speed). 
Executive function 
(planning, decision 
making, working 
memory, respond-
ing to feedback/
error correction, 
overriding habits/
inhibition, mental 
flexibility)Major:  Abandons complex projects. Needs to focus on one task 
at a time. Needs to rely on othe rs to plan instrumental activi-
ties of daily living or make decisions. 
Mild:  Increased effort required to complete multistage projects. 
Has increased difficulty multitasking or difficulty resuming a 
task interrupted by a visitor or phone call. May complain of 
increased fatigue from the extra effort required to organize, 
plan, and make decisions. May repo rt that large social gather-
ings are more taxing or less enjoyable because of increased 
effort required to follow shifting conversations.Planning:  Ability to find the exit to a maze; interpret a sequential pic-
ture or object arrangement.
Decision making:  Performance of tasks that assess process of deciding 
in the face of competing alternat ives (e.g., simulated gambling).
Working memory:  Ability to hold information for a brief period and to 
manipulate it (e.g., adding up a lis t of numbers or repeating a series 
of numbers or words backward).
Feedback/error utilization:  Ability to benefit from feedback to infer the 
rules for solving a problem.
Overriding habits/inhibition:  Ability to choose a more complex and 
effortful solution to be correct (e.g., looking away from the direc-
tion indicated by an arrow; naming the color of a word’s font rather 
than naming the word).
Mental/cognitive flexibility:  Ability to shift between two concepts, 
tasks, or response rules (e.g., from  number to letter, from verbal to