Kroupin Ivan, Davis Helen Elizabeth, Burdett Emily, Cuata Agustina Bani, Hartley Vahumburuka, Henrich Joseph
Department of Psychological and Behavioral Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom.
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Jul 8;122(27):e2407955122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2407955122. Epub 2025 Jun 30.
In cognitive science, 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 decontextualized/arbitrary processing which decades of cross-cultural work indicate develop primarily in "schooled worlds"-industrialized societies with universal schooling. Here, we report comparisons of performance on typical EF tasks by children inside, and wholly outside schooled worlds. Namely, children ages 5 to 18 from a postindustrial context with universal schooling (UK) and their peers in a rural, nonindustrialized 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 decontextualized/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 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 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.
在认知科学中，“执行功能”（EF）这一术语指的是思维的普遍特征。然而，几乎所有被描述为测量执行功能的结果实际上可能反映的是特定文化背景下的认知能力。毕竟，典型的执行功能测量需要去情境化/任意处理的形式，而数十年的跨文化研究表明，这种能力主要在“受教育的世界”——具有普及教育的工业化社会中发展。在此，我们报告了在典型执行功能任务上，处于受教育世界内部和完全处于其外部的儿童的表现比较。具体来说，是来自后工业化背景且有普及教育的5至18岁儿童（英国），以及来自农村、非工业化背景且未接受过教育的同龄人（纳米比亚/安哥拉的库内内地区），还有两个有一定受教育经历的样本。与此前针对此类群体进行的大量关于去情境化/任意处理的研究一致，我们发现典型执行功能任务所测量的技能并非普遍发展：与接受过教育的同龄人相比，尤其是与“典型的”受教育世界样本相比，来自正规教育有限或没有正规教育的农村群体的儿童在表现上存在深刻的、有时甚至是质的差异。总之，某种形式的潜在认知控制能力在文化背景中显然至关重要。然而，典型的执行功能任务几乎肯定反映的是特定文化背景下的认知发展形式。这表明我们必须在使用执行功能这一术语来描述以下两种情况之间做出决定：1）普遍能力；2）典型任务表现中所反映的特定文化背景下的技能集。无论选择哪种，都有必要重新审视我们如何理解迄今为止被测量为执行功能的内容，以及我们未来希望测量的内容。
