A dynamical reconceptualization of executive function development

Executive function plays a foundational role in everyday behaviors across the lifespan. Our theoretical understanding of executive function development, however, is still a work in progress. Doebel (2020) proposed executive function development reflects skills using control in the service of behavior, using mental content such as knowledge and beliefs to guide behavior in a context specific fashion. This liberating view contrasts with modular views of executive function. This new view resembles some older dynamic systems concepts which long ago proposed behavior reflects the assembly of multiple pieces in context. We dig into this resemblance and evaluate what else dynamic systems theory adds to our understanding of executive function development. We describe core dynamic systems concepts and apply them to executive function – as conceptualized by Doebel – and through this lens explain the multi-level nature of goal-directed behavior and how a capacity to behave in a goal-directed fashion across contexts emerges over development. We then describe a dynamic systems model of goal-directed behavior during childhood and, finally, address broader theoretical implications of dynamic systems theory and propose new translational implications for fostering children’s capacity to behave in a goal-directed fashion across everyday contexts.