Executive Function tests

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I am struggling with the definition of Executive Function.

Some of the tests of Executive Function (which I score badly in) involve tasks which seem very similar to some of the activities that I consider to be my personal strengths. For instance, I have seen "Name all the animals that start with 'S'" and "Find all the words containing a 'T'" and "Click the colour / shape".

In real life one of the tasks that I feel I do well is error-correction (spotting mistakes in records, finding missing records and eliminating duplicates) for analysis. The most recent task I had was to ensure that every one of 15,000 documents had the same name in two file digital file stores. I can maintain focus for hours a day, for days in a row, with close to 100% accuracy (it is usually easy to tell when a record is correct, but difficult to determine why it is not). Other people do this badly, get frustrated and give up quickly - or tolerate the tedium but do not have the skill to fix the errors.

I can see my Executive Function fail when there is unexpected change to a plan, or when something happens that I did not anticipate. What makes the Executive Function tests difficult?

Last edited by StuartN on 03 Sep 2010, 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Just guessing here, but maybe a simple lack of familiarity with the actual material at hand?

Like you, I can work with familiar material (daily text, common files, etc.) with very few mistakes, yet I sometimes type "2" in place of "T" (they begin with the same sound) or "G" in place of "6" (they look somewhat similar) when very occasionally typing in a product license key. The mind knows what it wants, and the fingers know where to go ... but something in-between can be dysfunctional when outside of doing other things I can almost do by rote. For example, I almost never mis-type a password.

Someone in another thread ("Quick EF Test" or similar title) says it is difficulty with organisation, which agrees with you - the familiar is already organised either because you have been presented with it pre-organised (like remembering the Periodic Table) or because you have previously organised it without a time-constraint (like finding a song within your favourite musical genres).

I am still struggling to understand how I have the ability to focus methodically on a task that is extremely mundane, but requires conscientious application of skill to fix infrequent errors. I have seen other people reporting this ability, with success in highly skilled job areas.

And then they also report failing abysmally when asked simple questions, or presented with apparently simple tasks. For example, I have given presentations on my work that are almost always praised as highly engaging and informative, but I have never once been able to answer the audience questions that follow - which makes me look like a fool, and probably makes people think that I don't do the work myself.

This is more or less what Executive Function is supposed to be - being capable of solve unexpected situations, instead of following a predefined path of action.