Creativity and Cognitive Control: Explorations of Generation and Evaluation Skills

Two experiments are reported in which relationships between cognitive control and generative as well as evaluative aspects of creativity were studied. Cognitive control was assessed through the interference effects of the Navon and Stroop tasks. Generative and evaluative aspects of creativity were studied with a procedure, called Generation and Evaluation (GenEva). Each participant first generated a number of solutions to a set of divergent problems, and then he or she evaluated solutions provided by another participant, chosen at random. The data suggest that participants scoring high on Urban and Jellen's Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production showed better indexes of cognitive control than participants with lower scores. A similar relationship has been found concerning the originality of participants' productions (GenEva procedure) but not their fluency and flexibility. These findings are interpreted in terms of basic cognitive processes, which are probably responsible for idea production. It also appeared that cognitive control allowed more accurate evaluation of other people's ideas, but only in the case of participants with global cognitive style of information processing.     

Stress-related cognitive interference predicts cognitive function in old age

Both subjective distress and cognitive interference have been proposed as mechanisms underlying the negative effects of stress on cognition. Studies of aging have shown that distress is associated with lower cognitive performance, but none have examined the effects of cognitive interference. One hundred eleven older adults (M-sub(age)=80) completed measures of working memory, processing speed, and episodic memory as well as self-report measures of subjective distress and cognitive interference. Cognitive interference was strongly associated with poorer performance on all 3 cognitive constructs, whereas distress was only modestly associated with lower working memory. The results suggest that cognitive process related to stress is an important predictor of cognitive function in advanced age.     

“Cold” Cognitive Control and Attentional Symptoms in Anxiety: Perceptions Versus Performance

Clinically significant anxiety is associated with an array of attentional symptoms (e.g., difficulty concentrating; unwanted thought) that are subjectively experienced as severe. However, neuropsychological findings are mixed with respect to the presence of cognitive deficits that can account for these symptoms. Contextualizing predictions from established clinical theories (e.g., Attentional Control Theory) within contemporary, neurobiologically derived models of cognitive control (Dual Mechanisms of Control Theory), the present study investigated the relationship between “cold” proactive and reactive cognitive control, task effort, and subjective attentional symptoms (difficulty concentrating; unwanted thought) in a mixed clinical sample of individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and a comparison sample of healthy controls. Clinical status moderated the relationship between attentional symptoms (attentional focusing and trait worry) and proactive cognitive control response time. Clinical status also moderated the relationship between trait worry and task effort. Higher trait worry was associated with slower proactive control and lower effort in healthy participants, but faster proactive control in clinical participants. Self-reported attentional focusing showed differential validity vis-à-vis proactive control response time in clinical versus healthy participants. Post-hoc conditional effects analysis suggested more accurate self-appraisals in healthy controls, but was not significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Preliminary evidence suggested that differences in task effort in anxious versus healthy adults may relate to subjective attentional symptoms in GAD and OCD.     

自我关注重评和情境关注重评情绪调节策略及对随后认知控制的影响

认知重评作为高度适应性的情绪调节策略, 是否消耗随后任务所需的认知资源仍存在争议。以往研究把重评作为单一策略研究, 并未区分重评亚型对这一问题进行探索。本研究采用情绪调节与认知控制结合的任务, 考察自我关注和情境关注两种重评亚型调节情绪的效果, 以及对随后认知控制的影响是否存在差异。结果发现两种重评策略都能有效调节情绪, 但调节效果存在差异。从行为角度看, 与中性刺激相比, 负性刺激会引发更高的负性情绪水平, 对随后冲突任务的认知控制能力更差。进一步从神经机制水平来看, 增加负性情绪可能会进一步消耗随后任务可用的认知资源, 与自我关注重评相比, 采用情境关注重评降低负性情绪后, 对随后冲突任务的认知控制能力更强。说明两种重评亚型并不同质, 不仅在调节情绪的效果上存在差异, 而且会引发不同的认知控制后果; 同时, 负性情绪水平越高, 认知控制能力可能会越差。     

语言转换对非熟练双语者不同认知控制成分的即时影响

语言转换情境是否影响非熟练双语者的认知控制存在争议。实验1和实验2分别采用不同的实验范式探讨语言转换对非熟练双语者的认知控制是否会有即时的影响, 以及对不同认知控制成分的影响是否会有不同。结果表明, 语言转换情境能够即时地促进反应抑制, 阻碍干扰抑制, 但对认知灵活性没有影响, 同时说明了反应抑制、干扰抑制和认知灵活性属于3种不同的认知成分, 其内在作用机制不同。此外, 研究结果还进一步说明了双语者的认知控制优势是双语者长期双语使用的结果, 为双语优势的内在机制提供了实验支持。     

Expecting tasks to help or hurt subsequent cognitive performance: Variability,accuracy, and bias in forecasted after-effects

After-effects on cognition—where a prior activity either benefits or hinders subsequent cognitive performance—are empirically inconsistent. Do people have insight into when their subjective energy and cognition will be helped or hurt by engaging in prior activities? Studies 1a and 1b (combined N  =  316) find that people expect more demanding and unenjoyable tasks to hinder their subsequent energy and cognitive performance, regardless of their willpower lay theory. Study 2 (N  =  167) examines the accuracy of these forecasts using a within-subject design. Participants’ forecasts of their future subjective states did predict their actual experienced subjective states, but participants were not able to accurately forecast their subsequent maths performance. Additionally, they significantly overestimated the detrimental effects of demanding prior activities on both subjective state and performance. Study 3 (N  =  210) found that participants’ overestimation of detrimental after-effects could result in unnecessary financial costs, suggesting these biased forecasts can have consequences.     

The effects of cognitive load on attention control in subclinical anxiety and generalised anxiety disorder

Poor regulation of emotions may involve impaired attention control. In the current paper, we report the results of two studies examining the interaction of anxiety, attention control and cognitive load. In Study I, using a performance-based task to assess attention control, we examined whether anxiety is associated with impaired attention control, and whether these effects are influenced by working memory load. In Study II, we examined these effects in patients with a diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) compared to non-anxious control (NAC) participants. Results of Study I showed that high anxiety was associated with increased attention control, that is decreased interference from distractors, but only under high cognitive load. These results were replicated in Study II such that individuals with GAD showed increased attention control relative to NACs, but only under high cognitive load. These results help clarify previous predictions regarding the effect of anxiety on attention control.     

Task switching in video game players: Benefits of selective attention but not resistance to proactive interference

Research into the perceptual and cognitive effects of playing video games is an area of increasing interest for many investigators. Over the past decade, expert video game players (VGPs) have been shown to display superior performance compared to non-video game players (nVGPs) on a range of visuospatial and attentional tasks. A benefit of video game expertise has recently been shown for task switching, suggesting that VGPs also have superior cognitive control abilities compared to nVGPs. In two experiments, we examined which aspects of task switching performance this VGP benefit may be localized to. With minimal trial-to-trial interference from minimally overlapping task set rules, VGPs demonstrated a task switching benefit compared to nVGPs. However, this benefit disappeared when proactive interference between tasks was increased, with substantial stimulus and response overlap in task set rules. We suggest that VGPs have no generalized benefit in task switching-related cognitive control processes compared to nVGPs, with switch cost reductions due instead to a specific benefit in controlling selective attention.     

An Electrophysiological Investigation of the Effects of Social Rejection on Self Control

Previous studies have shown that social rejection leads to impaired performance on a variety of tasks that require self control, including the Stroop color-word interference task; however, mechanisms underlying the effect remain to be elucidated. We attempted to clarify the effects of social rejection on self control resources by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) during a computerized Stroop test. Stroop performance and ERPs from 54 participants in rejected, control, and accepted groups were analyzed. A significant difference in the pattern of results for the N450 ERP was found, with rejected participants showing less negativity on incongruent trials and more on congruent trials compared to accepted participants and controls. The results suggest social rejection reduces the engagement of cognitive control mechanisms, and are more consistent with a limited strength resource model than with limited capacity resource models that focus on limitations in attention.     

Aging and input processing in dual-task situations

The psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm was used to test whether older participants suffer from input interference in dual-task situations. Young (24 years) and older (57 years) adults gave speeded responses to 2 successively presented stimuli. The results showed increased susceptibility of older participants to input interference. Further experiments revealed that this input interference is related to the salience of the 2nd stimulus and that it is specific to older participants. Our findings indicate that parallel processing at the input stages of dual-task performance requires cognitive control. An age-related decline in the control of input processes should be considered as one source of age effects in dual-task performance.     

Pointing and the interference effect in obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD)

The interference effect in obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) was investigated in order to analyze cognitive aspects of motor stereotypy in OCD‐related compulsions. So far, the domain of cognitive control in compulsive behavior has been under‐investigated. Twelve participants (OCD patients and healthy controls) completed a newly created computer‐based pointing task as well as standard clinical and psychological background measures. Findings showed that the patients displayed a larger visual interference effect compared to the controls and pointing paths were longer in time as well as distance when a distractor stimulus was present. It is concluded that, for compensation, patients would need to generate excessive amounts of attentional resources not available to overcome motor rigidity on the one side and visual distraction on the other side.     

When motivation backfires: Optimal levels of motivation as a function of cognitive capacity in information relevance perception and social judgment

Motivation and cognitive capacity are central variables in major models of social judgment and persuasion. However, the exact nature of their interplay in judgment processes has remained ambiguous. The present paper reports on two experimental studies tackling this issue. In Study 1 we demonstrated a cross-over pattern of means for the interaction effect of motivation and cognitive capacity on judgment, with high motivation being beneficial under high cognitive capacity but detrimental under low cognitive capacity. This effect was explained by the participants’ subjective perception of information relevance. In Study 2, the role of information relevance was further investigated, showing that for highly motivated participants, judgment was differently affected by information with low versus high relevance when cognitive capacity was high but not when it was low. In the discussion, we elaborate on these effects, advocating a more dynamic perspective on (social) judgment, acknowledging the conditional (opposite) effects of motivation, in function of cognitive capacity.     

Does cognitive flexibility training enhance subjective mental functioning in healthy older adults?

Declining cognitive abilities in older adults can contribute to significant changes in socioemotional health and substantially reduce their perception of well-being. Whereas much attention has been dedicated to creating cognitive training programs to improve cognitive health in old age, there is little emphasis on the consequences of such interventions for subjective mental functioning. We created a randomized controlled trial in which we evaluated the effects of an adaptive computerized cognitive flexibility training. Healthy older adults (60–80 years old) were assigned to one of three conditions (frequent or infrequent switching or active control group) and performed 58 half-hour sessions within a period of 12 weeks. We measured effects on subjective cognitive failures and executive dysfunctioning, everyday functioning, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and quality of life, before, and after training. Additionally, participants’ proxies rated their cognitive failures and executive dysfunctioning. Subjective cognitive failures and executive dysfunctioning improved 4 weeks posttraining in all groups, although effect sizes were low (?_p² = .058 and .079, respectively) and there were no differences between groups (all p’s > .38). No significant changes in subjective reports were seen directly after training, which was the case in all groups. Proxies did not report any functional changes over time, yet their evaluations were significantly more favorable than those of the participants, both pretraining (p < .0005) and posttraining (p = .004). Although we found no evidence of improvement on subjective mental functioning, we adduce several factors that encourage further research into the effects of computerized cognitive training on subjective performance.     

No effects of executive control depletion on prospective memory retrieval processes

Research has suggested that prospective memory retrieval is reliant on executive control processes, and the degree to which these processes are necessary for intention fulfillment is dependent on a host of variables related to the prospective memory task. Based on results suggesting that aspects of the prospective memory task vary in their need for executive control, the current study examined the possibility that executive control depletion from the Stroop task would negatively transfer to prospective memory performance. Depletion of executive control, measured objectively in a Stroop task, did not impair prospective memory performance in either low or high cue-target association conditions. However, participants’ subjective assessments of their own cognitive fatigue correlated significantly with their prospective memory performance, regardless of the association between cues and target responses.     

Family socio-economic status and children’s executive function: The moderating effects of parental subjective socio-economic status and children’s subjective social mobility

Family socio-economic status (SES) is significantly related to disparities in children’s executive function. Children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds perform worse on executive function tasks than their peers from high-SES families. The protective factors in the relationship between SES and executive function have not been sufficiently investigated, especially from the perspective of parents’ and children’s perceptions and expectations regarding SES. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether parental subjective SES and children’s subjective social mobility separately moderated the relationship between family SES and children’s executive function among 885 participants aged 9–13 years. The results showed that family SES was positively related to the three components of executive function (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory). Moreover, the relationship between SES and cognitive flexibility was weak among the children with a high level of subjective social mobility or those whose parents had high levels of subjective SES. Among children from families with economic hardship, subjective social mobility is a potential protective factor mitigating the negative effects of low family SES on their cognitive flexibility.     

Measuring being lost in thought: An exploratory driving simulator study

In driver behaviour research there is considerable focus on distraction caused by specific external systems, such as navigation systems or mobile telephones. However, it is not clear whether self-paced actions such as daydreaming have the same negative effects on driving behaviour. In a driving simulator study, the effects of an internal cognitive process (internal distraction) on driving behaviour and physiological data were compared to the effects of a sound and speech task (external distraction). Three groups of participants made two drives on a motorway, with one control group, one internal distraction group and one external distraction group. Dependent measures included driving behavioural measures, physiological measures and a subjective indication of participants’ experienced involvement in the driving task.The effects of both the internal and external distraction task were reflected in speed, number of lane changes, deceleration, glances and subjective ratings. When an effect was found for both the internal and the external distraction task, the results indicated similar (negative) effects. Participants also indicated that they had the feeling they were less involved in the driving task with both secondary tasks.     

Evaluation of the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to treat chronic insomnia

IntroductionAs having positive effects on reducing distress and symptoms associated with different mental and physical disorders, many studies have focused on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.ObjectiveIt is suggested that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) could help reducing insomnia by focusing on certain cognitive factors associated to insomnia.MethodA pre-experimental, pre-test protocol with a post-test and three month follow-up was used to measure the effect of a group intervention of eight sessions and 12 participants.ResultsThe intervention had a positive effect on participants’ subjective evaluation regarding their sleep and the gains were maintained after three months. However, after the intervention, no significant effect was found on the objective measures of sleep. Two factors associated to the maintenance of insomnia, such as dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep and mental control strategies were improved following treatment and these improvements were maintained during the follow-up.ConclusionThe results of this study suggest that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy might be an interesting addition in the treatment of insomnia, given that it focuses on certain cognitive factors that contribute to the maintenance of insomnia.     

Let me take the wheel: Illusory control and sense of agency

Illusory control refers to an effect in games of chance where features associated with skilful situations increase expectancies of success. Past work has operationalized illusory control in terms of subjective ratings or behaviour, with limited consideration of the relationship between these definitions, or the broader construct of agency. This study used a novel card-guessing task in 78 participants to investigate the relationship between subjective and behavioural illusory control. We compared trials in which participants (a) had no opportunity to exercise illusory control, (b) could exercise illusory control for free, or (c) could pay to exercise illusory control. Contingency Judgment and Intentional Binding tasks assessed explicit and implicit sense of agency, respectively. On the card-guessing task, confidence was higher when participants exerted control than in the baseline condition. In a complementary model, participants were more likely to exercise control when their confidence was high, and this effect was accentuated in the pay condition relative to the free condition. Decisions to pay were positively correlated with control ratings on the Contingency Judgment task, but were not significantly related to Intentional Binding. These results establish an association between subjective and behavioural illusory control and locate the construct within the cognitive literature on agency.     

Stereotypes and Shifting Standards: Some Paradoxical Effects of Cognitive Load

Four studies tested a prediction derived from the shifting-standards model (Biernat, Manis, & Nelson, 1991) regarding the role stereotypes play in judgments of individual group members. Previous research has documented that stereotyping effects are stronger on objective than on subjective response scales, and the present studies found that these effects were intensified when participants were under heavy cognitive load. Stereotyping effects increased on objective judgment scales, but decreased on subjective scales. The latter is a paradoxical effect: By relying on stereotypes, one may increasingly use them as within-category comparative standards, which leads to the apparent reduction of stereotyping effects.     

The heart of control: Proactive cognitive control training limits anxious cardiac arousal under stress

Research and theory suggest that anxious people employ cognitive control on a relatively late and transient basis. This tendency may impair emotion regulation that depends on early, persistent implementation of cognitive control. We examined whether anxious people could be trained to apply cognitive control proactively (i.e., in advance of goal-related action) and whether such training limited anxiety’s rise during stress. In Study 1, 96 high trait-anxious participants completed proactive or reactive training followed by the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) with measurement of subjective anxiety, heart rate, and skin conductance level (SCL). In Study 2, 59 high trait-anxious participants completed a proactive or no-instruction training for 4 days and then completed the TSST. For Study 2 but not Study 1, the proactive versus control training was associated with lower stress-related increases in subjective anxiety and heart rate, but not sympathetically mediated SCL. Exercising proactive control may leverage the parasympathetic nervous system to inhibit the escalation of anxious arousal during stress.