scholarly journals Cognitive efficiency beats top-down control as a reliable individual difference dimension relevant to self-control

Cognition ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 215 ◽  
pp. 104818
Author(s):  
Alexander Weigard ◽  
D. Angus Clark ◽  
Chandra Sripada
Keyword(s):  
Individual Difference ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Cognitive Efficiency

scholarly journals Cognitive efficiency beats subtraction-based metrics as a reliable individual difference dimension relevant to self-control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Samuel Weigard ◽  
D. Angus Clark ◽  
Chandra Sripada
Keyword(s):  
Individual Difference ◽  
Drift Rate ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Measurement Properties ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
Cognitive Efficiency ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Conflict tasks play a central role in the study of self-control. These tasks feature a condition assumed to demand top-down control and a matched condition where control demands are assumed to be absent, and individual differences in control ability are indexed by subtracting measures of performance (e.g., reaction time) across these conditions. Subtraction-based metrics of top-down control have recently been criticized for having low test-retest reliability, weak intercorrelations across conceptually similar tasks, and weak relationships with self-report measures of self-control. Concurrently, there is growing evidence that task-general cognitive efficiency, indexed by the drift rate parameter of the diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978), constitutes a cohesive, reliable individual difference dimension. However, no previous studies have examined the measurement properties of subtraction metrics of top-down control as compared to drift rate in the same sample, or compared their respective associations with self-report measures. In this re-analysis of open data drawn from a large recent study (Eisenberg et al., 2019; N=522), we find that subtraction metrics fail to form cohesive latent factors, that the resulting factors have poor test-retest reliability, and that they exhibit tenuous connections to questionnaire measures of self-control. In contrast, cognitive efficiency measures from the same tasks form a robust, reliable latent factor that shows moderate associations with self-control. Importantly, this latent cognitive efficiency variable is constructed from conditions that both were, and were not, previously assumed to index control. These findings invite a reconceptualization of subtraction-based tasks, pointing to task-general efficiency as a central individual difference dimension relevant to self-regulation.

scholarly journals German Adaptation of the Subjective Vitality Scales (SVS-G)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-75
Author(s):  
Alex Bertrams ◽  
Thomas H. Dyllick ◽  
Chris Englert ◽  
Ann Krispenz
Keyword(s):  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
State Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Subjective Vitality ◽  
Positive Feeling ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Correlated Factors

AbstractSubjective vitality is a positive feeling of aliveness and energy, and it is a crucial aspect of well-being. The Subjective Vitality Scales (SVS) have been developed to measure subjective vitality both at the individual difference level and the state level in English-speaking samples. We translated the SVS into German (the SVS-G) and examined their psychometric properties. In Study 1 (N=260), we found that two correlated factors (Factor 1: individual difference level; Factor 2: state level) with five items each constituted a useful structure for the SVS-G. Moreover, the scores on the individual difference scale were more stable than the scores on the state scale. We also found partial evidence for the measurement invariance over a period of three weeks. Conforming to our expectations, Study 2 (N=296) revealed that the SVS-G scores were related to positive and negative affect but could still be distinguished from the affect variables. In line with previous findings, Study 3 (N=203) showed that SVS-G scores are related to well-being variables (happiness and joviality) and the perceived capacity to actively perform effortful tasks (attentiveness and capacity for self-control). Across all the studies, the SVS-G showed satisfying inner consistency, and the two consideration levels (individual differences vs. state) could be differentiated. The initial evidence suggests that overall, the SVS-G have good psychometric properties.

Cognitive control in altruism and self-control: A social cognitive neuroscience perspective

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-260
Author(s):  
Jeremy R. Gray ◽  
Todd S. Braver
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Social Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
The Face

The primrose path and prisoner's dilemma paradigms may require cognitive (executive) control: The active maintenance of context representations in lateral prefrontal cortex to provide top-down support for specific behaviors in the face of short delays or stronger response tendencies. This perspective suggests further tests of whether altruism is a type of self-control, including brain imaging, induced affect, and dual-task studies.

scholarly journals Electrophysiological Prints of Grit

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuria V. Aguerre ◽  
Carlos J. Gómez-Ariza ◽  
Antonio J. Ibáñez-Molina ◽  
M. Teresa Bajo
Keyword(s):  
Fractal Dimension ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Educational Backgrounds ◽  
High Consistency

While scientific interest in understanding the grit trait has grown exponentially in recent years, one important gap in the grit literature relates to its biological and neural substrate. In the present study, we adopted a hypotheses-driven approach in a large sample of young adults (N = 120) with diverse educational backgrounds and work experiences in order to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of grit both during rest and while performing a learning task. Additionally, we selected a measure of impulsiveness to better understand the neural similarities and differences between grit and related self-control constructs. Based on previous work that implicated the prefrontal cortex in grit, we hypothesized that high grit participants would have lower frontal theta/beta ratio (a broadly used index that reflects prefrontally-mediated top–down processes, which might indicate better control over subcortical information). Furthermore, we expected the perseverance of effort facet of grit to be linked to higher complexity during task engagement because previous research has shown complexity indexes (entropy and fractal dimension) to be linked to effort while performing cognitive tasks. Our results revealed that although there were no differences at rest as a function of grit, the participants with high grit and high consistency of interest scores exhibited lower frontal theta/beta ratios during the learning task. This pattern suggests that individual differences in grit might be more evident when top-down control processes are at work. Furthermore, there was a positive association between perseverance of effort and entropy at task, which might indicate more effort and engagement in the task. Finally, no association was found between the neural indexes (frontal theta/beta ratio, entropy, or fractal dimension) and impulsiveness, neither impulsiveness mediated between grit and brain measures. Finally, when controlling for impulsiveness and demographic variables (gender, age, education, and work experience) the effects at the facet level remained statistically significant. While there is still a long way to fully understand the neural mechanisms of grit, the present work constitutes a step toward unveiling the electrophysiological prints of grit.

German Adaptation of the Subjective Vitality Scales (SVS-G), accepted version (journal: Open Psychology)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Bertrams ◽  
Thomas Dyllick-Brenzinger ◽  
Chris Englert ◽  
Ann Krispenz
Keyword(s):  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
State Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Subjective Vitality ◽  
Positive Feeling ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Correlated Factors

Subjective vitality is a positive feeling of aliveness and energy, and it is a crucial aspect of well-being. The Subjective Vitality Scales (SVS) have been developed to measure subjective vitality both at the individual difference level and the state level in English-speaking samples. We translated the SVS into German (the SVS-G) and examined their psychometric properties. In Study 1 (N=260), we found that two correlated factors (Factor 1: individual difference level; Factor 2: state level) with five items each constituted a useful structure for the SVS-G. Moreover, the scores on the individual difference scale were more stable than the scores on the state scale. We also found partial evidence for the measurement invariance over a period of three weeks. Conforming to our expectations, Study 2 (N=296) revealed that the SVS-G scores were related to positive and negative affect but could still be distinguished from the affect variables. In line with previous findings, Study 3 (N=203) showed that SVS-G scores are related to well-being variables (happiness and joviality) and the perceived capacity to actively perform effortful tasks (attentiveness and capacity for self-control). Across all the studies, the SVS-G showed satisfying inner consistency, and the two consideration levels (individual differences vs. state) could be differentiated. The initial evidence suggests that overall, the SVS-G have good psychometric properties.

Free Will and Necker's Cube: Reason, Language and Top-Down Control in cognitive neuroscience

Philosophy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Gillett ◽  
Sam C. Liu
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Necker Cube ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Third ◽  
Brain States ◽  
The Will

AbstractThe debates about human free will are traditionally the concern of metaphysics but neuroscientists have recently entered the field arguing that acts of the will are determined by brain events themselves causal products of other events. We examine that claim through the example of free or voluntary switch of perception in relation to the Necker cube. When I am asked to see the cube in one way, I decide whether I will follow the command (or do as I am asked) using skills that reason and language give to me and change my brain states accordingly. The voluntary shift of perspective in seeing the Necker cube this way or that exemplifies the top-down control exercised by a human being on the basis of the role of language and meaning in their activity. It also indicates the lived story that is at the centre of each human consciousness. In the third part of this essay, three arguments are used to undermine metaphysical objections to the very idea of top-down self control.

scholarly journals Neurofunctional areas related to food appetency in anorexia nervosa

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-97
Author(s):  
Juán José Cervantes-Navarrete ◽  
Sarael Alcauter-Solórzano ◽  
Carlos Miguel-Bueno ◽  
Jorge Julio Gonzalez-Olvera ◽  
Roger Carrillo-Mezo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Pathological State ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Left Front ◽  
The Brain

In Anorexia Nervosa the observable phenomenon is the suppression of appetite. Little is known about the biological and psychological (top-down) bases that maintain this pathological state. However, Anorexia Nervosa is a biological, psychological and social model where the main behavioral characteristic is the inhibition of eating behavior; not by bottom-up but top-down regulation. Objective: To explore the areas of the brain associated with food appetency through functional magnetic resonance in women with anorexia nervosa. Methods: The subjects include 5 female with Restrictive type of Anorexia Nervosa and five controls female with similar in age and low weigh. The subjects were within the MRI scanner and while took fMRI they saw food images that would generate appetite. The subjects were in fasting state and mentally prepare by instruction “imagine you are eating the food presented in the following images”. Results: Compared differences in the activation between subjects four regions were found significant: the anterior cingulate, left front medial region and the left and right midbrain. Conclusions: The patients with Anorexia Nervosa present different activated cerebral areas to those of the controls during the visual exposition to food in hungry state and with evoke cognitions associated with eat food; those regions may be implicated in reward and self-control.

scholarly journals Enhanced bottom-up and reduced top-down fMRI activity is related to long-lasting non-reinforced behavioral change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rotem Botvinik-Nezer ◽  
Tom Salomon ◽  
Tom Schonberg
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Preference Representation ◽  
Term Change

AbstractBehavioral change studies and interventions focus on self-control and external reinforcements as means to influence preferences. Cue-approach training (CAT) has been shown to induce preference changes lasting months following a mere association of items with a neutral cue and a speeded response, without external reinforcements. We utilized this paradigm to study preference representation and modification in the brain without external reinforcements. We scanned 36 participants with fMRI during a novel passive viewing task before, after and 30 days following CAT. We pre-registered the predictions that activity in regions related to memory, top-down attention and value processing underlie behavioral change. We found that bottom-up neural mechanisms, involving visual processing regions, were associated with immediate behavioral change, while reduced top-down parietal activity and enhanced hippocampal activity were related to the long-term change. Enhanced activity in value-related regions was found both immediately and in the long-term. Our findings suggest a novel neural mechanism of preference representation and modification. We suggest that non-reinforced change occurs initially in perceptual representation of items, which putatively lead to long-term changes in memory and top-down processes. These findings could lead to implementation of bottom-up instead of top-down targeted interventions to accomplish long-lasting behavioral change.

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