The relationship between Executive Functions and Computational Thinking
Abstract
We argue that understanding the cognitive foundations of computational thinking will assist educators to improve children’s learning in computing. We explain the conceptual relationship between executive functions and aspects of computational thinking. We present exploratory empirical data from 23 eleven year old learners which investigates the correlation between assessments of programming and debugging in the visual language Scratch and scores from the BRIEF 2 assessment of executive functions. The initial data shows moderate to large correlations between assessments of debugging and programming with the BRIEF2 teachers’ rating of executive function as manifested in classroom behaviour. Case studies from the empirical data are used to qualitatively illustrate how executive functions relate to a game making task. We discuss the implications of these findings for educators, and present suggestions for future work.
Downloads
References
References
Allsop, Y. (2019). Assessing computational thinking process using a multiple evaluation approach. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 19, 30–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2018.10.004
Altemeier, L. E., Abbott, R. D., & Berninger, V. W. (2008). Executive functions for reading and writing in typical literacy development and dyslexia. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 30(5), 588–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803390701562818
Anderson, P. (2002). Assessment and Development of Executive Function (EF) During Childhood. Child Neuropsychology, 8(2), 71–82. https://doi.org/10.1076/chin.8.2.71.8724
Aron, A. R., Robbins, T. W., & Poldrack, R. A. (2004). Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(4), 170–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.010
Best, J. R., Miller, P. H., & Naglieri, J. A. (2011). Relations between executive function and academic achievement from ages 5 to 17 in a large, representative national sample. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(4), 327–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2011.01.007
Brennan, K., & Resnick, M. (2012). New frameworks for studying and assessing the development of computational thinking. Annual American Educational Research Association Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1.1.296.6602
Bryce, D., Whitebread, D., & Sz?cs, D. (2015). The relationships among executive functions, metacognitive skills and educational achievement in 5 and 7 year-old children. Metacognition and Learning, 10(2), 181–198. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-014-9120-4
Bull, R., & Scerif, G. (2010). Developmental Neuropsychology Callosal Contribution to Procedural Learning in Children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 19(3), 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326942DN1903
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/112/1/155/
Cragg, L., & Gilmore, C. (2014). Skills underlying mathematics: The role of executive function in the development of mathematics proficiency. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 3(2), 63–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2013.12.001
Daly, M., Delaney, L., Egan, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2015). Childhood Self-Control and Unemployment Throughout the Life Span: Evidence From Two British Cohort Studies. Psychological Science, 26(6), 709–723. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615569001
Denckla, M. B. (1996). Research on executive function in a neurodevelopmental context: Application of clinical measures. Developmental Neuropsychology, 12(1), 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/87565649609540637
Diamond, A. (2012). Activities and Programs That Improve Children’s Executive Functions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(5), 335–341. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412453722
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
Dodzik, P. (2017). Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition Gerard A. Gioia, Peter K. Isquith, Steven C. Guy, and Lauren Kenworthy. Journal of Pediatric Neuropsychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40817-017-0044-1
Dolan, C. V, & Molen, M. W. Van Der. (2006). Age-related change in executive function : Developmental trends and a latent variable analysis. Neuropsychologia, 44, 2017–2036. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.01.010
Gilmore, C., Attridge, N., Clayton, S., Cragg, L., Johnson, S., Marlow, N., … Inglis, M. (2013). Individual Differences in Inhibitory Control, Not Non-Verbal Number Acuity, Correlate with Mathematics Achievement. PLoS ONE, 8(6), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067374
Gilmore, C., & Cragg, L. (2014). Teachers’ Understanding of the Role of Executive Functions in Mathematics Learning. Mind, Brain and Education : The Official Journal of the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, 8(3), 132–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12050
Gioia, G., Isquith, P., Guy, S., & Kenworthy, L. (2015). BRIEF 2 Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function: Professional Manual. Lutz, FL.
Grover, S., & Pea, R. (2013). Computational Thinking in K–12: A Review of the State of the Field. Educational Researcher, 42(1), 38–43. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x12463051
Grover, S., Pea, R., & Cooper, S. (2015). Designing for deeper learning in a blended computer science course for middle school students. Computer Science Education, 25(2), 199–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2015.1033142
Knouse, L. E., Feldman, G., & Blevins, E. J. (2014). Executive functioning difficulties as predictors of academic performance: Examining the role of grade goals. Learning and Individual Differences, 36, 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.07.001
Luckin, R. (2008). The learner centric ecology of resources: A framework for using technology to scaffold learning. Computers & Education, 50(2), 449–462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2007.09.018
Luria, A. (1966). Higher cortical functions in man. London: Tavistock.
Lyons, K. E., & Zelazo, P. D. (2011). Monitoring, metacognition, and executive function. Elucidating the role of self-reflection in the development of self-regulation. In Advances in Child Development and Behavior (1st ed., Vol. 40). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-386491-8.00010-4
Mayer, R. E. (2004). Should There Be a Three-Strikes Rule Against Pure Discovery Learning? American Psychologist, 59(1), 14–19. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.1.14
McLean, J. F., & Hitch, G. J. (1999). Working memory impairments in children with specific arithmetic learning difficulties. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 74(3), 240–260. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1999.2516
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. D. (2000). The Unity and Diversity of Executive Functions and Their Contributions to Complex “Frontal Lobe” Tasks: A Latent Variable Analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41(1), 49–100. https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1999.0734
Moreno-León, J., Harteveld, C., Román-González, M., & Robles, G. (2017). On the Automatic Assessment of Computational Thinking Skills: A Comparison with Human Experts. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2788–2795. https://doi.org/10.1145/3027063.3053216
Moreno-León, J., & Robles, G. (2015). Dr. Scratch. Proceedings of the Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education on ZZZ - WiPSCE ’15, (November), 132–133. https://doi.org/10.1145/2818314.2818338
Moreno-Leon, J., Robles, G., & Roman-Gonzalez, M. (2016). Comparing computational thinking development assessment scores with software complexity metrics. IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference, EDUCON, 10-13-Apri(April), 1040–1045. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2016.7474681
Palumbo, D. B. (1990). Programming Language/Problem-Solving Research: A Review of Relevant Issues. Review of Educational Research, 60(1), 65–89. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543060001065
Papert, S. (1991). Situating Constructionism. Constructionism, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.00269
Parham, J., Gugerty, L., & Stevenson, D. E. (2010). Empirical evidence for the existence and uses of metacognition in computer science problem solving. SIGCSE’10 - Proceedings of the 41st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 416–420. https://doi.org/10.1145/1734263.1734406
Pennington, B. F., & Ozonoff, S. (1996). Executive functions and developmental psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37(I), 51–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1996.tb01380.x
Resnick, M. (2007). Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society. Learning and Leading With Technology, 35(4), 18–22.
Resnick, M., Maloney, J., Monroy-Hernández, A., Rusk, N., Eastmond, E., Brennan, K., … Kafai, Y. (2009). Scratch: programming for all. Communications of the ACM, 52(11), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1145/1592761.1592779
Rich, K. M., Andrew Binkowski, T., Strickland, C., & Franklin, D. (2019). A k-8 debugging learning trajectory derived from research literature. SIGCSE 2019 - Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 745–751. https://doi.org/10.1145/3287324.3287396
Roebers, C. M. (2017a). Executive function and metacognition: Towards a unifying framework of cognitive self-regulation. Developmental Review, 45, 31–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2017.04.001
Roebers, C. M. (2017b). Executive function and metacognition: Towards a unifying framework of cognitive self-regulation. Developmental Review, 45, 31–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2017.04.001
Román-González, M., Pérez-González, J. C., & Jiménez-Fernández, C. (2017). Which cognitive abilities underlie computational thinking? Criterion validity of the Computational Thinking Test. Computers in Human Behavior, 72, 678–691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.08.047
Royal Society. (2017). After the reboot : computing education in UK schools.
Scherer, R., Siddiq, F., & Sanches Viveros, B. (2018). Learning to Code—Does It Help Students to Improve Their Thinking Skills? In S. KONG (Ed.), International Conference on Computational Thinking Education (pp. 37–40). Retrieved from http://www.eduhk.hk/cte2018/doc/CTE2018 Proceeding_Full_20180604.pdf
St Clair-Thompson, H. L., & Gathercole, S. E. (2006). Executive functions and achievements in school: Shifting, updating, inhibition, and working memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(4), 745–759. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210500162854
The Royal Society. (2012). Shut down or restart? The way forward for computing in UK schools. In Technology. https://doi.org/10.1088/2058-7058/25/07/21
Titz, C., & Karbach, J. (2014). Working memory and executive functions: effects of training on academic achievement. Psychological Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-013-0537-1
Toplak, M. E., West, R. F., & Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Practitioner Review: Do performance-based measures and ratings of executive function assess the same construct? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 54(2), 131–143. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12001
Van der Ven, S. H. G., Kroesbergen, E. H., Boom, J., & Leseman, P. P. M. (2012). The development of executive functions and early mathematics: A dynamic relationship. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1), 100–119. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.2011.02035.x
Weintrop, D., Beheshti, E., Horn, M., Orton, K., Jona, K., Trouille, L., & Wilensky, U. (2016). Defining Computational Thinking for Mathematics and Science Classrooms. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 25(1), 127–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-015-9581-5
Copyright (c) 2020 Judy Robertson, Stuart Gray, Toye Martin, Josephine Booth

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).