Cognitive Flexibility | Why Noticing Change Isn’t Enough (+ 4 Exercises to Try)

Most people think they’ll know when it’s time to change what they’re doing.

But studies show that people often notice something has changed and still keep doing the same thing anyway, in part because updating behavior tends to lag behind noticing change.

Here’s something you might have experienced before:

You're in the middle of writing an urgent email.

Your boss walks over and leads in with: "Hey, quick question....." then proceeds to ask you a fairly involved not-so-quick-question about a large account you're managing.

Your brain blanks.

Not because you don't know. You literally discussed this same topic yesterday.

But right now? All you can think about is finishing this email.

Some people could let go of the email and answer the question clearly. Others stay half-focused on what they were writing, which makes their answer sound off.

This is a real-life example of what cognitive flexibility looks like: whether your brain can let go of one way of thinking and switch to another when the situation changes, or whether it gets stuck between the two.

Today’s Field Note: Cognitive Flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is your brain’s ability to switch between different ways of thinking and to adjust how it approaches a task when the situation changes.

What the lab shows

In a commonly cited set of lab studies, volunteers sat at a computer and played a simple game.

On each round, they clicked one of two options on the screen.

At first, one choice reliably paid off. Each time they picked it, they earned points. The other choice didn’t. People figured this out quickly and stuck with the option that worked.

Then, partway through the task, something changed.

Without explicit instruction, the option that had been paying off stopped working, and the other option started delivering the reward instead.

No one told the participants what happened. There was no message saying the rules had changed. The only signal was the outcome of their own choices.

Some noticed the shift after a few failed tries and adjusted. They stopped clicking the old option and moved to the new one.

Others didn’t. They kept clicking the original option again and again, even as it stopped paying off.

Researchers use this to track how many times someone continues choosing the option that no longer works after the switch. The longer it takes a person to change course, the worse their performance on the task.

How Cognitive Flexibility Is Additive to Life

Cognitive flexibility doesn't add any new skills, but it does add something extremely important: Range.

In everyday settings, cognitive flexibility is often reflected in behaviors like:

✔️ changing how they explain something when they see their delivery is off

✔️ moving from problem-solving to listening when the conversation shifts

✔️ answering the question that's being asked, not the one they prepared for

✔️ adjusting their response mid-conversation without getting defensive

It's often described as a "soft skill" and is widely discussed as important in professional settings and relationship building. The latter is a foundational performance pillar, but we'll get into that in a later note.

How To Improve Cognitive Flexibility
(4 Evidence-Based Exercises)

Train your brain to switch between ways of thinking when the task in front of you changes.

You’ll find four short exercises that train cognitive flexibility by repeatedly practicing the same switching operations used in laboratory settings.

You’ll practice switching rules, switching tasks, switching attention, and practicing alternative perspectives.

Nothing abstract or diagnostic. Just simple, repeatable exercises based on how cognitive flexibility is studied in real research settings.

Bonus: We made a short YouTube to guide you through Exercise #3.

References

D’Cruz et al. (2011). Human reversal learning under conditions of certain versus uncertain outcomes. Neuropsychologia

Fellows & Farah (2003). Shifting away from previously rewarded choices in humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Izquierdo et al. (2017). How the brain adjusts behavior when rules change. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Karbach & Kray (2009). How useful is executive control training? Developmental Science