The cultural construction of “executive function”

In theory, the term "executive function" (EF) refers to universal features of the mind. Yet, almost all results described as measuring "EF" may actually reflect culturally-specific cognitive capacities. After all, typical EF measures require forms of abstract/arbitrary processing which decades of cross-cultural work indicate develop primarily in ‘schooled worlds’ - industrialized societies with universal schooling. Here we report, for the first time, comparisons of performance on typical EF tasks by children inside, and wholly outside schooled worlds. Namely, children ages 5-18 from a post-industrial context with universal schooling (UK) and their peers in a rural, non-industrialized context with no exposure to schooling (Kunene region, Namibia/Angola), as well as two samples with intermediate exposure to schooled worlds. In line with extensive previous work on abstract/arbitrary processing across such groups, we find skills measured by typical EF tasks do not develop universally: Children from rural groups with limited or no formal schooling show profound, sometimes qualitative, differences in performance compared to their schooled peers and, especially, compared to a 'typical' schooled-world sample. In sum, some form of latent cognitive control capacities are obviously crucial in all cultural contexts. However, typical EF tasks almost certainly reflect culturally-specific forms of cognitive development. This suggests we must decide between using the term “EF” to describe 1) universal capacities or 2) the culturally-specific skill set reflected in performance on typical tasks. Either option warrants revisiting how we understand what has been measured as “EF” to date, and what we wish to measure going forward.