Physiological investigation of cognitive load in real-life train travelers during information processing

This chapter presents the basic concepts, theoretical perspectives, and areas of scholarship that bear on decisions in child welfare—making choices in decision environments characterized by high levels of uncertainty. The authors distinguish between normative models that predict what decision-makers ought to choose when faced with alternatives and descriptive models that describe how they tend to make these choices in real life. The chapter reviews those challenges that may be especially relevant in the complex context of child welfare and protection. One way in which decision-makers overcome task complexities and limitations in human information processing (bounded rationality) is by using heuristics to navigate complex tasks. The chapter reviews strategies to correct some limitations in judgment. The authors examine the relationships between workers’ predictions of what would be the outcomes of the case and the actual outcomes and describe two types of error (false positive and false negative) and the related concepts of specificity and sensitivity. These issues are followed by a description of the Lens Model and some of its implications for child welfare decision-making, including predictive risk modeling and studies on information processing models. The final section presents current theoretical models in child welfare decision-making and describes Decision-Making Ecology (DME) and Judgments and Decision Processes in Context (JUDPiC). The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research on child welfare decision-making that could contribute to our conceptual understanding and have practical utility as well.

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Testing the Effects of Modality and Narration Style on Patients’ Information Use in a Lung Cancer Treatment Decision Aid

Medical Decision Making ◽

10.1177/0272989x20960436 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 40 (8) ◽

pp. 990-1002

Author(s):

Nida Gizem Yılmaz ◽

Julia C. M. Van Weert ◽

Ellen Peters ◽

Birgit I. Lissenberg-Witte ◽

Annemarie Becker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lung Cancer ◽

Information Processing ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Cancer Treatment ◽

Older Patients ◽

Decision Aid ◽

Treatment Decision ◽

Decisional Conflict ◽

Factual Information ◽

Younger Patients

Background Risk information in patient decision aids (PDAs) is often difficult for older patients to process. Providing audiovisual and narrative information may enhance the understanding and use of health-related information. We studied the effects on patients’ information processing and use of audiovisual and narrative information of an early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer treatment decision aid explaining surgery and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. We further investigated differences between older and younger patients. Methods We conducted a 2 (modality: textual v. audiovisual) × 2 (narration style: factual v. narrative) online experiment among cancer patients and survivors ( N = 305; Mage = 62.42, SD = 11.68 y). Age was included as a potential modifier: younger (<65 y) versus older (≥65 y) age. We assessed 1) perceived cognitive load, 2) satisfaction with information, 3) comprehension, 4) information recall, and 5) decisional conflict. Analysis of variance was used for data analysis. Results Irrespective of patient age, audiovisual information (compared with textual information) led to lower perceived cognitive load, higher satisfaction with information, and lower decisional conflict (subscale Effective Decision). Narrative information (compared with factual information) led to reduced decisional conflict (subscale Uncertainty) but only in younger patients. Combining audiovisual information with factual information also resulted in lower perceived cognitive load in younger patients as compared with older patients. Limitations Patients who actually face the decision, especially older patients, might be more motivated to process our decision-aid information than the present study participants who responded to a hypothetical situation online. Conclusions Providing participants with audiovisual information, irrespective of their age, improved their processing and use of information in a decision aid. Narratives did not clearly benefit information processing.

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Temperament and Attentional Bias in Vocal Emotional Stroop Tasks

European Journal of Personality ◽

10.1002/per.1848 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 111-122 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Marko Paelecke ◽

Yvonne Paelecke–Habermann ◽

Peter Borkenau

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Response Times ◽

Human Information Processing ◽

Task Switch ◽

Vocal Response ◽

Emotional Stroop ◽

Affective Quality ◽

Stroop Tasks

Human information processing is influenced by the affective quality of pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. A widely known example is the emotional variant of the colour–naming Stroop task. Although participants are not instructed to attend to valence, it nevertheless influences response times. We studied how persons differ in ignoring the irrelevant valence of stimuli and how such differences are related to personality traits. In two emotional Stroop tasks using a vocal response mode, participants were instructed to name the colour of unpleasant and pleasant words presented in different physical colours. In Study 2, we introduced a second task to increase the cognitive load. Across both studies, extraversion and approach temperament were associated with higher interferences by pleasant words. Neuroticism and avoidance temperament, however, were associated with higher interferences by unpleasant words only when cognitive load increased because of a task switch. This finding suggests that highly neurotic individuals can mitigate influences of emotional stimuli on information processing under conditions of low cognitive load. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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The cognitive economy: The probabilistic turn in psychology and human cognition

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x12003019 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 294-295

Author(s):

Petko Kusev ◽

Paul van Schaik

Keyword(s):

Economic Theory ◽

Information Processing ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Human Cognition ◽

Cognitive Economy ◽

Memory Representations

AbstractAccording to the foundations of economic theory, agents have stable and coherent “global” preferences that guide their choices among alternatives. However, people are constrained by information-processing and memory limitations and hence have a propensity to avoid cognitive load. We propose that this in turn will encourage them to respond to “local” preferences and goals influenced by context and memory representations.

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Analysis of Eyeblink Activity during Self-Referent Information Processing in Mild Depression

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1995.81.3f.1219 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 81 (3_suppl) ◽

pp. 1219-1229 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Hideki Ohdra

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Cognitive Effort ◽

Attentional Resource ◽

Eyeblink Response ◽

Discrete Trial ◽

Mild Depression ◽

Burst Pattern ◽

Negative Trait ◽

Self Reference

This study was designed to assess characteristics of self-referent information processing in mildly depressed persons using the eyeblink response measured in a discrete-trial paradigm. 7 mildly depressed and 9 nondepressed subjects (classified by scores on Beck's inventory) performed a self-reference task for positive and negative trait adjectives. The eyeblink was suppressed before and during presentation of stimuli and a burst pattern of the eyeblink was observed just after exposure. The pattern of the eyeblink burst after trait adjectives could be interpreted to reflect cognitive effort, cognitive load, or amount of attentional resource. Present results suggested that depressed individuals should have less cognitive load or allocate less attentional resource to negative stimuli than to positive ones during self-referent information processing.

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Neural modulations in processing of natural information in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.01.1596 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (S1) ◽

pp. s819-s819

Author(s):

Y. Lerner ◽

M. Bleich-Cohen ◽

W. Madah ◽

S. Solnik ◽

G. Yogev-Seligmann ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Response Time ◽

Real Life ◽

First Episode ◽

Schizophrenia Group ◽

Natural Information ◽

Time Courses ◽

Competing Interest ◽

Information Comprehension ◽

First Episode Schizophrenia

Recent studies in healthy populations have shown a hierarchical network of brain areas to process information over time. Specifically, we revealed that the capacity to accumulate information changes gradually from the early sensory areas toward high-order perceptual and cognitive areas. Previous research in schizophrenia pointed to impairment in comprehension of information. Yet, the neural mechanisms underlying the breakdown of information processing are poorly known. Better understanding of the neural circuits involved in information processing may assist in early identification of predisposition to the disease. Using fMRI, we examined different levels of information comprehension elicited by naturally presented stimuli. Healthy participants, patients with first episode schizophrenia and their undiagnosed siblings listened to a real-life narrated story and scrambled versions of it. To estimate the level of synchronization in response time courses, we calculated inter-subject correlation (inter-SC) across the entire stimuli within each group. The time-scale gradients found in healthy and siblings groups were consistent with our previous findings. Within the schizophrenia group, the reliability patterns obtained for the shortest and intermediate temporal scales were similar to patterns observed in healthy groups. However, the analysis of responses to story condition (long temporal scale) revealed robust and widespread disruption of the inter-SC. In comparison to healthy groups, the response time courses to the story were highly variable within the schizophrenia group, although some significant inter-SCs in the TPJ and precuneus were found. The hierarchical temporal deficit is a fundamental trait that may be a better target for the study of the etiology and pathophysiology of the disease.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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Playing Tetris Lets You Rate Odors as Less Intense

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.657188 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Stephan Schadll ◽

Rea Rodriguez-Raecke ◽

Lennart Heim ◽

Jessica Freiherr

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Load ◽

Video Game ◽

Real Life ◽

Load Condition ◽

Overweight And Obesity ◽

Odor Intensity ◽

Difficulty Level ◽

Taste Intensity ◽

Food Odors ◽

Watching Tv

Overweight and obesity are considered a huge problem in modern societies. Previous studies have shown that people who are regularly distracted by playing videogames or watching TV while eating are more likely to be overweight and that the number of people that are gaming worldwide is rising. Further, it has been established that both, watching TV or playing video games lead to an increased snack intake and a lower rating of perceived taste intensity. Since flavor perception is accomplished not only by the sense of taste but also the sense of smell, we investigated the influence of cognitive load created by playing a video game on odor intensity perception. The participants played a low or high difficulty version of Tetris while presented with odors of food and non-food items. A higher skin conductance response (SCR) along with a decrease in task performance verified that the higher difficulty level leads to a higher cognitive load. Our behavioral data indicates a significant decrease in intensity estimates of food odors and non-food odors during the high compared to low cognitive load condition. We conclude that odor intensity estimation is influenced by real-life cognitive tasks which might in turn lead to overeating while distracted.

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