Chapter 12: Cognitive Control Flashcards
Cognitive control (executive function)
Set of psychological processes that enable us to use our perceptions, knowledge, and goals to bias the selection of action and thoughts
Goal-oriented behavior
Behavior that enables us to interact in the world in a purposeful manner
Goals
Goals reflect the intersection of our internal desires and drives, coupled with the environmental context
Prefrontal cortex
Takes part in higher aspects of motor control and the planning of execution of behavior
Especially tasks that require integration of information over time and thus mandate the involvement of working memory mechanisms
Three regions of PFC
1. dorsolateral pfc
2. anterior cingulate and medial frontal regions
3. orbitofrontal cortex
Frontal pole FP
Most anterior part of the PFC
Hypothesized to play a critical role in the hierarchical representation of action goals
Orbitofrontal cortex
Located above eye orbits
Range of functions including perceptual processes associated with olfaction and taste, as well as those associated with monitoring whether one’s behavior is appropriate
Medial frontal cortex
Associated with cognitive control, specifically monitoring functions for error detection and resolving conflict
Perservation
Tendency to produce a response on successive trials even when context has changed (frontal lesion patient behavior)
Utilization behavior
Extreme dependency on prototypical responses for guiding behavior (disregard for context)
Goal-oriented actions
Planned action that is meant to achieve a certain goal
Habit
An action that is not under control of a reward, independent of reinforcement
Delayed-response tasks
Correct response must be produced after a delay period
Require working memory
Normative decision theories
How people should make decisions based on yielding the optimal choice
Descriptive decisions theories
Describe what people actually do
Action-outcome decisions
Involves evaluation of the expected outcomes
Stimulus-response decisions
Has become habitual through repetition
Primary reinforcers
Have direct benefits for survival
Secondary reinforcers
Have no intrinsic value, but are valued for association with other things (money for example)
Value
Abstract entity refering to the overall preference given to a stimulus or action
(Payoff, probability, effort or cost, discounting, context, preference)
Temporal discounting
Value of reward is reduced as you wait
Dopamine
An organic chemical amine that in the brain functions as a neurotransmitter
Related to rewards
Reward prediction error
Difference between obtained and expected reward
Dynamic filtering
Key component of working memory
Selection of information most relevant to given circumstances is selected by filtering out irrelevant information
Inhibitory control
Regulation of habitual response or environmentally dictated actions
Monitoring
Evaluating whether actions are relevant
Anterior cingulate cortex
Primitive cellular architecture (3 layer)
Involved in interface between frontal lobe and limbic system
Implicated in response monitoring, error detection, and attention
Error-related negativity
EEG
Correlated with occurrence of errors
Prefrontal cortex
Feedback-related negativity
Anterior cingulate
EEG
Response conflict
Situation in which more than one response is activated (usually due to ambiguity)
Proposed that ACC monitors this
