ABSTRACT

This chapter provides the nature and operation of control function cognitions, including problem formulation, reasoning, problem solving, and plan formulation and execution, along with the concept of environment and its relationships to control functions. It discusses the organization and development of control functions. The chapter deals with consideration of the relationship of language development and emotions to the development of control functions. Intelligence tests are primarily measures of information-processing and control functions which are limited by mental retardation. The concept of control is sometimes used much more narrowly, as in the beliefs that one can behave in ways “that can influence the aversiveness of an event”. Control functions include strategies of perceiving and thinking. People develop and use different methods for selectively controlling the content and organization of information they use in problem solving, often termed cognitive styles or controls.