Center for Healthy Minds

Michael Willoughby is an expert in the development of self-regulation in children, with an emphasis on executive functions (cognitive abilities that are involved in the control and coordination of information in the service of goal-directed activities). His work is broadly organized around the causes, course and consequences of individual differences in executive function, with a specific interest in how developmental changes in executive function during early childhood contribute to children’s school readiness and risk for disruptive behavior disorders.

Currently, Michael is collaborating with Sarah Short from the Center for Healthy Minds, Cathi Propper from the Center for Developmental Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Roger Mills-Koonce from UNC Chapel Hill on a $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) investigating the link between poverty and developing cognitive processes that facilitate learning, self-monitoring and decision-making in children.