Cognitive control is a central issue in developmental psychology. Traditional theories of psychology solve this problem by positing a top-down central executive, which coordinates cognitive resources in pursuit of goals. We propose an alternative explanation: cognitive control arises from physical interactions across many different timescales within the system. College and preschool aged participants were asked to complete a simple executive function task, card sorting. We found that multi-scale physical interactions differed depending on experimental constraints, and that executive function in these cases was driven primarily by flexibility in multi-scale interactions, rather than the dominance of one scale. This suggests that, rather than being the workings of a higher order central executive, cognitive control may be driven by physical interactions within the system.
","abstract_html":"<p>Cognitive control is a central issue in developmental psychology. Traditional theories of psychology solve this problem by positing a top-down central executive, which coordinates cognitive resources in pursuit of goals. We propose an alternative explanation: cognitive control arises from physical interactions across many different timescales within the system. College and preschool aged participants were asked to complete a simple executive function task, card sorting. We found that multi-scale physical interactions differed depending on experimental constraints, and that executive function in these cases was driven primarily by flexibility in multi-scale interactions, rather than the dominance of one scale. This suggests that, rather than being the workings of a higher order central executive, cognitive control may be driven by physical interactions within the system.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Anastas, Jason"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Marie Coppola; Heather Bortfeld","James Dixon"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-01-31T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-01-31T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:31:50Z","subjects":["Executive Function","Development","Self-organization"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/225","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Marie Coppola; Heather Bortfeld","James Dixon"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Anastas, Jason"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2012-01-31T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Executive Function","Development","Self-organization"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/225"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Cognitive control is a central issue in developmental psychology. Traditional theories of psychology solve this problem by positing a top-down central executive, which coordinates cognitive resources in pursuit of goals. We propose an alternative explanation: cognitive control arises from physical interactions across many different timescales within the system. College and preschool aged participants were asked to complete a simple executive function task, card sorting. We found that multi-scale physical interactions differed depending on experimental constraints, and that executive function in these cases was driven primarily by flexibility in multi-scale interactions, rather than the dominance of one scale. This suggests that, rather than being the workings of a higher order central executive, cognitive control may be driven by physical interactions within the system.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Multi-Scale Dynamics of Executive Function"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Marie Coppola; Heather Bortfeld","James Dixon"],"dc:creator":["Anastas, Jason"],"dc:date.available":["2012-01-31T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Cognitive control is a central issue in developmental psychology. Traditional theories of psychology solve this problem by positing a top-down central executive, which coordinates cognitive resources in pursuit of goals. We propose an alternative explanation: cognitive control arises from physical interactions across many different timescales within the system. College and preschool aged participants were asked to complete a simple executive function task, card sorting. We found that multi-scale physical interactions differed depending on experimental constraints, and that executive function in these cases was driven primarily by flexibility in multi-scale interactions, rather than the dominance of one scale. This suggests that, rather than being the workings of a higher order central executive, cognitive control may be driven by physical interactions within the system.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/225"],"dc:subject":["Executive Function","Development","Self-organization"],"dc:title":["The Multi-Scale Dynamics of Executive Function"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:31:50Z"}