Perone Sammy, Simmering Vanessa R, Buss Aaron T
Department of Human Development, Washington State University.
Madison, Wisconsin.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2021 Nov;16(6):1198-1208. doi: 10.1177/1745691620966792. Epub 2021 Feb 16.
Executive function plays a foundational role in everyday behaviors across the life span. The theoretical understanding of executive-function development, however, is still a work in progress. Doebel proposed that executive-function development reflects skills using control in the service of behavior-using mental content such as knowledge and beliefs to guide behavior in a context-specific fashion. This liberating view contrasts with modular views of executive function. This new view resembles some older dynamic-systems concepts that long ago proposed that behavior reflects the assembly of multiple pieces in context. We dig into this resemblance and evaluate what else dynamic-systems theory adds to the understanding of executive-function development. We describe core dynamic-systems concepts and apply them to executive function-as conceptualized by Doebel-and through this lens explain the multilevel nature of goal-directed behavior and how a capacity to behave in a goal-directed fashion across contexts emerges over development. We then describe a dynamic systems model of goal-directed behavior during childhood and, finally, address broader theoretical implications of dynamic-systems theory and propose new translational implications for fostering children's capacity to behave in a goal-directed fashion across everyday contexts.
执行功能在整个生命周期的日常行为中起着基础性作用。然而，对执行功能发展的理论理解仍在不断完善之中。多贝尔提出，执行功能的发展反映了利用控制来服务于行为的技能——利用诸如知识和信念等心理内容，以特定情境的方式指导行为。这种解放性的观点与执行功能的模块化观点形成对比。这一新观点类似于一些较早的动态系统概念，这些概念早就提出行为反映了多种元素在情境中的组合。我们深入探讨这种相似性，并评估动态系统理论在理解执行功能发展方面还增添了哪些内容。我们描述核心动态系统概念，并将其应用于多贝尔所概念化的执行功能，通过这一视角解释目标导向行为的多层次性质，以及在不同情境下以目标导向方式行事的能力是如何在发展过程中出现的。然后，我们描述儿童期目标导向行为的动态系统模型，最后探讨动态系统理论更广泛的理论意义，并提出促进儿童在日常情境中以目标导向方式行事能力的新转化意义。
