W9 Cognitive Control

Question 1

Inhibition (example)

Answer 1

in a supermarket, hungry, you don’t eat there and then, we inhibit this response. Not simply stimulus-response driven. Delay rewards and plan.

Question 2

Flexibility

Answer 2

perform a large range of behaviours and tasks, select them flexibly, to suit different contexts. (e.g. following and adapting to task rules.)

Question 3

Multi-tasking

Answer 3

Some taks can be done in parallel if they do not collide or copete (e.g. listening to music while reading a book). Seems to be related to attention, auto-pilot.

Question 4

What is Cognition?

Answer 4

Basis for “intelligent” behaviour
Overrides reflexive, habitual responses in favour of complex, (often) long-term goals
Controls/orchestrates sensory, memory, and motor systems -> Cognitive Control
Key neural structure in mammals: Prefrontal cortex

Question 5

Cognitive control

Answer 5

“Top-down” mental processes (in contrast to stimulus-driven “bottom-up” processes). Often requires effort or attention in (contrast to running on autopilot).

“Core” vs. “Higher-order” cognitive abilities

Question 6

Core cognitive abilities

Answer 6

Working Memory, Inhibitory Control, Flexibility

Question 7

Higher-order/insight related

Answer 7

Object permanence
Self-recognition
Mental time travel
Theory of mind
Tool use / causal reasoning

Question 8

What is the impact of poor executive function?

Answer 8

Negatively impacts our mental, physical health, quality of life, school and job success public safety and marital harmony.

Question 9

Working Memory

Answer 9

“Holding information in mind and mentally working with it (e.g., relating one thing to another, using information to solve a problem)”

Multicomponent Model (Baddeley)

Question 10

What is a Go/NoGo task?

Answer 10

Participant needs to respond to some stimuli (Go stimuli), but not to others (NoGo stimuli)
Example: Traffic light is yellow and the changes either to green light (Go stimulus) or red light (NoGo stimulus)
Note that of course the assignment of Go and NoGo is arbitrary and depends on the task instructions

Question 11

Inhibitory Control: Self control (1)

Answer 11

“Resisting temptations and not acting impulsively”
Avoiding indulging ( e.g. eating sweets when trying to cut down on sugar)
Obeying rules, (e.g. not cheating at a game)
Not snapping at someone
Maintaining social norms

Question 12

Inhibitory control: Self control (2)

Answer 12

“The discipline to stay on task despite distractions”:
Making yourself do something to achieve long-term plans. (e.g. Revising so you get a good grade (long-term goal) rather than going to the pub (short-term gratification))
Delayed-gratification or delay discounting (Louis & Glimcher, 2010; Hofmann et al., 2009)

Question 13

Failure to inhibit response

Answer 13

Social interactions
Embarrassing situations
Putting one’s foot in one’s mouth
Saying things without thinking

Question 14

Inhibitory control: cognition inhibition: when is it useful.

Answer 14

Ability to inhibit unwanted or unproductive thoughts
Can pertain to upsetting thoughts
Also rules which no longer apply or are not relevant

Difficult to measure
Assess behavioral inhibition – generalize to cognitive inhibition

Question 15

Key function of frontal lobe in inhbition

Answer 15

Neurological studies on frontal lobe damage, Utilization behaviours.

Directed (don’t do the thing) VS competitive (many actions competing and inhibiting one another) inhibition.

Cognitive control has access to a stopping mechanism, providing a “brake” on inappropriate responses.

Question 16

Cognitive flexibility: Builds on inhibition and WM (Davidson et al., 2006)

Answer 16

Change perspectives – visually, spatially
Change perspectives – interpersonally
Relies on inhibition of old information
Loading new info into WM
Change priorities
Flexibly adapt to new opportunities
Admit defeat

Question 17

Wisconsin Card Sorting test

Answer 17

Task: draw a card and assign it to category 1-4 to match either: Color, Number, Symbol
You receive feedback on whether this assignment was ‘correct’ or ‘wrong’. If the feedback was ‘correct’ you should keep assigning the next card to the same category. If the feedback was ‘wrong’ you should try to match another category.

Question 18

What is the wisconsin card sorting test used for?

Answer 18

Used to examine cognitive impairments in patients with neurological damage or psychological disorders
Frontal lobe
Schizophrenia
Stroke
Obsessive-compulsive disorders

Question 19

Interaction of Executive function

Answer 19

Performance monitoring
Updating
Selection
Shifting

Question 20

Performance monitoring

Answer 20

Perseveration: Assesses if we are doing well, can we perceive that we are doing well or not. Perseveration Errors!

Question 21

Updating

Answer 21

Understanding of the rule, failing: inflexibility

Question 22

Selection

Answer 22

new plan in line with updated relues, conflict between rules.

Question 23

Shifting

Answer 23

new plan, compulsivity; unable to shift to change behaviour

Question 24

Self control

Answer 24

“Ability to control oneself” - no scientific definition available
Impaired self-control common in many clinical disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, drug-addiction and gambling
Value-based decision making and delay discounting

Question 25

Attention

Answer 25

seems similar to aspects of cognitive control, e.g. selecting/prioritizing some processes over others