1. A Bidirectional View of Executive Function and Social Interaction
- Author
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Suzanne Hala, Penny Pexman, Emma Climie, Kristin Rostad, and Melanie Glenwright
- Abstract
In this chapter, we explore the idea that the relation between social interaction and executive functions might be best characterized as bi-directionaldirectional. That is, that while developing executive function abilities almost definitely have considerable impact on emerging social understanding in young children, social interactions may also provide significant impetus for executive development. Working from a broadly Piagetian framework we include two avenues of exploration to illustrate. The first is that social collaboration on a problem might facilitate executive processes. Here we use the example of a collaboration on a strategic deception task. The second is that exposure to the ambiguous nature of social interactions may force the child to exercise more executive control, resulting in advances in various aspects of executive function. For examples, we draw from two research literatures—children's understanding of sarcasm and children's ability to grapple with acquiring more than one language.
- Published
- 2010
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