But what about being "smart" or "talented" in school? Research has shown that excelling in school has a lot to do with what are called executive functions. Executive functions are a set of abilities that help you do complex tasks, such as planning your schoolwork, completing assignments, and having control over your emotions and frustrations. One of the most important executive functions is called working memory. Working memory allows you to hold information in mind and perform mental operations, for example, adding large numbers in your mind. Another important executive function is inhibition, which helps you to resist distractions and temptations, for example, the temptation to eat the entire jar of cookies. A third executive function is cognitive flexibility, which helps you to quickly shift your attention back and forth between different tasks, like switching back and forth between your homework and your YouTube feed. To measure executive functions, researchers have designed a number of games that can be played on the computer. It turns out that children who do better at these games also do better at school.

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Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00071