What is ‘executive dysfunction’ and how do you overcome it?
Difficulty starting and getting overwhelmed by tasks are a few signs of it. We asked experts for tips on mitigating the effects
Perplexed by what my Therapist told me what to do to battle my executive dysfunction. Does she kinda have a point?
Perplexed by what my Therapist told me what to do to battle my executive dysfunction. Does she kinda have a point?
Did therapy help with your executive function issues?
Individual Differences in Executive Functions Are Almost Entirely Genetic in Origin
Recent psychological and neuropsychological research suggests that executive functions — the cognitive control processes that regulate thought and action — are multifaceted and that different types of executive functions are correlated but separable. The present multivariate twin study of three executive functions (inhibiting dominant responses, updating working memory representations, and shifting between task sets), measured as latent variables, examined why people vary in these executive control abilities and why these abilities are correlated but separable from a behavioral genetic perspective. Results indicated that executive functions are correlated because they are influenced by a highly heritable (99%) common factor that goes beyond general intelligence or perceptual speed, and they are separable because of additional genetic influences unique to particular executive functions. This combination of general and specific genetic influences places executive functions among the most heritable psychological traits. These results highlight the potential of genetic approaches for uncovering the biological underpinnings of executive functions and suggest a need for examining multiple types of executive functions to distinguish different levels of genetic influences.
Evidence grows that mental illness is more than dysfunction | Aeon Essays
Evidence is growing that mental illness is more than dysfunction, with enormous implications for treatment
(PDF) Leadership Failure in the Eyes of Subordinates: Perception, Antecedents, and Consequences *
PDF | Effective leaders and leadership behaviors and practices are well-researched areas in the domain of leadership and management. However,... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
Executive of the Future
Image depicts an anthropomorphic computer with a face and multiple arms; the machine is typing and pushing buttons on a control panel. The image was published in Artzy …
Generative artificial intelligence reliance and executive function attenuation: Behavioral evidence of cognitive offload in high-use adults.
The Feedback Fallacy
For years managers have been encouraged to candidly praise and criticize just about everything workers do. But it turns out that feedback does not help employees thrive. First, research shows that people can’t reliably rate the performance of others: More than 50% of your rating of someone reflects your characteristics, not hers. Second, neuroscience reveals that criticism provokes the brain’s “fight or flight” response and inhibits learning. Last, excellence looks different for each individual, so it can’t be defined in advance and transferred from one person to another. It’s also not the opposite of failure. Managers will never produce great performance by identifying what they think is failure and telling people how to correct it. Instead, when managers see a great outcome, they should turn to the person who created it, say, “Yes! That!,” and share their impression of why it was a success. Neuroscience shows that we grow most when people focus on our strengths. Learning rests on our grasp of what we’re doing well, not what we’re doing poorly, and certainly not on someone else’s sense of what we’re doing poorly.
How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation
I couldn’t figure out why small, straightforward tasks on my to-do list felt so impossible. The answer is both more complex and far simpler than I expected.
People Spend Too Much Time On Decisions with Equally Satisfying Outcomes
The pitfalls of analysis paralysis
Rethinking the cognitive foundations of the attention economy
The attention economy is the economic system in which human attention is the scarce resource. This literature takes a particular passage in Herbert Simon’s seminal Chapter Designing Organization fo...
The Attention Economy and the Collapse of Cognitive Autonomy
Check out the first in a series on social media from Denny Center Student Fellow Rai Hasen Masoud (F'27) to learn more about the attention economy and it's impacts on our democracy.
When Using AI Leads to “Brain Fry”
As firms increasingly incentivize employees to build and oversee complex teams of agents—for example, by measuring and rewarding token consumption as a proxy for performance—people are finding themselves pushed to their cognitive limits. Participants in a recent study described a “buzzing” feeling or a mental fog with difficulty focusing, slower decision-making, and headaches. The authors call this phenomenon “AI brain fry,” defined as mental fatigue from excessive use or oversight of AI tools beyond one’s cognitive capacity. This AI-associated mental strain carries significant costs in the form of increased employee errors, decision fatigue, and intention to quit. The findings also show how AI-driven workflows can be designed to diminish burnout and point toward specific manager, team, and organizational practices to avoid mental fatigue even as AI work intensifies.
