Yuko Munakata

I haven't actively studied EF for a while, b/c I wasn't sure what new approache(s) I can take to adequately address those concerns. It turned out that @yukomunakata.bsky.social—a good friend since grad school—also experienced similar changes in the way she views EF (see her own 🧵👇). (10/12)

Earlier, I posted a 🧵 about the articles that students liked in my graduate course on executive function (EF)👇.

In this new 🧵 (the last one based on this class, I promise!), I thought I'd share some of the thoughts I had while teaching this course. If you’re interested in EF, read on. (1/12)

Beyond deficit models in early childhood development science We appreciate the efforts of the Lancet Series, Early Childhood Development and the Next 1000 Days, to draw attention to the needs of young children in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).1...

Finally out! For the first time, The Lancet has published a critical paper on the science of Early Childhood Development (#ECD).

As an interdisciplinary team of authors, we call on the ECD field move beyond the widespread use of deficit-based models.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

I taught a graduate course on executive function (EF) in the spring. Before I forget, I thought I'd tell you about the readings students liked the best (at the end of the semester, I asked students to vote for their favorite papers, excl. any of mine). Here are the top vote getters. 🧵 (1/6)

In this commencement season, you may be wondering "why is that thing called a hood, and can I actually wear it like one?" You can, you should.
Here demonstrated w/ @yukomunakata.bsky.social imparting this wisdom at my own graduation.

Lifespan development of the PI. My PhD mentor @yukomunakata.bsky.social had a great presentation she would give for new lab members about all the things her former mentors would do that seemed weird at the time but made total sense once she had her own lab, and I am 100% living out that timeline.

Super interesting & well done talk by @yukomunakata.bsky.social to cap off #SRCD25. Executive function is not a static cognitive ability “in the head” of children, but rather is influenced adaptively by environment, habits, and culture.

Thank you @proflaurenmyers.bsky.social!

Making the case for science - The Morning Sun I am a research scientist at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis. Before that, I was a student in Pittsburg Community Schools: I started kindergarten at Lakeside and g...

I wrote an OpEd arguing against funding cuts to NIH and NSF and their devastating impact for the newspaper I grew up with, the Morning Sun, in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Keep spreading the word, wherever you can.

morningsun.net/stories/maki...

Two Ways to Avoid the Procrastination Loop and Get Started on Anything New research in psychology describes some of the factors that contribute to procrastination in both children and adults. Learn some tips on how we can build the motivation to get started on that last-...

Here's a short news story about procrastination, just published in UC Davis's Letters & Science magazine. Featuring my long-time friend/colleague @yukomunakata.bsky.social, this article describes factors contributing to procrastination and gives you a few concrete tips for overcoming it.

Waiting for the same delayed flight back from one of my last PhD interviews with their visiting colloquium speaker, who quizzed me on my other offers and convinced me I shouldn't go there but instead to CU Boulder to work with @yukomunakata.bsky.social about which he was absolutely right.

I'll be forever grateful to that colloquium speaker!

Thanks for creating this list! Could you add me?

I have been really really really fascinated by this because something I think academics don't always see is that very small effects about "executive functions" sometimes have a massive mythology life out here in industry. Sometimes it feels like we're drowning in extreme claims about it

This entire thread is a splendid way for us in #HigherEd to re-frame how we design for and approach our learners, who come to us not just w/varying *levels* of executive function skills, but varying *kinds.*

This is research that would have been useful in the #UDL 3.0 guidelines! Have a read.

Really great thread. I agree. The HOW and WHY executive functions impact life outcomes is the next important step in understanding their influence. Our measures are key to that puzzle.

15/ To me, this means we need to EXPAND our answer to why kids' behaviors predict life outcomes, not ABANDON the question (and paradigms) altogether. Trust and habits may influence whether people engage executive functions on assessments and in daily life:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1jrb1,rU%7...

14/ I think the idea that traditional tests have been "debunked" isn't quite right. Yes, we've found that whether kids wait to eat a marshmallow depends on many things, like whether they trust an adult to follow through on promises and how much their culture practices waiting.

13/ If we find a correlation between children’s stress and sleep, and it becomes insignificant after controlling for parental stress, we wouldn’t conclude that the link between children’s stress and sleep was meaningless.

12/ Some researchers advocate controlling for many variables in an attempt to “purify” measures of executive function, and dismiss correlations with life outcomes if they weaken w/such controls, but they may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater:
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

11/ The controversies' reflect (in part) how you interpret what happens to the links after you add in covariates spanning cognitive and behavioral skills, family environment, and more, as Laura Michaelson @sabinedoebel.bsky.social and I discuss.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

10/ These discussions highlight the need to rethink *why* children's behaviors predict life outcomes, not *whether* they do. I think there's good evidence THAT they do. For example: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Global Executive Function Initiative

9/ The Global Executive Function Initiative is working to develop more culturally relevant approaches to assessment and support. I'm thrilled to have joined this thoughtful, innovative, collaborative group.
gefi.stanford.edu

8/ For me, a moment of insight came from seeing that the same child can find delaying gratification easy or hard, depending on the rewards offered and how they relate to cultural practices.
twitter.com/YukoMunakata...

7/ Even Suzanne Gaskins, who has worked with a Yucatec Mayan community for decades, thought traditional executive function measures would work universally, as described in the WaPo story. But she and Lucia Alcala found something more intriguing:
psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-...

6/ We've long known that test performance reflects all kinds of things, thanks to cultural, social, & dev psych etc. But executive function seems different: at a higher level, w/measures designed to be less tied to knowledge/values, so performance predicts diverse life outcomes.

5/ Carolyn Johnson dug into these findings after hearing CDS talks by @damcotto.bsky.social bsky.social, others, and me (featuring Yanaoka et al.'s work). When Suzanne Gaskins came up after my talk, I feared she might say, "Duh." Her real reaction makes sense now. twitter.com/Carolynyjohn...

The Marshmallow Test and other predictors of success have bias built in, researchers say Executive function is a collection of cognitive skills essential to human life, but psychologists now say our tests contain cultural biases.

4/ Imagine: Kids reacting like you're "from another planet" if you ask them to recite numbers backward. Kids prioritizing getting things right over finishing quickly. Kids refusing to say "day" to a picture of the moon, because that would be lying. wapo.st/3WZ9HRQ

3/ There may be something to that story. But many studies are revealing that kids (and adults) have executive function skills that they don’t engage on traditional assessments of executive function, for one reason or another.

2/ Early answers (including mine) focused on executive function CAPACITY: Some of us have a little, some of us have a lot. These individual differences stick with us and affect our ability to navigate school, relationships, work, health, and more.