Executive Functions, Memory, Intelligence, Cognitive Control, and Motivation

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the neuroanatomy of the frontal cortex, attention networks, working memory models, memory consolidation, theories and measurements of intelligence, neuromyths, cool and hot cognitive control, and motivational frameworks.

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (dlPFC)

A frontal lobe subregion that supports working memory, attentional control, reasoning, cognitive control, and cool executive functions.

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC)

A frontal lobe subregion that mediates emotion-related executive processing and affective decision-making via strong connections with limbic structures.Important for emotion-related decision-making.

Integrates emotional information into behavior and judgment.

Associated with "hot" cognitive control and affective executive function.

Premotor Cortex

A frontal lobe region primarily associated with the motor planning and preparation of movement.

Frontal Eye Fields

A frontal cortex region involved in directing visual attention and controlling eye movements in space.

Broca's Area

A frontal lobe area specialized for the motor planning and motor execution of speech production.

Domain-General System

A control system, such as executive function, that operates flexibly across diverse cognitive tasks and content domains rather than being specialized for a single topic.

Domain-Specific System

A neural or cognitive system specialized for processing a distinct category of information, such as reading or mathematical computation.

Top-Down Attention

A goal-directed, voluntary attentional system guided by internal intentions, prior expectations, and task goals.

Bottom-Up Attention

An automatic, stimulus-driven attentional system triggered by salient, abrupt, or unexpected environmental stimuli.

Overt Attention

The deployment of visual attention that is physically accompanied by moving the eyes toward the attended target.

Covert Attention

The shifting of attentional focus to an object or spatial location without moving the physical gaze or eyes.

Alerting Network

An attention network in Posner's model that supports vigilance, readiness, and the maintenance of an alert cognitive state.

Orienting Network

An attention network in Posner's model that directs attention toward spatial locations or environmental stimuli to select sensory inputs.

Executive Control Network

An attentional network engaging prefrontal cortex regions to resolve conflict, regulate goal-directed processing, and coordinate executive functions.

Working Memory

A limited-capacity cognitive system dedicated to the temporary active storage and manipulation of information during ongoing tasks.

Baddeley's Model of Working Memory

A multicomponent model comprising the Central Executive, the Phonological Loop, the Visuospatial Sketchpad, and the Episodic Buffer.

Chunking

The cognitive strategy of organizing individual elements of information into meaningful, higher-order units to enhance working memory capacity.

Positive Transfer

A learning transfer outcome where prior learning or practice facilitates performance on a novel task.

Negative Transfer

A learning transfer outcome where prior learning or experience hinders or interferes with performance on a novel task.

Near Transfer

The transfer of training gains or cognitive skills to novel tasks that are structurally and perceptually very similar to the trained task.

Far Transfer

The transfer of training benefits or acquired skills to tasks, situations, or academic domains that differ substantially from the trained task.

Modal Model of Memory

A cognitive architecture proposing that memory traces progress sequentially through Sensory Memory, Short-Term / Working Memory, and Long-Term Memory via encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to show superior recall for items presented at the beginning of a list, reflecting rehearsal and transfer into long-term memory.

Recency Effect

The tendency to show superior recall for items presented at the end of a list, supported by temporary maintenance in short-term or working memory.

Levels of Processing (LoP)

A cognitive framework demonstrating that deeper, meaning-based semantic processing produces more durable long-term retention than shallow perceptual processing.

Transfer Appropriate Processing

The memory principle showing that retrieval performance improves when the cognitive operations used during encoding match the cognitive demands required during retrieval.

Encoding Specificity

The principle stating that memory retrieval is enhanced when the contextual cues and conditions present at the time of retrieval match those present during encoding.

Patient H.M.

A patient who underwent bilateral medial temporal lobe resection resulting in severe anterograde episodic amnesia, despite preserved intelligence, short-term memory, and procedural learning.

Hippocampus

A medial temporal lobe structure essential for the consolidation and formation of new long-term declarative and episodic memories.

Childhood Amnesia (Infantile Amnesia)

The inability of older children and adults to retrieve episodic autobiographical memories from the earliest years of development.

Spacing Effect

The memory benefit whereby distributed study sessions spaced over time yield superior long-term retention compared to clustered or massed practice.

Testing Effect (Retrieval Practice)

The phenomenon whereby actively practicing memory retrieval serves as a learning event, producing stronger long-term retention than passive restudying.

Allometric Scaling (Allometry)

The biological scaling relationship showing that animals with larger body sizes tend to possess larger absolute brain sizes.

Encephalization Quotient (EQ)

A quantitative metric quantifying brain volume relative to body size that represents extra brain tissue beyond what allometric scaling predicts.

Fluid Intelligence ($g_f$)

The cognitive ability to reason abstractly, solve novel problems, and identify patterns, closely related to working memory capacity.

Crystallized Intelligence ($g_c$)

The reservoir of acquired knowledge, factual information, and verbal skills accumulated through formal education, experience, and culture.

Raven's Progressive Matrices

A non-verbal multiple-choice test of abstract matrix pattern completion designed as a culture-reduced assessment of fluid intelligence ($g_f$).

Positive Manifold

Charles Spearman's empirical finding that individuals' performance across diverse mental and academic tests correlates positively, pointing to a general intelligence factor ($g$).

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Robert Sternberg's intelligence model dividing intelligence into analytical intelligence (problem solving), creative intelligence (handling novelty), and practical intelligence (adapting to context).

Flynn Effect

The documented generational rise in average raw performance on standardized intelligence tests observed across the twentieth century.

Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT)

A neurobiological model asserting that intelligence emerges from distributed functional integration and communication between parietal and frontal cortex networks.

Heritability ($H$)

The proportion of total phenotypic variation in a trait within a population attributable to genetic variation, defined as $H = \frac{\text{var}(G)}{\text{var}(P)}$.

Dual Coding Theory

Allan Paivio's theory proposing that memory is enhanced when information is dually encoded via both verbal representations and visual mental imagery.

Mirror Neuron System

A frontoparietal neural network that fires both when performing a motor action and when passively observing another individual execute that action.

Meshing Hypothesis

The claim that academic instruction is most effective when pedagogical formats are matched directly to a student's purported learning style.

Crossover Interaction

The specific statistical interaction necessary to validate the meshing hypothesis, where visual learners learn best visually and verbal learners learn best verbally.

Conversion Hypothesis

The hypothesis proposing that individuals spontaneously recode information into their preferred modality internally, such as visualizers generating images from written words.

Cognitive Control

The set of adaptive processes that flexibly configure information processing and actions to align with current goals rather than rigid stimulus-response habits.

Cool Cognitive Control

Goal-directed executive control deployed in decontextualized, hypothetical, low-arousal environments, primarily mediated by dlPFC, parietal cortex, and the ACC.

Neural systems:

• dlPFC

• Parietal regions

• ACC (anterior cingulate cortex)

• vmPFC/OFC involvement

Hot Cognitive Control

Goal-directed executive control deployed in emotionally intense, reward-driven, or social contexts, supported by vmPFC, ventral striatum, nucleus accumbens, and limbic structures.

Neural systems:

• mPFC/ACC

• vmPFC/OFC

• Ventral striatum

• Nucleus accumbens

• Limbic system

Self-Discipline (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005)

A measure of self-regulation that longitudinal evidence showed predicts academic outcomes, such as GPA and school attendance, as well as or better than IQ.

Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

A broad framework of human motivation positing that healthy psychological functioning and high-quality engagement require meeting three basic needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Autonomy

A fundamental psychological need in Self-Determination Theory defined as experiencing volition, choice, and personal agency over one's own behaviors and goals.

Competence

A fundamental psychological need in Self-Determination Theory defined as feeling effective, skilled, and capable of mastering environmental challenges.

Relatedness

A fundamental psychological need in Self-Determination Theory defined as experiencing belonging, warmth, and mutual interpersonal connection with others.

Intrinsic Motivation

The drive to engage in an activity purely for its inherent interest, curiosity, exploratory value, or internal satisfaction.

Extrinsic Motivation

The drive to execute an action to obtain separable outcomes or contingent incentives, such as external rewards, praise, or avoidance of punishment.

Mesolimbic Pathway

A central dopaminergic reward projection extending from the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) to the Nucleus Accumbens and ventral striatum.

Mesocortical Pathway

A dopaminergic pathway running from the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) to the prefrontal cortex, especially targeting the vmPFC.

Undermining Effect

The observed decline in intrinsic motivation for a previously enjoyable activity following the introduction and subsequent termination of an extrinsic reward.

Utility-Value Intervention

A pedagogical intervention requiring students to reflect in writing on how course material connects to personal life goals, future plans, or prosocial values, boosting STEM persistence.

Which brain regions/networks are involved in EF

dlPFC vmPFC

3-network model of attention

Posner's three-network model: Alert, Orient, Control. a cognitive framework that describes how attention is managed through three interacting networks in the brain.

Neural areas underlying attention networks

The lecture associates attention networks with frontal and parietal systems and executive control regions including prefrontal cortex

Attention amplifies brain activity related to attended stimulus

• Attention increases neural responses to attended information.

• fMRI evidence shows stronger activation for attended stimuli.

• ERP studies show enhanced electrophysiological responses for attended information.

Basics of ADHD

• ADHD is characterized by significant difficulties involving attention and/or impulsivity.

• The lectures discuss inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptom patterns.

Neural systems supporting WM

• dlPFC plays a central role in supporting working memory.

• Frontoparietal networks are involved in working memory processes.

Relationship between attention and WM

Behavioral relationship

• Working memory depends heavily on attention.

• Attention determines what information enters and is maintained in working memory. [10-14-2026...oDemos.pdf | PDF], [10-12-2026...tionsI.pdf | PDF]

Neural relationship

• Attention and working memory share overlapping frontal-parietal networks.

Does brain training work? What is the evidence?

• Brain-training programs often produce improvements on the trained tasks.

• Evidence for robust far transfer is weak.

• Most benefits are strongest on tasks similar to those practiced

Memory tree diagram

The lecture presents a memory taxonomy/tree diagram distinguishing different memory systems.

Rehearsal is not sufficient for encoding

Simply repeating information does not guarantee durable long-term memory formation.

The role of meaning (prior knowledge)

• Existing knowledge structures support encoding and later retrieval.

• Meaningful information is remembered more effectively.

Rehearsal versus manipulation effects

Manipulating information produces stronger long-term learning than simple maintenance rehearsal.

Two component model of memory processes

• Associative processes- Associative processes refer to the mind’s ability to spontaneously link ideas, concepts, or memories through semantic or experiential connections.

• Strategic processes- Strategic processes, often called executive functions, involve controlled, goal-directed regulation of thought and action.

SSST vs STTT study

Students who repeatedly practiced retrieval (STTT) showed superior long-term retention compared with repeated studying followed by a single test (SSST).

Once encoded, what regions are involved in retrieval?

Retrieval involves hippocampal and cortical memory systems.

Neural basis of testing effect

Retrieval practice engages memory-retrieval systems and strengthens later access to information.

Formative vs. summative assessment

The lecture discusses testing as a learning tool, emphasizing formative uses of assessment to support retention.

Non-sensory cortex and increased prefrontal cortex size

• Lecture discusses differential expansion of prefrontal cortex and non-sensory cortex during evolution.

• Suggests larger and more specialized frontal systems support more complex cognition.

Many intelligent animals, not just more cortex

• Intelligent behavior is found in:

  • Crows

  • Bees

  • Octopuses

  • Dolphins

• Intelligence cannot be explained simply by having more cortex.

• Organization of nervous systems is critical.

IQ tests culturally bound

• Early intelligence tests relied heavily on cultural knowledge.

• Even tests intended to be culture-free are likely still biased.

IQ test distribution and standard deviation

• The lecture discusses IQ measurement.

• Traditional IQ formula presented:

  • IQ = Mental Age / Chronological Age × 100

Spearman: General Intelligence (g)

• Spearman used factor analysis.

• Observed that performance across many cognitive tasks tends to correlate.

• Called this pattern the "positive manifold."

• Proposed a general intelligence factor called g.

Gardner: Multiple Intelligences

Gardner proposed multiple forms of intelligence rather than one single ability.

The lecture describes eight distinct intelligences and argues traditional tests do not capture all human abilities.

Test-retest 70 years apart

• Intelligence shows substantial stability across long periods of time.

• The lecture presents evidence of long-term test-retest stability extending decades.

Genetics

• Intelligence correlates with intelligence of family members.

• Hundreds of genes contribute, each with very small effects

Brain Volume

Correlations reported in lecture:

• Head size ≈ .20

• Total brain volume ≈ .30-.40

• Frontal, temporal, parietal, hippocampal volume ≈ .25

• Gray matter ≈ .31

• White matter ≈ .27

Brain activity

• Prefrontal cortex activity

• Parietal cortex activity

• Neural processing efficiency

all correlate with intelligence measures.

Cognitive measures

• Working memory capacity

• Processing speed

correlate with intelligence.

Problem with inferring genetic causes when environment differs

• Heritability depends on environmental variation.

• Environmental differences affect observed estimates.

• Therefore high heritability does not mean environment is unimportant.

Rote memorization

• Can involve meaningless verbal material.

• Relies heavily on verbal processing.

• Associated with:

  • Premotor cortex

  • Left inferior frontal cortex (language systems)

• One possibility discussed is that memorization may free cognitive resources for more elaborate processing later.

Better memory for concrete vs abstract nouns

• Concrete words produce stronger imagery.

• High imagery words are remembered better.

• Explained by Paivio's Dual Coding Theory.

• Information encoded both verbally and visually is remembered better.

Kosslyn's zooming study

• Participants imagine objects at different scales.

• Judgments take longer when mentally "zooming" into smaller imagined objects.

• Evidence that mental images preserve spatial properties.

Imagine faces → FFA activates

• Category-specific imagery activates category-specific visual regions.

• Imagining faces activates face-selective areas.

Imagine places → PPA activates

Imagining places activates place-selective visual regions.

Relationship to empathy and expertise

The lecture describes the famous dance study:

• Ballet experts show greater mirror-network activation for ballet movements.

• Capoeira experts show greater activation for capoeira movements.

• Controls show relatively lower activation to both.

This demonstrates that prior experience shapes mirror-system responses.

What counts as evidence?

The lecture states that support for meshing requires a:

Cross-over interaction

Meaning:

• Visual learners should learn better from visual instruction.

• Verbal learners should learn better from verbal instruction.

• The advantage should reverse across groups.

Evidence for learning styles

• Hundreds of studies exist.

• Only one study met strict evidentiary criteria reviewed by Pashler et al.

• Multiple later studies failed to find support.

• Overall lecture conclusion:

  • No strong evidence that matching instruction to learning styles improves learning.

Kraemer study

Findings:

• Neural activity correlates with reported preferences.

• Correlation appears when individuals convert information into their preferred representation.

• Processing preference is not the same thing as a learning style.