Adolescents' Daily Executive Function: Methodological Considerations, Daily Variation, And Associations With Daily Experiences

Research has rarely considered within-person variability in executive function. Using a web-based program, this study investigated end-of-day executive function for 2 weeks among 178 racially/ethnically diverse adolescents (M-age = 14.53). For each core component of executive function (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, working memory), short-term practice effects were identified for the first 4 days of assessments, and no fatigue effects emerged for the remaining days. Another 5 days were needed to achieve good reliability for assessing executive function at the between-person level. Considerable daily variation was identified for each component and the overall construct of executive function, with between 40% and 55% of the variation attributed to within-person variability. These daily variations were associated with adolescents' affective and academic experiences during the day.