control of cognition Flashcards
What is selection/activation of a single task set?
an appropriate organisation of perceptual, cognitive and motor resources to carry out a task, to some extent we select ‘at will’ which task set to adopt according to current goals and to some extent the environment triggers familiar task sets automatically.
How can we investigate control processes in cognition?
Observation of: failures of control in everyday life, pathological failures of control after brain damage. Behavioural experiments: engage control processes in such a way we can isolate and study their contribution to performance.
How can we measure systematic errors of control in everyday life?
Systematic analysis of such errors comes from: diary studies, accident enquiries
What was suggested by Luria about the PFC’s relationship to cognition?
That it seems to be important in the organisation of higher level processes, as neuropsychological testing has revealed several types of control problems if it is damaged.
What are examples of impairments due to PFC damage?
‘Utilisation behaviour’- inability to suppress habitual action to a familiar object.
Perseveration e.g. Wisconsin card sorting test
Difficulty in evaluative decision making e.g. Damasio’s 1999 patient J (PFC)
Disordered planning e.g. strategy application
What is strategy application disorder and how was it measured by Shallice and Burgess?
multiple errands test- performance of patient w frontal lobe damage showed complete disorganised performance e.g. subtasks not completed, rules broken, violations of social conventions e.g. not paying, inappropriate bhvr
What role does response conflict play in the Stroop colour naming task>
We already have (in our brains) a task set for colpour naming, a task set for reading. We try to selectively attend to colour and apply the naming task set but cannot completely suppress the reading task set. The difference in response time between the two conditions measures response conflict which indexes the incompleteness of control.
What is the Flanker effect?
Where response conflict is triggered by an application of instructed task set to irrelevant objects so there is lateralised readiness potential.
What does the response congruence effect indicate?
conflict from activation of response for the other task- the other task set is still active and not disabled completely
How is response inhibition measured?
With the stop signal reaction time task- choice RT but on some trials, a tone signals the ppt not to respond. Stop signal delay is varied to find time required to inhibit response and stop signal RT.
What are they key features of executive control mechanisms?
- essential component of human cognition
- observed to fail sometimes in action errors
- may be selectively impaired by brain damage
- can be captured and studied in labs
- are non unitary and dissociate neuropsychologically, by association and in individual differences
