen and Strauss (1998)
separate cognitive flexibility into
spontaneous flexibility, synonymous
with fluency, and reactive flexibility,
defined as shifting. 21Klein, 2000
3Spreen
Important Subcomponents
• Planning
• The delineation & identification of alternatives,
organization, decision-making, and strategizing in
relation to current choices or behaviors
• Directed towards to future
• Helps to update goals
• Involves Strategizing
• Involves Hypothesizing
Important Subcomponents
• Carrying out activities
• Cognitive Control
• Coordinate thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals
(overarching resource)
• Indicates how much “top-down” control to exert
• Set shifting
• Doing something despite interference, negative priming,
distraction (Miyake et al., 2000)
• OR inhibit a previous item and activate a new item
• OR maybe just activating a new item enough to shift well
• Conflict Resolution
• Monitors levels of conflict to pass on to ‘control centers’
• Seeks an alternative
• Set shifting needs conflict resolution to determine level of control
Important Subcomponents
• Carrying out activities
•
•
•
•
Cognitive Inhibition
Resistance to interference
Inhibition of a prepotent response
Negative priming
• Monitoring/ Error detection
• Conflict resolution?
Testing Executive Functions
Tasks
Planning Constructs Shifting & Inhibiting Effective
Constructs
Performance
Constructs
Tower of Hanoi (Simon,
1975)
Overall planning,
Strategizing,
Hypothesizing
“Avoiding
perseveration”;
Impulse control,
Inhibition
Wisconsin Card Sorting Task
(Berg, 1948)
Overall planning,
Problem Solving
(Mental/Cognitive)
Flexibility, Inhibitory
Control, Shifting
Trail-Making Test (WAIS-IV)
Overall planning
(Tralis B)
Cognitive Flexibility,
A: Maintaining
Sequences; B:
Alternating Between
Sequences
Multiple Errands Test
(Shallice & Evans, 1978)
Overall planning,
Rule detection,
Time management
Tasks
Planning
Constructs
Cognitive
Estimates Test
(Shallice & Evans,
1978)
Overall
planning,
Estimation
Shifting & Inhibiting
Constructs
Verbal or Design
Overall
Fluency (Benton & planning,
Hamsher, 1989)
Strategizing,
Maintenance
of set
Effective
Performance
Constructs
Monitoring to
avoid repetition
Stroop (Stroop
Color and Word
Test, Golden)
Cognitive control, Conflict
resolution, Inhibition,
Inhibition of prepotent
response, Negative
priming, Stroop
interference, Mental
flexibility, Processing
speed!...
Delayed letter
verification
Updating, Cognitive
control
Tasks
Planning
Constructs
Shifting &
Inhibiting
Constructs
Plus-minus task
(Miyake et al.,
2000)
Shifting
Flanker task
Resistance to
interference
Antisaccade task
Inhibition of
prepotent
response
Effective
Performance
Constructs
Plus-minus task
65
24
35
98
21
94
36
56
46
37
85
66
86
12
17
65
64
43
92
38
38
86
53
44
83
71
91
64
61
16
64
92
30
83
59
14
64
6
14
85
32
29
74
14
29
7
92
37
13
75
61
96
50
64
81
92
76
54
68
26
11
98
21
31
97
47
49
18
91
39
93
55
1
32
83
50
38
99
1
78
43
90
89
2
92
80
76
30
20
69
How do we comprehend
sentences?
• Rules, Context, Meaning
• But when?
• Incrementally!
• Theories of sentence processing
• Garden Path Model (Frazier, 1987; Frazier & Rayner,
1982)
• Multiple Constraints Model (Trueswell, Tanenhaus, &
Garnsey, 1994)
• “Good Enough” Model (Christianson, Hollingworth,
Halliwell, & Ferreira, 2001)
How do we test sentence
comprehension?
• Informal assessment
• Token Test
• New! Northwester Assessment of Verbs and
Sentences (NAVS)
Executive Function and Sentence
Comprehension ARE linked
•
•
•
•
•
•
January et al., 2009
Novick et al., 2004, 2005
Prior & Gollan, 2013
Ye & Zhou 2008, 2009
Grossman et al., 2002; Waters & Caplan, 1997 (PD)
Novick et al., 2010; Hamilton & Martin, 2005 (VLPFC
damage cases)
• Sesma et al., 2009 (ADHD)
• Christiansen et al., 2010 (Aphasia: Agrammatism)
• Hinchliffe et al., 1998 (TBI)
Temporarily Ambiguous Sentence
Comprehension
IP
IP
Conj
NP
IP
?
VP
VP
V
PP
NP
While the man hunted the deer ran into the woods.
PP
NP
Conj
NP
IP
IP
VP
VP
IP
Christianson et al., 2001
Ambiguous Sentence Resolution
and EFs
• Pre-sentence
• Planning
• Goal setting
• Where’s the data?
• Initial interpretation
•
•
•
•
•
Maintaining the goal
Sequencing
Strategic Planning
Hypothesizing (Novais-Santos et al., 2007)
Cognitive Inhibition of possible alternatives in WM
Ambiguous Sentence Resolution
and EFs
• Wait, what? (encountering an unexpected ending)
•
•
•
•
•
Monitoring/ Error detection
Conflict resolution (Ye & Zhou, 2008)
Cognitive control (Novick et al., 2004, 2005)
Hypothesizing?
Maintaining the goal?
• Resolving (maybe)
•
•
•
•
•
Set shifting
Maybe not fully inhibiting that first parse
Switching (Novais-Santos et al., 2007)
Negative Priming
Inhibition of a prepotent response
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