In this article, researchers are interested in broadening the understanding of executive function. This is the process used to guide goal-oriented behavior. It includes the ability to prioritize behavior, to resist information that is irrelevant to the situation, and to switch between goals. Like many other concepts in psychology, executive function has many different dimensions, and there are many different views on its basic structure. Because executive function involves an individual guiding their behavior often in novel situations, it is by its nature difficult to measure in a laboratory setting. The laboratory setting is structured in such a way that it causes problems with adequate testing measures, especially when the participant is given rules or instructions. As we learned in class, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is used to measure executive function. Typically in this activity, an individual sorts cards according to one rule and then is asked to switch to a different rule while continuing to use the same cards. Previous studies have shown that very young children and individuals with frontal lobe damage are unable to make this step and will continue to sort cards according to the first rule. In this experiment, instead of being told the rule explicitly, participants quickly figured out the rule for sorting the cards from the experimenter's responses. After learning the first rule, the experimenter secretly changes it and the participants must learn the new rule. The ability to switch from old to new rules is an important feature of executive functioning. Individuals who are able to switch from one rule to another are initially slower to respond and make more errors than their origin... middle of the paper... must read when talking specifically about the neuroscientific side of things. This part of the article requires a much higher level of understanding than I currently have and there I honestly couldn't summarize it because I don't even understand what he's trying to say. However, it seems very important. One of my main criticisms of this research is that I see absolutely no reason to do this research. I see no benefit to the world beyond the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake. The article didn't talk to the end about how to help people with executive function difficulties, but that was only a small part of the conclusion. This kind of purely theoretical research makes me angry because great minds are wasting their time only to have their research learned and then forgotten by some poor college student who really wants to do something with their life.