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Copyright © 1996 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
The Need for Conceptual and Theoretical Clarity in the Study of Attention, Memory, and Executive Function
Human learning and behavior are dependent upon the ability to pay attention to critical features in the environment; retain and retrieve information; and select, deploy, monitor, and control cognitive strategies to learn, remember, and think. Without these abilities, we could not plan, solve problems, or use language. Likewise, being absent of the capacity to attend, remember, and organize and structure data within our world, we would be incapable of modifying our behavior when confronted with new situations. More directly, it would be impossible to generalize what we already know to novel situations and to acquire new concepts and strategies in coping with current, anticipated, and forthcoming events if we were not vigilant and attentive, if we could not remember the relevant cues in the environment that led to previous reinforcement, and if we were not strategic in our efforts. Thus, attention, memory, and executive function (mental control processes) play a central role in thinking, problem solving, and other complex symbolic activities involved in oral language, reading, writing, mathematics, and social behavior.
Our understanding of the development of attention, memory, and executive function take on added importance when one considers that deficits in any of these three processes typically result in difficulties succeeding in school and in the work force. The impact of attentional disorders on learning and behavior is significant. Youngsters manifesting the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder constitute the largest number of children now referred for diagnostic evaluations (see Chapter 4). Moreover, it is known that defective attentional mechanisms have long-term serious implications for children's development of memory strategies as well as intellectual and cognitive functions, including executive function (Douglas, 1980). Unfortunately, our ability to chart the specific relationships between attention, memory, and executive function has been hampered by fuzzy definitions of these domains and competition among theories and models to explain their development or lack of development.
More specifically, the central importance of attention, memory, and executive function in our development, learning, and behavior begs for a more complete theoretical and conceptual understanding of these domains. While each of the domains has a rich a history and literature, knowledge about each remains limited and fragmented. This is primarily because scientists exploring these areas approach their investigative tasks with widely divergent basic assumptions, questions, and methodologies. Researchers studying attention frequently use a variety of vocabularies and employ different theories to test their hypotheses. A review of research on memory processes reveals enormous differences in how memory is conceptualized and studied. Likewise, the study of executive function is confounded significantly by variations in definitions and confusions with other cognitive processes.
Given the substantial debate and confusion about how best to conceptualize, operationalize, and assess the domains of attention, memory, and executive function, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) sponsored a working conference to produce a state-of-the-art review about current thinking in these areas and the application of this knowledge to our understanding of child development in general and learning disabilities in particular. In order to accomplish this review, the NICHD relied heavily upon the expertise of Dr. Russell Barkley (University of Massachusetts), Dr. Jack Fletcher (University of Houston), Dr. Robin Mo
