In regard to my executive function profile, I tested higher than the average person for continuous concentration. I find that when I am completing a task, I am able to focus my attention on the object. I also have good cognitive inhibition since I was able to stop myself from responding to other objects during the test. As a result, this shows my ability to have my attention engrossed on the task/object at hand. Moreover, when having to attend to more than one task at a time, I made little to no mistakes on the multi-tasking test. When prompted with additional symbols to memorize, I was still able to perform the task with little error. Therefore, I have the ability to focus attention, sustain attention, and shift attention when needed.  

Furthermore, I participated in another task that tested memory and recall. I had a greater ability to recognize celebrities and scored above average when recognizing unfamiliar faces. For the most part, I have a fairly good memory, but I do suffer from the occasional memory lapse. This may be caused due to factors such as stress or fatigue. I do believe this to be a factor in my testing scores since I do experience fatigue. However, there are many evidence-based ways to improve memory such as partaking in an activity (for example, piano or martial arts), getting enough sleep, and reducing sugar intake (Diamond & Ling, 2016). Overall, I find that I have strong skills in planning and prioritizing, organizing, impulse control, and self-monitoring. However, I believe that an executive function I need to continuously work on is memory. 

I believe possessing these executive functioning skills are important for my counseling practice. It helps the brain complete everyday tasks and are the foundation for success. Therefore, practicing executive function skills such as creating a checklist, giving additional time before transition to a new task, and providing breaks can help improve these skills. Being aware of the importance will inform my practice and also recognize skills that I will need to improve on as a helper. 

Moreover, attention plays a significant part in what is perceived. Although I believe I am able to attend to objects and/or events, sometimes one will not notice something unexpected. During the Simons and Chabris (1999) test, I did not notice the gorilla that walked in the middle of the video. This phenomenon is known as inattentional blindness, which is the failure to notice an unexpected object of event when attention is focused on something else (Simons & Chabris, 1999). This is an interesting demonstration of how important attention is in regard to perception. In the study, individuals were so focused on the individuals passing the balls that the gorilla wasn’t visible. This may also occur in real world and objects not being in one’s focus. 

Another similar experiment that focused on distractors is visual search. During the experiment, one is instructed to locate the target item amongst distractor items. Visual search involves attention and scanning the environment. My results found that I was able to find the correct letter when there were few items presented (in 726ms with five items). This can be explained as detecting the target. However, taking a longer time in detecting the target may be due to difficulty directing attention (Wolfe, 2015). This experiment, in addition to the perceptual process, are important for survival and everyday tasks. Therefore, considering my results from the labs, I believe I have an increase sense of the environment to make appropriate responses due to being sensitive. That being said, I may interpret stimuli differently and may look too much into things due to this heightened sense.  However, I find that it is important to note that our brains do interpret stimuli differently due to our experiences.  

 Moreover, contrary to math, I was always undecided about reading. I noticed that when I had to read a book and it wasn’t of interest to me, I found it challenging to remember the content. I noticed myself skimming through the book and not remembering what I had just learned/read. Therefore, I was shocked when reviewing my results from the reading speed test. I read about 352 words per minute and answered 17 out of the 18 questions correctly. However, I would be curious to see if my results would differ if the articles presented were longer in length. Regardless, reading relies on language competence. Therefore, my results show that I am proficient in decoding thus being able to read fluently. 

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Moreover, language is very complex and is how individuals produce and understand spoken and written language. Language is made up of words and systemic rules to organize the words created for individuals to speak to one another. This process is important for communication whether it be through verbal or non-verbal codes such as sign language. When completing the survey about linguistic knowledge, I found that I did not understand every component in written language structure. For example, I was unfamiliar with schwa vowels, consonant digraphs, and thorough explanations of rules. Moats (1994) found that experienced teachers even have a lack of understanding about language structure. Because of this there has been changes in education policy to improve teacher knowledge and skill (Moats 2009). I believe this to be beneficial as an educator since reading essentially becomes automatic. An automatic reader will initiate a task without actively attending to it. For example, when reading directions, I am not consciously thinking about how to decode every word. Therefore, this allows me to pay attention to the content. I believe this may contribute to why individuals may understand too little about language structure. Although this is not a strong suit of mine, as Moats (1994) found, there are tools to become competent in linguistics.