You are here! Rethinking children’s executive function development in the presence of others

Executive function development has been linked to various life outcomes, motivating intense research. Whilst a large part of this research has focused on better understanding age-related changes of the underlying neuro-cognitive mechanisms, recent theoretical and empirical works have stressed how the physical and social immediate context plays an important role in how children engage in control. Recent studies have shown that the experimenter is an important variable modulating how children engage executive function. Here, I argue that this social presence deserves to be better examined to understand the influence of the research context on executive function assessment in children. However, this examination should not make us forget that the presence of others is likely shaping executive function development in the long run, with important inter-individual differences. Examining how the presence and absence of others affect how children exert executive function has important implications, integrating several psychological research fields.