The executive brain

Question 1

Control processes that enable an individual to optimize performance in situations requiring the operation and coordination of several more basic cognitive processes

Answer 1

Executive functions

Question 2

A task in which participants must point to a new object on each trial and thus maintain a working memory for previously selected items

Answer 2

Self-ordered pointing task

Question 3

A test of verbal fluency in which participants must generate words beginning with a letter (ex: ‘F’) in a limited amount of time

Answer 3

FAS Test

Question 4

Response interference from naming the ink color of a written color name (ex: the word BLUE is printed in RED ink, and participants are asked to say the ink color)

Answer 4

Stroop Test

Question 5

A test of response inhibition in which participants must respond to a frequent stimulus (go trials) but withhold a response to another stimulus (no-go trials)

Answer 5

Go/No-Go Test

Question 6

A behavioral tendency to make immediate responses or seek immediate rewards

Answer 6

Impulsivity

Question 7

A test of executive functions involving rule induction and rule use

Answer 7

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

Question 8

Failure to shift away from a previous response

Answer 8

Perseveration

Question 9

Discarding a previous schema and establishing a new one

Answer 9

Task-switching

Question 10

A slowing of response time due to discarding a previous schema and setting up a new one

Answer 10

Switch cost

Question 11

Carrying out several tasks in succession; requires both task-switching and maintaining future goals while current goals are being dealt with

Answer 11

Multi-tasking

Question 12

Learning that a previously rewarded stimulus or response is no longer rewarded

Answer 12

Reversal learning

Question 13

A proposal that emotional and bodily states associated with previous behaviors are used to influence decision-making

Answer 13

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

Question 14

A task in which participants must learn to avoid risky choices (generating a net loss) in favor (less risky and more rewarding) choices

Answer 14

Iowa Gambling Task

Question 15

A personality disorder (now called Anti-Social Personality Disorder) associated with irresponsible and unreliable behavior that is not personally advantageous; an inability to form lasting commitments or relationships; egocentric thinking; and a marked degree of impulsivity

Answer 15

Sociopathy

Question 16

The tendency for future rewards to have less subjective value than the same reward received now (or in the nearer future)

Answer 16

Delay discounting

Question 17

A set of brain regions in the lateral prefrontal and parietal lobes activated by a large range of tasks relative to baseline

Answer 17

Multiple-demand network

Question 18

The use of neuroscientific methods and theories to account for economic decision-making

Answer 18

Neuroeconomics

Question 19

A two-player game in which one player proposes a split of money and a responder either accepts the money (and obtains the agreed split) or rejects it (and both players get nothing)

Answer 19

Ultimatum Game

Question 20

Flexible thinking and problem-solving in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge

Answer 20

Fluid intelligence

Question 21

The ability to use prior expertise and knowledge

Answer 21

Crystallized intelligence

Question 22

The processing of relating information currently held in mind back to the task requirements

Answer 22

Monitoring

Question 23

Maintaining focus on the task requirements over a period of time

Answer 23

Sustained attention

Question 24

An event-related potential component in EEG that can be detected at the scalp when an error is made

Answer 24

Error-related negativity