scholarly journals Cognitive Control of Working Memory: A Model-Based Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 721
Author(s):  
Russell J. Boag ◽  
Niek Stevenson ◽  
Roel van Dooren ◽  
Anne C. Trutti ◽  
Zsuzsika Sjoerds ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Prepotent Response ◽  
New Information ◽  
Empirical Performance ◽  
Flow Of Information

Working memory (WM)-based decision making depends on a number of cognitive control processes that control the flow of information into and out of WM and ensure that only relevant information is held active in WM’s limited-capacity store. Although necessary for successful decision making, recent work has shown that these control processes impose performance costs on both the speed and accuracy of WM-based decisions. Using the reference-back task as a benchmark measure of WM control, we conducted evidence accumulation modeling to test several competing explanations for six benchmark empirical performance costs. Costs were driven by a combination of processes, running outside of the decision stage (longer non-decision time) and showing the inhibition of the prepotent response (lower drift rates) in trials requiring WM control. Individuals also set more cautious response thresholds when expecting to update WM with new information versus maintain existing information. We discuss the promise of this approach for understanding cognitive control in WM-based decision making.

A Bird in the Hand Isn’t Good for Long

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Scherbaum ◽  
Simon Frisch ◽  
Maja Dshemuchadse
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Folk Wisdom ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract. Folk wisdom tells us that additional time to make a decision helps us to refrain from the first impulse to take the bird in the hand. However, the question why the time to decide plays an important role is still unanswered. Here we distinguish two explanations, one based on a bias in value accumulation that has to be overcome with time, the other based on cognitive control processes that need time to set in. In an intertemporal decision task, we use mouse tracking to study participants’ responses to options’ values and delays which were presented sequentially. We find that the information about options’ delays does indeed lead to an immediate bias that is controlled afterwards, matching the prediction of control processes needed to counter initial impulses. Hence, by using a dynamic measure, we provide insight into the processes underlying short-term oriented choices in intertemporal decision making.

The Demand for, and Avoidance of, Information

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Golman ◽  
George Loewenstein ◽  
Andras Molnar ◽  
Silvia Saccardo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Behavioral Theory ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Good News ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
New Information ◽  
Attention Demand ◽  
Aid Decision

Management scientists recognize that decision making depends on the information people have but lack a unified behavioral theory of the demand for (and avoidance of) information. Drawing on an existing theoretical framework in which utility depends on beliefs and the attention paid to them, we develop and test a theory of the demand for information encompassing instrumental considerations, curiosity, and desire to direct attention to beliefs one feels good about. We decompose an individual’s demand for information into the desire to refine beliefs, holding attention constant, and the desire to focus attention on anticipated beliefs, holding these beliefs constant. Because the utility of resolving uncertainty (i.e., refining beliefs) depends on the attention paid to it and more important or salient questions capture more attention, demand for information depends on the importance and salience of the question(s) it addresses. In addition, because getting new information focuses attention on one’s beliefs and people want to savor good news and ignore bad news, the desire to obtain or avoid information depends on the valence (i.e., goodness or badness) of anticipated beliefs. Five experiments (n = 2,361) test and find support for these hypotheses, looking at neutrally valenced as well as ego-relevant information. People are indeed more inclined to acquire information (a) when it feels more important, even if it cannot aid decision making (Experiments 1A and 2A); (b) when a question is more salient, manipulated through time lag (Experiments 1B and 2B); and (c) when anticipated beliefs have higher valence (Experiment 2C). This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

Experimental manipulation of cognitive control processes causes an increase in communication disturbances in healthy volunteers

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 995-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN G. KERNS
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Memory Interference ◽  
Interference Resolution ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Poor Cognition

Background. Although communication disturbances (CD) have been associated with poor cognitive control, it is unclear whether they are associated specifically with poor cognitive control or with poor cognition in general. The current research examined whether (a) two specific components of cognitive control, working memory and interference resolution, were associated with CD, and (b) associations between CD and cognitive control could be accounted for by generalized poor cognitive performance.Method. In this study, as healthy volunteers spoke, the level of cognitive demands was experimentally increased, thereby simulating cognitive deficits (i.e. a reduction in the degree to which certain types of cognitive processes could be used for speech). Hence, this research examined whether simulated cognitive deficits would cause an increase in CD. Participants also completed separate cognitive tasks that assessed working memory, interference resolution and general cognitive ability.Results. An increase in working memory demands caused an increase in CD. Moreover, working memory demands interacted with interference resolution demands, with the greatest amount of CD caused by both high working memory and high interference resolution demands. By contrast, increasing another cognitive demand, sustained attention, did not increase CD. Furthermore, performance on separate working memory and interference resolution tasks interacted to predict CD on the experimental speech task. However, performance on a psychometrically matched cognitive task did not predict CD.Conclusion. Overall, the current study provides evidence that working memory and interference resolution may be specifically associated with CD and that manipulations of these cognitive control processes can cause an increase in CD.

scholarly journals Cortical Mechanisms of Cognitive Control for Shifting Attention in Vision and Working Memory

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2905-2919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Tamber-Rosenau ◽  
Michael Esterman ◽  
Yu-Chin Chiu ◽  
Steven Yantis
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Future Goals ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Superior Frontal Sulcus

Organisms operate within both a perceptual domain of objects and events, and a mnemonic domain of past experiences and future goals. Each domain requires a deliberate selection of task-relevant information, through deployments of external (perceptual) and internal (mnemonic) attention, respectively. Little is known about the control of attention shifts in working memory, or whether voluntary control of attention in these two domains is subserved by a common or by distinct functional networks. We used human fMRI to examine the neural basis of cognitive control while participants shifted attention in vision and in working memory. We found that these acts of control recruit in common a subset of the dorsal fronto-parietal attentional control network, including the medial superior parietal lobule, intraparietal sulcus, and superior frontal sulcus/gyrus. Event-related multivoxel pattern classification reveals, however, that these regions exhibit distinct spatio-temporal patterns of neural activity during internal and external shifts of attention, respectively. These findings constrain theoretical accounts of selection in working memory and perception by showing that populations of neurons in dorsal fronto-parietal network regions exhibit selective tuning for acts of cognitive control in different cognitive domains.

scholarly journals Computational modeling of the N-Back task in the ABCD study: associations of drift diffusion model parameters to polygenic scores of mental disorders and cardiometabolic diseases

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mads Lund Pedersen ◽  
Dag Alnæs ◽  
Dennis van der Meer ◽  
Sara Fernandez ◽  
Pierre Berthet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Decision Threshold ◽  
Drift Diffusion Model ◽  
Drift Diffusion ◽  
Cardiometabolic Diseases ◽  
Back Task

Background. Cognitive dysfunction is common in mental disorders and represents a potential risk factor in childhood. The nature and extent of associations between childhood cognitive function and polygenic risk for mental disorders is unclear. We applied computational modeling to gain insight into mechanistic processes underlying decision making and working memory in childhood and their associations with PRS for mental disorders and comorbid cardiometabolic diseases. Methods. We used the drift diffusion model to infer latent computational processes underlying decision-making and working memory during the N-back task in 3707 children aged 9-10 from the ABCD Study. SNP-based heritability was estimated for cognitive phenotypes, including computational parameters, aggregated N-back task performance and neurocognitive assessments. PRS was calculated for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), bipolar disorder, coronary artery disease (CAD), major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and type 2 diabetes. Results. Heritability estimates of cognitive phenotypes ranged from 12 to 39%. Bayesian mixed models revealed that slower accumulation of evidence was associated with higher PRS for CAD and schizophrenia. Longer non-decision time was associated with higher PRS for AD and lower PRS for CAD. Narrower decision threshold was associated with higher PRS for CAD. Load-dependent effects on non-decision time and decision threshold were associated with PRS for AD and CAD, respectively. Aggregated neurocognitive test scores were not associated with PRS for any of the mental or cardiometabolic phenotypes.Conclusions. We identified distinct associations between computational cognitive processes to genetic risk for mental illness and cardiometabolic disease, which could represent childhood cognitive risk factors.

scholarly journals Behavioral Measures of Attention and Cognitive Control During a New Auditory Working Memory Paradigm

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Kayser ◽  
Lidia Y.X. Wong ◽  
Elizabeth Sacchi ◽  
Lindsey Casal-Roscum ◽  
Jorge E. Alvarenga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Impairments ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Auditory Hallucinations ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Response Sensitivity ◽  
Functional Deficits ◽  
Visual Tasks

Proactive control is the ability to manipulate and maintain goal-relevant information within working memory (WM), allowing individuals to selectively attend to important information while inhibiting irrelevant distractions. Deficits in proactive control may cause multiple cognitive impairments seen in schizophrenia. However, studies of cognitive control have largely relied on visual tasks, even though functional deficits in schizophrenia are more frequent and severe in the auditory domain (i.e., hallucinations). Hence, we developed an auditory analog of a visual Ignore/Suppress paradigm. Healthy adults (N=40) listened to a series of 4 letters (600-ms SOA) presented alternately to each ear, followed by a 3.2-s maintenance interval and a probe. Participants were directed to either selectively ignore (I) to-be-presented letters to one ear, suppress (S) letters already presented to one ear, or remember (R) all presented letters. The critical cue was provided either before (I) or after (S) the encoding series, or simultaneously with the probe (R). Probes were encoding items presented to the attended/not suppressed ear (“Valid”), the ignored/suppressed ear (“Lure”), or not presented (“Control”). Replicating prior findings during visual Ignore/Suppress tasks, response sensitivity and latency revealed poorer performance for Lure than Control trials, particularly during the Suppress condition. Shorter Suppress than Remember latencies suggested a behavioral advantage when discarding encoded items from WM. Paradigm-related internal consistencies and 1-week test-retest reliabilities (n=38) were good to excellent. Findings validate these auditory WM tasks as a reliable manipulation of proactive control and set the stage for studies with schizophrenia patients who experience auditory hallucinations.

scholarly journals Using Eye-Tracking to Understand Decision-Making in Conjoint Experiments

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-101
Author(s):  
Libby Jenke ◽  
Kirk Bansak ◽  
Jens Hainmueller ◽  
Dominik Hangartner
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
Choice Data ◽  
Attribute Importance ◽  
New Information ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Conjoint experiments are popular, but there is a paucity of research on respondents’ underlying decision-making processes. We leverage eye-tracking methodology and a series of conjoint experiments, administered to university students and local community members, to examine how respondents process information in conjoint surveys. There are two main findings. First, attribute importance measures inferred from the stated choice data are correlated with attribute importance measures based on eye movement. This validation test supports the interpretation of common conjoint metrics, such as average marginal component effects (AMCEs), as measures of attribute importance. Second, when we experimentally increase the number of attributes and profiles in the conjoint table, respondents view a larger absolute number of cells but a smaller fraction of the total cells displayed. Moving from two to three profiles, respondents search more within-profile, rather than within-attribute, to build summary evaluations. However, respondents’ stated choices remain fairly stable regardless of the number of attributes and profiles in the conjoint table. Together, these patterns speak to the robustness of conjoint experiments and are consistent with a bounded rationality mechanism. Respondents adapt to complexity by selectively incorporating relevant new information to focus on important attributes, while ignoring less relevant information to reduce cognitive processing costs.

EXPRESS: High Bladder Pressure Reduces the Ability to Filter Out Interference From Distractors in Low Perceptual Load Condition

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110688
Author(s):  
Hasan Gunduz ◽  
Turan Gunduz ◽  
Arzu Ozkan Ceylan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Perceptual Load ◽  
Control Mechanism ◽  
Load Condition ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Bladder Pressure ◽  
Distractor Interference ◽  
Load Effect ◽  
Load Theory

According to the load theory of attention, an active cognitive control mechanism is needed to ensure that behavior is controlled by target-relevant information when distractors are also perceived. Although the active cognitive control mechanism consists of working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition components, predictions regarding the load effects of this mechanism were derived mostly from studies on working memory. We aimed to test whether these predictions are also valid for an inhibition component. The inhibitory load was manipulated physiologically by creating different bladder pressure and its effects on distractor interference were examined under low and high perceptual load conditions. Results indicated that the availability of inhibitory control resources was important for decreasing the interference of distractors in the low perceptual load condition and that the high perceptual load reduced the effects of distractors independently from the availability of inhibitory resources. Results were consistent with the predictions of load theory, and to the best of our knowledge, the study provided the first piece of evidence in terms of the load effect of inhibition component on distractor interference.

scholarly journals Positive Affect Modulates Flexibility and Evaluative Control

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 524-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelleke C. van Wouwe ◽  
Guido P. H. Band ◽  
K. Richard Ridderinkhof
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
New Information ◽  
Flexible Adaptation ◽  
Memory Content ◽  
Target Probe

The ability to interact with a constantly changing environment requires a balance between maintaining the currently relevant working memory content and being sensitive to potentially relevant new information that should be given priority access to working memory. Mesocortical dopamine projections to frontal brain areas modulate working memory maintenance and flexibility. Recent neurocognitive and neurocomputational work suggests that dopamine release is transiently enhanced by induced positive affect. This ERP study investigated the role of positive affect in different aspects of information processing: in proactive control (context maintenance and updating), reactive control (flexible adaptation to incoming task-relevant information), and evaluative control in an AX-CPT task. Subjects responded to a target probe if it was preceded by a specific cue. Induced positive affect influenced the reactive and evaluative components of control (indexed by the N2 elicited by the target and by the error-related negativity elicited after incorrect responses, respectively), whereas cue-induced proactive preparation and maintenance processes remained largely unaffected (as reflected in the P3b and the contingent negative variation components of the ERP).

scholarly journals Removal of information from working memory is not related to inhibition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alodie Rey-Mermet ◽  
Kris Singh ◽  
Gilles E Gignac ◽  
Christopher Brydges ◽  
Ullrich K. H. Ecker
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Inhibitory Process ◽  
Interference Control ◽  
Removal Process ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
The Individual

Working memory (WM) is a system for maintenance of and access to a limited number of goal-relevant representations in the service of higher cognition. Because of its limited capacity, WM requires interference-control processes, allowing us to avoid being distracted by irrelevant information. Recent research has proposed two interference-control processes, which are conceptually similar: (1) an active, item-wise removal process assumed to remove no-longer relevant information from WM, and (2) an inhibitory process assumed to suppress the activation of distractors against competing, goal-relevant representations. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which removal and inhibition are the same construct. Results showed acceptable to good reliabilities for nearly all measures. Similar to previous studies, a structural equation modeling approach identified a reliable latent variable of removal. However, also similar to some previous studies, no latent variable of inhibition could be established. This was the case even when the correlation matrix used to compute the latent variable of inhibition was disattenuated for imperfect reliability. Critically, the individual measures of inhibition were unrelated to the latent variable of removal. These results provide tentative support for the notion that removal is not an inhibitory process. This suggests that the removal process should be conceptualized as a process independent of inhibition, as proposed in computational WM models that implement removal as the “unbinding” of a WM item from the context in which it occurred.

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