scholarly journals Motivated semantic control: Exploring the effects of extrinsic reward and self-reference on semantic retrieval in semantic aphasia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Edward Souter ◽  
Sara Stampacchia ◽  
Glyn Hallam ◽  
Hannah Thompson ◽  
Jonathan Smallwood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Extrinsic Reward ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Semantic Cognition ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Task Representations ◽  
Self Reference

Recent insights show increased motivation can benefit executive control, but this effect has not been explored in relation to semantic cognition. Patients with deficits of controlled semantic retrieval in the context of semantic aphasia (SA) after stroke may benefit from this approach since their deficits tend to be accompanied by deficits of cognitive control. We assessed the effect of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in healthy controls and semantic aphasia patients. Experiment 1 manipulated extrinsic reward using high or low levels of points for correct responses during a semantic association task. Experiment 2 manipulated the intrinsic value of items using self-reference; allocating pictures of items to the participant ('self') or researcher ('other') in a shopping game before people retrieved their semantic associations. These experiments revealed that patients, but not controls, showed better performance when given an extrinsic reward, consistent with the view that increased external motivation may help to ameliorate patients' semantic control deficits. However, while self-reference was associated with better episodic memory, there was no effect on semantic retrieval. We conclude that semantic control deficits can be reduced when extrinsic rewards are anticipated; this enhanced motivational state is expected to support proactive control, for example, through the maintenance of task representations. It may be possible to harness this modulatory impact of reward to combat the control demands of semantic tasks in SA patients.

scholarly journals Mapping lesion, structural disconnection, and functional disconnection to symptoms in semantic aphasia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas E. Souter ◽  
Xiuyi Wang ◽  
Hannah Thompson ◽  
Katya Krieger-Redwood ◽  
Ajay D. Halai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Executive Dysfunction ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Semantic Cognition ◽  
Left Hemisphere Stroke ◽  
Executive Impairment

AbstractPatients with semantic aphasia have impaired control of semantic retrieval, often accompanied by executive dysfunction following left hemisphere stroke. Many but not all of these patients have damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus, important for semantic and cognitive control. Yet semantic and cognitive control networks are highly distributed, including posterior as well as anterior components. Accordingly, semantic aphasia might not only reflect local damage but also white matter structural and functional disconnection. Here we characterise the lesions and predicted patterns of structural and functional disconnection in individuals with semantic aphasia and relate these effects to semantic and executive impairment. Impaired semantic cognition was associated with infarction in distributed left- hemisphere regions, including in the left anterior inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortex. Lesions were associated with executive dysfunction within a set of adjacent but distinct left frontoparietal clusters. Performance on executive tasks was also associated with interhemispheric structural disconnection across the corpus callosum. Poor semantic cognition was associated with small left-lateralized structurally disconnected clusters, including in the left posterior temporal cortex. These results demonstrate that while left- lateralized semantic and executive control regions are often damaged together in stroke aphasia, these deficits are associated with distinct patterns of structural disconnection, consistent with the bilateral nature of executive control and the left-lateralized yet distributed semantic control network.

scholarly journals Motivated semantic control: Exploring the effects of extrinsic reward and self‐reference on semantic retrieval in semantic aphasia

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas E. Souter ◽  
Sara Stampacchia ◽  
Glyn Hallam ◽  
Hannah Thompson ◽  
Jonathan Smallwood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Extrinsic Reward ◽  
Self Reference

scholarly journals Engaging proactive control: Influences of diverse language experiences using insights from machine learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason William Gullifer ◽  
Debra Titone
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Penalized Regression ◽  
Information Criteria ◽  
Lasso Regression ◽  
Continuous Performance Task ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Language Experience

We used insights from machine learning to address an important but contentious question: is bilingual language experience associated with executive control abilities? Specifically, we assess proactive executive control for over 400 young adult bilinguals via reaction time on an AX continuous performance task (AX-CPT). We measured bilingual experience as a continuous, multidimensional spectrum (i.e., age of acquisition, language entropy, and sheer second language exposure). Linear mixed effects regression analyses indicated significant associations between bilingual language experience and proactive control, consistent with previous work. Information criteria (e.g., AIC) and cross-validation further suggested that these models are robust in predicting data from novel, unmodeled participants. These results were bolstered by cross-validated LASSO regression, a form of penalized regression. However, the results of both cross-validation procedures also indicated that similar predictive performance could be achieved through simpler models that only included information about the AX-CPT (i.e., trial type). Collectively, these results suggest that the effects of bilingual experience on proactive control, to the extent that they exist in younger adults, are likely small. Thus, future studies will require even larger or qualitatively different samples (e.g., older adults or children) in combination with valid, granular quantifications of language experience to reveal predictive effects on novel participants.

The interplay between control processes and feature relevance: Evidence from dual-task methodology

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-395
Author(s):  
Maria Montefinese ◽  
Glyn Hallam ◽  
Hannah Elizabeth Thompson ◽  
Elizabeth Jefferies
Keyword(s):  
Divided Attention ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Semantic Cognition ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
And Control ◽  
Healthy Participants

Neuropsychological studies suggest a distinction between (a) semantic knowledge and (b) control processes that shape the retrieval of conceptual information to suit the task or context. These aspects of semantic cognition are specifically impaired in patients with semantic dementia and semantic aphasia, respectively. However, interactions between the structure of knowledge and control processes that are expected during semantic retrieval have not been fully characterised. In particular, domain-general executive resources may not have equal relevance for the capacity to promote weak yet task relevant features (i.e., “controlled retrieval) and to ignore or suppress distracting information (i.e., “selection”). Here, using a feature selection task, we tested the contribution of featural relevance to semantic performance in healthy participants under conditions of divided attention. Healthy participants showed greater dual-task disruption as the relevance value of the distractor feature linearly increased, supporting the emerging view that semantic relevance is one of the organising principles of the structure of semantic representation. Moreover, word frequency, and inter-correlational strength affected overall performance, but they did not show an interaction with dual-task conditions. These results suggest that domain-general control processes, disrupted by divided attention, are more important to the capacity to efficiently avoid distracting information during semantic decision-making than to the promotion of weak target features. The present study therefore provides novel information about the nature of the interaction between structured conceptual knowledge and control processes that support the retrieval of appropriate information and relates these results to a new theoretical framework, termed controlled semantic cognition.

scholarly journals Deficits of knowledge versus executive control in semantic cognition: Insights from cued naming

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 649-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Jefferies ◽  
Karalyn Patterson ◽  
Matthew A. Lambon Ralph
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Semantic Cognition

Switching attention between tasks: Exploration of the components of executive control and their development with training

1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (21) ◽  
pp. 1060-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gopher ◽  
Yaakov Greenshpan ◽  
Lilach Armony
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Executive Processes ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Skilled Performance ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Operation Costs ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Switching Attention ◽  
Task Representations

Top down processes guided by attention and intention, have been recognized to be important determinants, and necessary complements in the formulation and guidance of skilled performance. The present paper summarizes the results of four experiments conducted to investigate the control operations and the cost involved in switching attention between task dimensions and attention strategies. Subjects were asked to switch between judging the value of digits, or the number of digit elements, in rows of digits presented on the screen. Alternatively they performed the task, switching between speed or accuracy emphasis. The experimental results provide strong evidence for the work of executive processes which operate as attention strategies and policy regulators. They are executed top down, in the service of intentions and basic attention policies, but depend on the existence of task representations, including the “so called” automatic performance units. Executive processes are shown to have sizable operation costs, over and beyond those imposed by the direct processing and response demands of the performed tasks. These costs are reduced with specific training focusing on the improvement of control functions.

scholarly journals Metacognitive Processes in Executive Control Development: The Case of Reactive and Proactive Control

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 1125-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Chevalier ◽  
Shaina Bailey Martis ◽  
Tim Curran ◽  
Yuko Munakata
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Target Onset ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Metacognitive Processes

Young children engage cognitive control reactively in response to events, rather than proactively preparing for events. Such limitations in executive control have been explained in terms of fundamental constraints on children's cognitive capacities. Alternatively, young children might be capable of proactive control but differ from older children in their metacognitive decisions regarding when to engage proactive control. We examined these possibilities in three conditions of a task-switching paradigm, varying in whether task cues were available before or after target onset. RTs, ERPs, and pupil dilation showed that 5-year-olds did engage in advance preparation, a critical aspect of proactive control, but only when reactive control was made more difficult, whereas 10-year-olds engaged in proactive control whenever possible. These findings highlight metacognitive processes in children's cognitive control, an understudied aspect of executive control development.

scholarly journals An individual differences approach to semantic cognition: Divergent effects of age on representation, retrieval and selection

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Semantic Cognition ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Representation Of Knowledge

AbstractSemantic cognition refers to the appropriate use of acquired knowledge about the world. This requires representation of knowledge as well as control processes which ensure that currently-relevant aspects of knowledge are retrieved and selected. Although these abilities can be impaired selectively following brain damage, the relationship between them in healthy individuals is unclear. It is also commonly assumed that semantic cognition is preserved in later life, because older people have greater reserves of knowledge. However, this claim overlooks the possibility of decline in semantic control processes. Here, semantic cognition was assessed in 100 young and older adults. Despite having a broader knowledge base, older people showed specific impairments in semantic control, performing more poorly than young people when selecting among competing semantic representations. Conversely, they showed preserved controlled retrieval of less salient information from the semantic store. Breadth of semantic knowledge was positively correlated with controlled retrieval but was unrelated to semantic selection ability, which was instead correlated with non-semantic executive function. These findings indicate that three distinct elements contribute to semantic cognition: semantic representations that accumulate throughout the lifespan, processes for controlled retrieval of less salient semantic information, which appear age-invariant, and mechanisms for selecting task-relevant aspects of semantic knowledge, which decline with age and may relate more closely to domain-general executive control.

scholarly journals Valoración de los bancos cotizados españoles tras la crisis = Valuation of the Spanish listed banks after the crisis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Adrián Ferreras González ◽  
María Teresa Tascón
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Cost Of Capital ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Residual Income ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Market Values ◽  
Residual Income Model ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Income Model ◽  
The Cost

<p>Después del inicio de la crisis financiera, la cotización en bolsa de las principales entidades financieras españolas se vio enormemente reducida y se ha mantenido en niveles bajos desde entonces. Con el objetivo de determinar si el valor en bolsa se corresponde con el valor intrínseco, se aplican los modelos de descuento de dividendos y descuento de resultados anormales, y se estima el coste de capital según las circunstancias de cada entidad. Teniendo en cuenta los factores macroeconómicos y sectoriales más relevantes que inciden sobre el valor de estas entidades, los resultados indican que cinco de los seis bancos cotizarían ligeramente por debajo del valor estimado y uno de ellos ligeramente por encima. En cuanto a los costes de capital, nuestros resultados indican que se ven afectados de forma notable por el negocio internacional de las entidades.</p><p>After the financial crisis started, the market values of the main Spanish financial institutions suffered a sharp cut and their shares have traded at really low levels since then. Trying to determine whether their price corresponds to their intrinsic value, a valuation of these firms is done by applying the dividend discount model and the residual income model. A cost of capital for each institution is also estimated. Taking into account the most relevant macroeconomic and industrial factors affecting the banks’ value, our results indicate that five out of six banks would be slightly undervalued, and the other one is slightly overvalued. Concerning the cost of capital, our results suggest that it is markedly affected by the internationalization of the firms.</p>

scholarly journals The interplay between semantic control processes and feature relevance: Evidence from dual task methodology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Montefinese ◽  
Glyn Hallam ◽  
Hannah Thompson ◽  
Beth Jefferies
Keyword(s):  
Divided Attention ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Semantic Cognition ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
And Control ◽  
Healthy Participants

Neuropsychological studies suggest a distinction between (i) semantic knowledge and (ii) control processes that shape the retrieval of conceptual information to suit the task or context. These aspects of semantic cognition are specifically impaired in patients with semantic dementia and semantic aphasia respectively. However, interactions between the structure of knowledge and control processes that are expected during semantic retrieval have not been fully characterised. In particular, domain-general executive resources may not have equal relevance for the capacity to promote weak yet relevant features (i.e., “controlled retrieval), and to ignore or suppress distracting information (i.e., “selection”). Here, using a feature selection task, we tested the contribution of featural relevance to semantic performance in healthy participants under conditions of divided attention. Healthy participants showed greater dual-task disruption as the relevance value of the distracter feature linearly increased, supporting the emerging view that semantic relevance is one of the organizing principles of the structure of semantic representation. Moreover, target relevance, word frequency and inter-correlational strength affected overall performance, but they did not show an interaction with dual-task conditions. These results suggest that domain-general control processes, disrupted by divided attention, are more relevant to the capacity to efficiently avoid distracting information during semantic decision-making than to the promotion of weak target features. The present study therefore provides novel information about the nature of the interaction between structured conceptual knowledge and control processes that support the retrieval of appropriate information, and relates these results to a new theoretical framework, termed controlled semantic cognition.

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