Shifting
Εναλλαγή
The executive function that moves you from one rule, task or method to another. It comes apart statistically from the function that keeps updating what you are holding, which is why the goal is the piece that slips while your attention is on the new method.
How to spot it
Write the goal in one sentence before you change method, then compare it word for word with the sentence you wrote the previous time.
The research behind the term
The term is not our invention. It comes from published research, and what follows is what that research found — our own synthesis of the published abstract, not a translation of the original.
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. D. (2000). The Unity and Diversity of Executive Functions — doi:10.1006/cogp.1999.0734
The study demonstrates that executive functions consist of distinct but interrelated cognitive abilities, such as inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory. These findings had a substantial influence on educational psychology and cognitive neuroscience.
Practised in
The term does not stay a definition. It appears inside missions where the pattern happens in real time and you have to recognise it as it happens to you.
The Road Is Blocked
Three Changes, One Afternoon
Sources
Every claim on this page maps to published research. The citations link to the original source.
- Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. D. (2000). The Unity and Diversity of Executive Functions — doi:10.1006/cogp.1999.0734