Abstract

Classically, executive functions – or more generally Cognitive Control (CC) – have been associated with the top-down action of control mechanisms that allow the implementation of organized behavior upon explicit instructions. These mechanisms have traditionally been opposed to the bottom-up ones, automatically established through implicit learning. In this work, the main contributions that have supported this theoretical vision are retraced to introduce the recent «Learning Perspective on Cognitive Control» (Abrahamse et al., 2016), which adopts a vision of CC as an emergent property of the cognitive system, partly shaped by the implicit characteristics of regularity and contingency present in the environment. Within this perspective, bottom-up mechanisms induced by implicit learning play a central role in building the ability to use targeted behavior and allow for optimal management of cognitive resources through the adoption of reactive and proactive control strategies. Finally, the implications of this new theoretical account for developmental trajectories and possible applications in clinical practice are discussed