The unity and diversity of executive functions across adulthood in a diverse Brazilian sample with varying...

Executive functions (EFs) are a set of cognitive abilities associated with many social and clinical outcomes that are believed to be sensitive to culture, age, and educational attainment. Yet, this was determined using EF theoretical models and tests developed for highly educated young adults, so it may not apply to more diverse samples.

A community sample from Brazil (Baependi Heart Study cohort: N = 1,253; 753 females), in which age (18-88 years) and schooling (0-23 years) varied widely, was assessed based on a popular theoretical model of EF (the unity and diversity EF framework), which describes the pattern of interassociations of three specific types of EFs (inhibition, shifting, and updating). To this end, we employed a short, nonautomated, open-access EF test battery adapted for use in samples with varying ages and educational attainment that included EF indicators obtained from three tasks (Plus-Minus, Trail Making, and Random Number Generation tasks).

Using confirmatory factor analyses, we found a good-fitting three-correlated factor solution confirming the fractionation and interassociation of the three EF domains, which was invariant (except for one of eight indicators) to age, schooling, and sex. More years of schooling were related to higher latent traits in all domains and older age to worse shifting, and women scored lower in latent shifting and inhibition.

The unity-diversity EF framework can be determined across adulthood in diverse samples with tasks adapted for these populations. Building upon our findings may expand a theory-oriented investigation of sociocultural, demographic, and clinical factors that influence EFs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).