Chapter 5 - Cognitive Control and Working Memory Flashcards
Cognitive Control
ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals
Cognitive Overload
different tasks require a different amount of mental resources
ex: it is easier to sing along to a familiar song than it is to calculate answers to math equations
Dual-Task Experiments
assess how well two tasks can be done simultaneously vs one a time
Norman and Shallice (1980)
experiment regarding automatic and controlled processes
results: attentional resources are required for tasks that involve planning, decision making, or are not yet automatized and go against habitual responses
requires prefrontal cortex, if damaged, patients have difficulty alternating behaviors and inhibiting responses
Inhibition
ability to suppress information, thoughts, or actions that may interfere with ongoing behavior
Conflict Monitoring
cognitive control processes detect interference
includes Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)
Conflict Resolution
cognitive control processes act to reduce interference, inhibition of conflicting information
includes Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)
Error Detection
ACC monitors for errors and initiates adjustments by DLPFC when errors are detected to adjust behavior
Gohring et. al (2000)
examined Error Related Negativity in subjects who had OCD
subjects pressed red or green buttons with stimuli that were words of different colors that were printed in red or green, compared correct and error trials
results: OCD subjects showed enhanced ERN and were more sensitive to errors
Rogers and Monsell (1995)
created task-switching paradigm, task alternates every two trials
results: subjects were better at task switching when they had prep time, but were always slower to switch
Working Memory
limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as language comprehension, learning, and reasoning
Baddley’s Working Memory Model
storage: maintain information that is no longer available in perception
manipulate: performs operations on and transforms information
the components of the system are thought to be limited in capacity and relatively independent
Central Executive
responsible for cognitive control
selects information for processing and inhibits irrelevant information/actions
Brooks (1967)
subjects performed two tasks: visuo-spatial and verbal
visuo-spatial: starting at a dot that is located on a letter, transverse clockwise around letter and indicate whether corner is an outside (yes) or inside (no) corner
verbal: hold a sentence in memory and specify whether each word is a noun or not
noun = “yes” ; non-noun = “no”
results: responses slower when response mode was of the
same type as primary task
Phonological Loop
phonological store: holds information temporarily in a phonological code
articulatory control process: “inner voice,” rehearses information to keep it active in phonological store
Naveh-Benjamin & Ayers (1986) - Word-Length Effect
compared native speakers of English, Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic,
measured average pronunciation rate
results: found systematic differences
English was the fastest, Arabic was the slowest
Conrad (1964) - Phonological Similarity Effect
information is being held in a phonological rather than a visual code, lists of similar-sounding items are more difficult to keep track of than different-sounding items
subjects recalled lists of letters in orders
results: mistakes were more likely to be phonologically similar than visually similar
Articulatory Suppression
engaging in articulation (repeating: la, la, la, . . . or the, the, the, . . .) engages the articulatory control process so that it can’t be used for rehearsal
information quickly lost from phonological loop without rehearsal, and memory span is worse with articulatory suppression
also reduces the word length effect & the phonological similarity effect
Irrelevant Speech Effect
hearing irrelevant speech can impair memory performance because it competes with information you are trying to remember
Verbal Working Memory
predicts many different language skills (vocab, second language learning, reading comprehension), because it can be measured with reading span tasks where subject reads a list of sentences and remembers the last words
Visuospatial Sketchpad
creates a representation of environment as you make eye movements
Luck & Vogel (1997) - Visual Short Term Memory
tested subjects by doing visual short term memory tasks with individual features of items
results: VSTM can hold the features of color and orientations of an object and can hold about 4 objects
Alavarez and Cavanaugh (2004) - Capacity of Short Term Memory
used colored squares and more complex objects to measure changes in VSTM
results: less capacity for more complex items
suggests limit is in amount of information, not number of items
Smith & Jonides (1997) - Visual vs. Spatial Working Memory
measured brain activity during task with PET scan
spatial task (squares)
visual task (triangles)
results: for object task, the did not match the object’s shape from initial array
for location task, the probe did not match the location from initial array
Chase & Simon (1973) - “Chunking”
long term memory can increase capacity of working memory through chunking
chess masters have better memory of piece locations than novices, but only for arrangements corresponding to the game
used LTM to “chunk” pieces according to strategies
Eysenck et. al (2007) - Cognitive Control/Inhibition and Emotion
inhibition is critical in emotional regulation, need to be able to inhibit maladaptive negative thoughts
difficulty in doing so can result in rumination - dwelling on negative thoughts and interferes with ability to focus on positive problem solving
tested subjects who were highly anxious
results: more difficulty inhibiting neutral stimuli, more flanker interference
suggests general inhibitory deficits
Bishop (2009) - fMRI Study
tested subjects who were highly anxious
results: less prefrontal activity on flanker conflict trials
general inhibitory deficit
more likely to be distracted by irrelevant information
Yerkes-Dodson Curve
describes how performance suffers as
a result of anxiety, especially for difficult tasks that require a high degree of cognitive control
stress and anxiety take up working memory capacity that should be devoted to problem solving
Cognitive Control and Ego Depletion
cognitive control requires mental effort, but can lead to mental fatigue, AKA ego depletion, as a result
Mani et. al (2013) - Scarcity Induced Stress and Working Memory
measured different incomes of subjects
primed with “scarcity scenario”: your car is having trouble and requires $_____ to be fixed. you can pay in full, take a loan, or take a chance and forego service right now. how would you go about making this decision?
results: at first, no difference in spatial or control with no scarcity scenario
but, scarcity scenario hurt working memory for low income subjects
poverty may influence decision making
worrying about money consumes working memory capacity
Working Memory Capacity
positively correlated to performance on a number of different tasks including:
verbal abilities
reading comprehension
problem solving
IQ scores
ability to ignore distractions
Improving Cognitive Control and Working Memory
focus on attentionally demanding tasks
study done by Green & Baverlier (2003) shows that action video games can improve attention abilities
sleep & exercise can also improve cognitive control and working memory
attention restoration theory: being out in nature can restore resources depleted by cognitive fatigue
