Executive Capacities and Their Assessment with the McCloskey Executive Functions Scales (MEFS)

Author: George McCloskey, Ph.D. (Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine)
Published on Schoolhouse Educational Services: November 20, 2023

Although awareness of executive functions is increasing, the general metaphorical comparison of executive functions to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the brain represents an oversimplification of the concept that can lead to inadequate assessment efforts and a reduction in the construct’s clinical utility.

To avoid oversimplification and maintain greater consistency with current conceptions, it is better to view executive functions as constituting the multi-tiered management structure of a multinational mind corporation, with each manager responsible for its separate contribution to the whole while working—ideally—in a collaborative manner with the other managers to ensure the desired outcomes of this corporation of the mind.

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