scholarly journals Predicting ADHD Using Eye Gaze Metrics Indexing Working Memory Capacity

Author(s):  
Anne M. P. Michalek ◽  
Gavindya Jayawardena ◽  
Sampath Jayarathna

ADHD is being recognized as a diagnosis that persists into adulthood impacting educational and economic outcomes. There is an increased need to accurately diagnose this population through the development of reliable and valid outcome measures reflecting core diagnostic criteria. For example, adults with ADHD have reduced working memory capacity (WMC) when compared to their peers. A reduction in WMC indicates attention control deficits which align with many symptoms outlined on behavioral checklists used to diagnose ADHD. Using computational methods, such as machine learning, to generate a relationship between ADHD and measures of WMC would be useful to advancing our understanding and treatment of ADHD in adults. This chapter will outline a feasibility study in which eye tracking was used to measure eye gaze metrics during a WMC task for adults with and without ADHD and machine learning algorithms were applied to generate a feature set unique to the ADHD diagnosis. The chapter will summarize the purpose, methods, results, and impact of this study.

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-249
Author(s):  
Xuezhu Ren ◽  
Tengfei Wang ◽  
Karl Schweizer ◽  
Jing Guo

Abstract. Although attention control accounts for a unique portion of the variance in working memory capacity (WMC), the way in which attention control contributes to WMC has not been thoroughly specified. The current work focused on fractionating attention control into distinctly different executive processes and examined to what extent key processes of attention control including updating, shifting, and prepotent response inhibition were related to WMC and whether these relations were different. A number of 216 university students completed experimental tasks of attention control and two measures of WMC. Latent variable analyses were employed for separating and modeling each process and their effects on WMC. The results showed that both the accuracy of updating and shifting were substantially related to WMC while the link from the accuracy of inhibition to WMC was insignificant; on the other hand, only the speed of shifting had a moderate effect on WMC while neither the speed of updating nor the speed of inhibition showed significant effect on WMC. The results suggest that these key processes of attention control exhibit differential effects on individual differences in WMC. The approach that combined experimental manipulations and statistical modeling constitutes a promising way of investigating cognitive processes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessie Martin ◽  
Jason S. Tsukahara ◽  
Christopher Draheim ◽  
Zach Shipstead ◽  
Cody Mashburn ◽  
...  

**The uploaded manuscript is still in preparation** In this study, we tested the relationship between visual arrays tasks and working memory capacity and attention control. Specifically, we tested whether task design (selection or non-selection demands) impacted the relationship between visual arrays measures and constructs of working memory capacity and attention control. Using analyses from 4 independent data sets we showed that the degree to which visual arrays measures rely on selection influences the degree to which they reflect domain-general attention control.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Burgoyne ◽  
Cody Mashburn ◽  
Jason S. Tsukahara ◽  
Zach Hambrick ◽  
Randall W Engle

A hallmark of intelligent behavior is rationality—the disposition and ability to think analytically to make decisions that maximize expected utility or follow the laws of probability, and therefore align with normative principles of decision making. However, the question remains as to whether rationality and intelligence are empirically distinct, as does the question of what cognitive mechanisms underlie individual differences in rationality. In a large sample of participants (N = 331), we used latent variable analyses to assess the relationship between rationality and intelligence. The results indicated that there was a common ability underpinning performance on some, but not all, rationality tests. Latent factors representing rationality and general intelligence were strongly correlated (r = .54), but their correlation fell well short of unity. Indeed, after accounting for variance in performance attributable to general intelligence, rationality measures still cohered on a latent factor. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that rationality correlated significantly with fluid intelligence (r = .56), working memory capacity (r = .44), and attention control (r = .49). Structural equation modeling revealed that attention control fully accounted for the relationship between working memory capacity and rationality, and partially accounted for the relationship between fluid intelligence and rationality. Results are interpreted in light of the executive attention framework, which holds that attention control supports information maintenance and disengagement in service of complex cognition. We conclude by speculating about factors rationality tests may tap that other cognitive ability tests miss, and outline directions for further research.


Author(s):  
Cyrus K. Foroughi ◽  
Ericka Rovira ◽  
Kaley Rose ◽  
DaShawn Davis ◽  
Jaritzel J. Jurado ◽  
...  

With the proliferation of automated tasks, software, and systems, humans are moving from an active participant in the function of a task to a passive monitor of an automated system that is completing that task. Unfortunately, humans are not well-suited for monitoring roles and there is a need to better understand the factors involved when humans successfully identify when an automated system fails. The goal for this research was to determine whether individual differences in attention control (as measured by the anti-saccade task) and working memory capacity (as measured by the shortened operation span) related to an individual’s ability to detect automation failures. In experiment 1, there was a significant positive relationship ( r = .31) between scores on the anti-saccade task and the number of automation failures that participants detected. In experiment 2, there was a significant positive relationship ( r = .32) between scores on the shortened operation span and the number of automation failures that participants’ detected. The results suggest that certain individuals are better suited for detecting automation failures. Selecting for these individuals may be a fruitful endeavor as automated systems continue to grow across society.


2020 ◽  
pp. 175-211
Author(s):  
Cody A. Mashburn ◽  
Jason S. Tsukahara ◽  
Randall W. Engle

This chapter outlines the executive attention theory of higher-order cognition, which argues that individual differences in the ability to maintain information in working memory and disengage from irrelevant information is inextricably linked to variation in the ability to deploy domain-free attentional resources in a goal-directed fashion. It also summarizes recent addendums to the theory, particularly regarding the relationship between attention control, working memory capacity, and fluid intelligence. Specifically, the chapter argues that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence measures require different allocations of the same attentional resources, a fact which accounts for their strong correlation. At various points, it addresses theoretical alternatives to the executive attention theory of working memory capacity and empirical complications of the study of attention control, including difficulties deriving coherent attention control latent factors.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Kyle Robison ◽  
Gene Arnold Brewer

The present study examined individual differences in three cognitive abilities: attention control (AC), working memory capacity (WMC), and fluid intelligence (gF) as they relate the tendency to experience task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) and the regulation of arousal. Cognitive abilities were measured with a battery of nine laboratory tasks, TUTs were measured via thought probes inserted into two tasks, and arousal regulation was measured via pupillometry. Recent theorizing (Robison & Unsworth, 2017a) suggests that one reason why some people experience relatively frequent TUTs and relatively poor cognitive performance - especially AC and WMC - is that they exhibit dysregulated arousal. Here, we examined how arousal regulation might predict both AC and WMC, but also higher-order cognitive abilities like gF. Further, we examine direct and indirect associations with these abilities via a mediating influence of TUT. Participants who reported more TUTs also tended to exhibit poorer AC, lower WMC, and lower gF. Arousal dysregulation correlated with more TUTs and lower AC. However there was no direct correlation between arousal regulation and WMC, nor between arousal regulation and gF. Rather, the associations between arousal regulation, WMC, and gF were indirect via TUT. We discuss the implications of the results in light of the arousal regulation theory of individual differences and directions for future research.


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