Executive functions and social cognition from early childhood to pre-adolescence: A systematic review

Abstract

In the last few decades, there has been growing interest in the association between executive functions (EFs) and social cognition in the childhood years, but it is not fully understood what aspects of EFs are linked to social cognition. Nor is the direction of these associations clear. This systematic review aimed to organize and clarify the existing knowledge about the links between EFs and social cognition in typically developing children and provide directions for future research. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for empirical studies (Moher et al., 2015), we identified 133 concurrent, longitudinal, and intervention studies (reported in 125 papers) that met our criteria and were published between 1995 and 2024. There were four main findings. First, the core EFs were correlated with both cognitive and affective social cognition. Second, most studies examined the associations between EFs and theory of mind (ToM). Third, relativity few studies examined the association between hot EFs and social cognition. Fourth, limited longitudinal and intervention research has been conducted in this field, and while work generally tends to support the impact of EFs on social cognition, there are some contradictory findings on the causal direction between these constructs.