Despite the significant heterogeneity among the Brazilian population, few national studies exist that investigate the trajectories of different cognitive functions throughout healthy development. In order to explore the relationship between executive functioning (EF), memory, and attention in children and adolescents, this project condenses information from two studies of the characterization of cognitive development. Both studies were based on the results of four classical neuropsychological paradigms (verbal fluency, Rey complex figure, Rey auditory‐verbal learning, and Stroop test) applied to the same sample of 365 low-income students aged 7 to 14 in Rio de Janeiro. The first study investigated the patterns of interaction between EF and memory and their subdomains. An illustrated scheme of interactions between neuropsychological variables is proposed. The second study aimed to identify similar cognitive functioning profiles among the age group studied. A classification model based on performance levels in organization, memory, and attention is presented. Cluster analyses were employed in both studies. In the first study, cluster analysis was used to examine a model of interaction between variables. In the second, it was used to create a classification method to group individuals who function at similar levels. The results of this dissertation suggest that, although EF domains play an important role in the processes of acquisition and retention, they are clearly distinguishable from memory domains. Additionally, the most significant distinguishing factor between different cognitive profiles throughout childhood is executive performance. At the same time, the memory and attention variables appear to cause subtler and less relevant changes to overall functioning. These results are consistent with neuropsychological literature, which indicates a non-homogeneous cognitive profile during development.