Investigation of individual differences of executive functions by the Executive Function Questionnaire

Relationship between executive functions and Navon task performances or Big-Five personality

Abstract

This study was designated to investigate individual differences of executive functions by the Executive Functions Questionnaire (EFQ), and relationship between executive functions and Navon task performances or Big-Five personality. The result revealed as follows. 1) Individual differences of performances of Navon task, which requires shifting a strategy (local or global processing) to perform, were affected by the degree of shifting ability measured by EFQ. Individual differences were prominent in the local processing condition because it was harder than the global processing condition. 2) Correlation analysis revealed that sustaining-attention and planning abilities correlated with Conscientiousness but not with shifting, efficacy nor conversation abilities, and that shifting correlated with four traits of Big-Five personality except Conscientiousness. It was suggested that different aspects of executive functions could be measured by subscales of EFQ.