Invited Talk

Individual Differences in Executive Functions: Basic Findings and Implications for Self-Regulation Research

Chair: Akira Miyake University of Colorado at Boulder

People vary greatly in their ability to regulate their thought and action. To specify the cognitive and biological underpinnings of such variability, my colleagues and I have focused on three types of cognitive executive functions (updating, shifting, and inhibition) and examined their organization and relationships to various socially and clinically important variables (e.g., intelligence, substance use, attention problems at school). This presentation outlines our individual differences and behavioral genetic research and points out its implications for various subdisciplines of psychological science, including social, clinical, and health psychology (e.g., stereotyping and prejudice, behavioral disinhibition, regulation of dieting behavior).