Development of a battery of executive functions

Executive Functions are among the most complex aspects of cognition and involve different components, and such complexity is also reflected in conceptual definitions, since there is still no consensus about their definition. Currently, however, several authors agree that Executive Functions are an integrated system comprising distinct domains such as flexibility, updating, inhibition, alternation, and planning. The complexity of the construct reflects directly on the assessment of executive functions and the construction of appropriate tasks, since they do not measure only one skill. Additionally, several studies emphasize that executive functions develop throughout the childs growth, and the relationship with academic performance is well established in the literature. This research is part of a larger project whose main objective is to develop and propose a battery that evaluates distinct domains of executive functions, so that it can be used with several participants of different age groups, from infancy to adulthood, and also by different intellectual and socioeconomic levels.