执行功能研究方法评述

A Review on Research Methods of Executive Function

虽然对执行功能的研究长期以来都是从神经心理学角度出发的,但现在发展心理学领域中也出现了大量的研究,其研究方法也层出不穷。该文从发展心理学角度分析了研究儿童冷执行功能和热执行功能的常用方法,包括搜寻任务、规则运用任务、优势规则抑制任务、矛盾冲突任务、问题解决任务、图片工作记忆任务、心理理论任务、延迟满足任务、儿童博弈任务和反向择物。通过对这些方法的分析,作者发现,执行功能的概念已逐步扩展到包容整个认知过程,而已有的关于执行功能的观点都只强调了其中某一个或几个方面,还没有一种观点能够将上述方法所研究的执行功能概括完整。执行功能的本质还远远不能清晰地展示在我们面前。

Researches about Executive Function (EF) have been based on neuropsychology for a long time. However, recently a lot of researches appeared in the field of developmental psychology, and new research methods appeared constantly. This essay analyzes common methods to research hot EF and cool EF from the view of developmental psychology, includes Search Tasks, Rule Use Tasks, Inhibit Dominant Response Tasks, Conflict tasks, Problem Solving Tasks, Picture Working Memory Tasks, Tasks of Theory of Mind, Delay of Gratification Task, Childrens Gambling Task and Object Reversal Task. From these analyses, we find that the concept of EF has gradually extended to contain the whole cognitive processes. The existing theories emphasized one or several aspects of EF, yet there has not been a theory which can sum up all the aspects of EF researched by the above methods. The nature of EF has not been clear to us.