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In Simon-type interference tasks, participants are asked to perform a 2-choice reaction on a stimulus dimension while ignoring the stimulus position. Commonly, robust congruency effects are found; that is, reactions are faster when the relevant stimulus attribute and the assigned response match the location of the stimulus. Simon congruency effects are regularly attributed to a fast, nonverbal processing route. In 3 experiments, we tested the importance of verbal representations in the Simon effect by manipulating the format of representations (verbal vs. nonverbal) with stimulus material (i.e., words vs. gratings) and stimulus arrangement (i.e., horizontally vs. vertically). Results of the first experiment point to a modulation of the Simon effects by both factors when they were manipulated between subjects, up to an inversion of the Simon effect for words presented in vertical arrangement. We replicated the inverse congruency effect for verbal material in vertical arrangement when a within-participant design was used (Experiment 2) and when the impact of reading processes was ruled out (Experiment 3). One cause for this inversion might be the construction of language-based representations that counteract automatic processing given the stimulus arrangement. To investigate this, we assessed individual differences in the use of inner speech for self-instruction. Using hierarchical linear modeling analysis, we found that self-rated evaluative and motivational inner speech processes accounted for a significant portion of the Simon effect. This supports claims that individual differences predict performance even in simple cognitive tasks such as the Simon task and highlights the flexibility of basic cognitive processes.

Inhibition is often conceptualized as a unitary construct reflecting the ability to ignore and suppress irrelevant information. At the same time, it has been subdivided into inhibition of prepotent responses (i.e., the ability to stop dominant responses) and resistance to distracter interference (i.e., the ability to ignore distracting information). The present study investigated the unity and diversity of inhibition as a psychometric construct, and tested the hypothesis of an inhibition deficit in older age. We measured inhibition in young and old adults with 11 established laboratory tasks: antisaccade, stop-signal, color Stroop, number Stroop, arrow flanker, letter flanker, Simon, global-local, positive and negative compatibility tasks, and n-2 repetition costs in task switching. In both age groups, the inhibition measures from individual tasks had good reliabilities, but correlated only weakly among each other. Structural equation modeling identified a 2-factor model with factors for inhibition of prepotent responses and resistance to distracter interference. Older adults scored worse in the inhibition of prepotent response, but better in the resistance to distracter interference. However, the model had low explanatory power. Together, these findings call into question inhibition as a psychometric construct and the hypothesis of an inhibition deficit in older age.

Conflicts in working memory (WM) can occur when retrieval cues activate competing items, which impairs the efficiency of retrieval. It has recently been shown that WM retrieval adapts similarly to these conflicts as predicted by conflict monitoring theory for selective attention tasks. Here, we utilized event‐related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether conflict and adaptive control in WM are reflected by the same neural markers that have previously been described for selective attention tasks. In our task, participants encoded two differently colored memory lists that contained four digits each (i.e., 2 5 7 1 and 4 5 9 1), and had to recognize whether a probe item from a specific list and position was correct or incorrect. Conflict during retrieval emerged when digits at corresponding positions (e.g., 2 and 5 at the first position) were different (incongruent), but not when these digits were the same (congruent). In behavioral data, we found a congruency sequence effect, that is, responses to incongruent probe items were slower, and this effect was reduced following trials with incongruent probe items. In ERPs, this behavioral marker of adaptive control was accompanied by two effects. First, congruency affected the amplitude of an N450, and this conflict effect was reduced after incongruent trials. Second, the posterior P3 amplitude varied with the congruency of the current and the previous trial. Both results resemble those found for the Stroop task and thus highlight the similarity between conflict and adaptive control in WM and selective attention tasks. Our study links theoretical ideas from two research fields—working memory (WM) and adaptive cognitive control. Utilizing event‐related potentials, our findings show that adaptive cognitive control in WM is reflected by the same neural markers as adaptive cognitive control of selective attention. Furthermore, our results suggest that adaptive cognitive control plays a critical role in optimizing the use of limited WM storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance of task sequences is assumed to rely on activation and inhibition of tasks. Ah empirical marker of task inhibition is the so-called n--2 repetition cost, which is assessed by comparing performance in trial n--2 task repetitions (i.e., ABA) with that in n--2 task switches (i.e., CBA). Current theoretical accounts assume that inhibition acts on the level of task representations (i.e., task sets). However, another potential target of task inhibition could be the representation of the task cue. To decide between these two alternatives, the authors used a 2:1 cue-to-task mapping design. They found significant n--2 task repetition costs both with n--2 cue repetitions and n--2 cue switches. These costs were about equal (Experiment 1), and this data pattern was found for both short and long cuing intervals (Experiment 2). Together, the data suggest that task inhibition acts on task sets and not on cue representations. Keywords: cognitive control, task sequence performance, inhibition, cue-based processes On reconnait generalement que la performance lors de l'execution d'une sequence de taches repose sur l'activation et l'inhibition de la tache. Un indicateur empirique de l'inhibition de la tache, le << cout associe a la repetition de la tache >>, est evalue par la comparaison de la performance a des repetitions de taches n/2 lors de la phase d'essai (c.-a-d. aba) avec la performance a une permutation de taches n/2 (c.-a-d. CBA). Selon les theories actuelles, cette inhibition a une incidence sur le niveau de representation de la tache (c.-a-d. series de taches). Toutefois, une autre cible po tentielle de l'inhibition de la tache pourrait etre la representation de l'indice d'activation de la tache. Pour verifier la deuxieme hypothese, nous avons concu un modele de mappage indice-tache. Nous avons observe des couts de repetition n/2 significatifs, autant avec les repetitions n/2 qu'avec les pernmtations de l'indice n/2. Ces couts etaient pratiquement identiques (experience 1) et le meme schema de donnees produit par les intervalles d'amorce courts et les intervalles d'amorce longs a ete observe. Dans l'ensemble, ces donnees semblent indiquer que l'inhibition de la tache a une incidence sur la serie de taches et non sur la representation de l'amorce.

Cognitive flexibility can be studied using the task-switching paradigm. This paradigm requires subjects to adapt behaviour to changing contexts as indicated by a cue. In our study, we addressed the question of how cue-based implementation of mental 'task sets' occurs. We assumed that cues build up associations to the tasks that they indicate. These associations lead to retrieval of the associated task set once the cue shows up again. In three experiments, we tested this assumption using a negative transfer paradigm. First participants were exposed to one cue-task mapping. After a training phase, the cue-task mapping changed in either of two ways. Whereas one group of participants got new cues, the other experienced a reversal of the learnt cue-task mapping. Our results show that participants build up cue-task associations and that these formerly learnt associations can hamper the implementation of new cue-task mappings (particular with mapping reversal). Prolonged preparation time decreased the cost of changing the cue-task mapping but did not change the overall pattern of results.

Bilingualism has been proposed to affect cognitive flexibility, but findings in the literature are mixed. One reason for this might be the different trajectories of how participants acquired the second language, either through immersion or formal education. The present study investigates differences and commonalities of becoming bilingual depending on trajectory.To assess cognitive flexibility, participants completed a task-switching and a language-switching paradigm, which were well-matched to each other. Language capabilities were assessed by self-report, objective fluency measures, and balance quotients. We assessed participants of five bilingual populations who together spoke five different languages.We analyzed global mixing costs, reflecting proactive language and task control, as well as local switch costs, reflecting reactive language and task control processes. The impact of language capabilities on mixing costs was assessed using linear mixed models. We also report correlations among language capability measures, sociodemographic variables, and working memory.We observed reliable mixing costs but no switch costs. Task and language mixing costs were smaller in participants who had a later age of L2 onset and higher L2 phonemic fluency, namely those who followed the formal education path to bilingualism. L2 phonemic fluency was the most consistent predictor for overall performance speed and reduced mixing costs.Using three different study sites and participants differing in their trajectory of becoming bilingual, this study provides a more diverse picture than many previous studies. Furthermore, using small language populations, the study shows the benefits of language fluency measures that are widely available.The present study bolsters the conceptualization of bilingualism as a multifaceted experience. Nonetheless, in the current study, bilingualism led to comparable outcomes in cognitive flexibility. Finally, measuring language capabilities should carefully consider cognitive processes not related to language that could explain variability in performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Simon task, participants perform a decision on non-spatial features (e.g., stimulus color) by responding with a left or right key-press to a stimulus presented on the left or right side of the screen. In the flanker task, they classify the central character while ignoring the flanking characters. In each task, there is a conflict between the response-relevant features and the response-irrelevant features (i.e., the location on the screen for the Simon task, and the flankers for the flanker task). Thus, in both tasks, resolving conflict requires to inhibit irrelevant features and to focus on relevant features. When both tasks were combined within the same trial (e.g., when the row of characters was presented on the left or right side of the screen), most previous research has shown an interaction. In the present study, we investigated whether this interaction is affected by a multiplicative priming of the correct response occurring when both Simon and flanker irrelevant features co-activate the correct response (Exp. 1), a spatial overlap between Simon and flanker features (Exp. 2), and the learning of stimulus-response pairings (Exp. 3). The results only show an impact of multiplicative priming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two seemingly counterintuitive phenomena - asymmetrical language switch costs and the reversed language dominance effect - prove to be particularly controversial in the literature on language control. Asymmetrical language switch costs refer to the larger costs for switching into the dominant language compared to switching into the less dominant language, both relative to staying in either one language. The reversed language dominance effect refers to longer reaction times when in the more dominant of the two languages in situations that require frequent language switching (i.e., mixed-language blocks). The asymmetrical language switch costs are commonly taken as an index for processes of transient, reactive inhibitory language control, whereas the reversed language dominance effect is taken as an index for sustained, proactive inhibitory language control. In the present meta-analysis, we set out to establish the empirical evidence for these two phenomena using a Bayesian linear mixed effects modelling approach. Despite the observation of both phenomena in some studies, our results suggest that overall, there is little evidence for the generality and robustness of these two effects, and this holds true even when conditions - such as language proficiency and preparation time manipulations - were included as moderators of these phenomena. We conclude that asymmetrical switch costs and the reversed language dominance effect are important for theory development, but their utility for theory testing is limited due to their lack of robustness and the absence of confirmed moderatory variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, individual-differences research has put forward 3 cognitive psychometric constructs: executive control (i.e., the ability to monitor and control ongoing thoughts and actions), working memory capacity (WMC, i.e., the ability to retain access to a limited amount of information in the service of complex tasks), and fluid intelligence (gF, i.e., the ability to reason with novel information). These constructs have been proposed to be closely related, but previous research failed to substantiate a strong correlation between executive control and the other two constructs. This might arise from the difficulty in establishing executive control as a latent variable and from differences in the way the 3 constructs are measured (i.e., executive control is typically measured through reaction times, whereas WMC and gF are measured through accuracy). The purpose of the present study was to overcome these difficulties by measuring executive control through accuracy. Despite good reliabilities of all measures, structural equation modeling identified no coherent factor of executive control. Furthermore, WMC and gF--modeled as distinct but correlated factors--were unrelated to the individual measures of executive control. Hence, measuring executive control through accuracy did not overcome the difficulties of establishing executive control as a latent variable. These findings call into question the existence of executive control as a psychometric construct and the assumption that WMC and gF are closely related to the ability to control ongoing thoughts and actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In one task-switching experiment, we compared bilinguals and monolinguals to explore the reliability of the bilingualism effect on the n-2 repetition cost. In a second task-switching experiment, we tested another group of bilinguals and monolinguals and measured both the n-1 shift cost and the n-2 repetition cost to test the hypothesis that bilingualism should confer a general greater efficiency of the executive control functioning. According to this hypothesis, we expected a reduced n-1 shift cost and an enhanced n-2 repetition cost for bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, we did not observe such results. Our findings suggest that previous results cannot be replicated and that the n-2 repetition cost is another index that shows no reliable bilingualism effect. Finally, we observed a negative correlation between the two switch costs among bilinguals only. This finding may suggest that the two groups employ different strategies to cope with interference in task-switching paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working memory, the ability to store and manipulate information is of great importance for scholastic achievement in children. In this study, we report four studies in which preschoolers were trained on a visual-spatial working memory span task, namely the Corsi Block Task. Across all four studies, we found significant training effects for the intervention groups compared to active control groups. Confirming recent research, no transfer effects to other working memory tasks were found. Most importantly, our training effects were mainly brought about by children performing below the median in the pretest and those showing median performance, thereby closing the gap to children performing above the median (compensation effect). We consider this finding of great interest to ensure comparable starting conditions when entering school with a relatively short intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is assumed that we recruit cognitive control (i.e., attentional adjustment and/or inhibition) to resolve 2 conflicts at a time, such as driving toward a red traffic light and taking care of a near-by ambulance car. A few studies have addressed this issue by combining a Simon task (that required responding with left or right key-press to a stimulus presented on the left or right side of the screen) with either a Stroop task (that required identifying the color of color words) or a Flanker task (that required identifying the target character among flankers). In most studies, the results revealed no interaction between the conflict tasks. However, these studies include a small stimulus set, and participants might have learned the stimulus-response mappings for each stimulus. Thus, it is possible that participants have more relied on episodic memory than on cognitive control to perform the task. In 5 experiments, we combined the 3 tasks pairwise, and we increased the stimulus set size to circumvent episodic memory contributions. The results revealed an interaction between the conflict tasks: Irrespective of task combination, the congruency effect of 1 task was smaller when the stimulus was incongruent for the other task. This suggests that when 2 conflicts are presented concurrently, the control processes induced by 1 conflict source can affect the control processes induced by the other conflict source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have suggested that the concept of "number" is relatively independent from linguistic skills, although an increasing number of studies suggest that language abilities may play a pivotal role in the development of arithmetic skills. The condition of bilingualism can offer a unique perspective into the role of linguistic competence in numerical development. The present study was aimed at evaluating the relationship between language skills and early numeracy through a multilevel investigation in monolingual and bilingual minority children attending preschool. The sample included 156 preschool children. Of these, 77 were bilingual minority children (mean age D 58.27 ± 5.90), and 79 were monolinguals (mean age D 58.45 ± 6.03). The study focused on three levels of analysis: group differences in language and number skills, concurrent linguistic predictors of early numeracy and, finally, profile analysis of linguistic skills in children with impaired vs. adequate numeracy skills. The results showed that, apart from the expected differences in linguistic measures, bilinguals differed from monolinguals in numerical skills with a verbal component, such as semantic knowledge of digits, but they did not differ in a pure non-verbal component such as quantity comparison. The multigroup structural equation model indicated that letter knowledge was a significant predictor of the verbal component of numeracy for both groups. Phonological awareness was a significant predictor of numeracy skills only in the monolingual group. Profile analysis showed that children with a selective weakness in the non-verbal component of numeracy had fully adequate verbal skills. Results from the present study suggest that only some specific components of language competence predict numerical processing, although linguistic proficiency may not be a prerequisite for developing adequate early numeracy skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When participants rapidly switch between tasks that share the same stimuli and responses, task confusions (i.e., the accidental application of the wrong task) can occur. The present study investigated whether these task confusions result from failures of endogenous control (i.e., from ineffective task preparation) or from failures of exogenous control (i.e., from stimulus-induced task conflicts). The frequency of task confusions was estimated by considering the relative proportion of distractor errors, that is, errors that result when participants erroneously respond to the distractor associated with the alternative task. In Experiment 1, the efficiency of exogenous control was manipulated by varying the temporal order of target and distractor presentation. In Experiment 2, the efficiency of endogenous control was manipulated by varying the time available for preparing the task in advance. It turned out that only the efficiency of exogenous control but not the efficiency of endogenous control influenced the proportion of distractor errors. Accordingly, task confusions are more related to failures in exogenous control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the representations(s) underlying positional priming of visual 'pop-out' search (Maljkovic and Nakayama, 1996). Three search items (one target and two distractors) were presented at different locations, in invariant (Experiment 1) or random (Experiment 2) cross-trial sequences. By these manipulations it was possible to disentangle retinotopic, spatiotopic, and object-centered priming representations. Two forms of priming were tested: target location facilitation (i.e., faster reaction times - RTs- when the trial n target is presented at a trial n-1 target relative to n-1 blank location) and distractor location inhibition (i.e., slower RTs for n targets presented at n-1 distractor compared to n-1 blank locations). It was found that target locations were coded in positional short-term memory with reference to both spatiotopic and object-centered representations (Experiment 1 vs. 2). In contrast, distractor locations were maintained in an object-centered reference frame (Experiments 1 and 2). We put forward the idea that the uncertainty induced by the experiment manipulation (predictable versus random cross-trial item displacements) modulates the transition from object- to space-based representations in cross-trial memory for target positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sequential modulations of conflict effects, like the reduction of the Simon effect after incompatible trials, have been taken to reflect the operation of a proactive control mechanism commonly called conflict monitoring. However, such modulations are often contaminated by episodic effects like priming and stimulus-response feature integration. It has previously been observed that if the episodic representation of a conflicting trial is altered by rotating the stimulus framing 180° around its axis, the subsequent "conflict adaptation" pattern is eliminated. In Experiment 1, we replicate the findings and provide the basic episodic interpretation. In Experiment 2, we extend the framework to include rotations of 90°, and verify that the episodic effects generalize to scenarios of neutral compatibility. Finally, in Experiment 3, we add complete, 360° rotations, and show that the episodic manipulation by itself does not eliminate the conflict adaptation patterns -- as long as conditions favor episodic retrieval. The experiments are argued to demonstrate that an episodic account of the conflict adaptation effect can most parsimoniously account for the behavioral effects without relying on higher order cognition. Accordingly, we conclude that conflict adaptation can be understood either as critically depending on episodic retrieval, or alternatively reflecting only episodic retrieval itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key feature of the human cognitive system is its ability to deal with an ever-changing environment. One prototypical example is the observation that we adjust our information processing depending on the conflict-likelihood of a context (context-specific proportion congruency effect, CSPC, Crump et al., 2006). Recently, empirical studies started to question the role of consciousness in these strategic adaptation processes (for reviews, see Desender and Van den Bussche, 2012; Kunde et al., 2012). However, these studies have not yielded unequivocal results (e.g., Kunde, 2003; Heinemann et al., 2009; Van Gaal et al., 2010a; Desender et al., 2013; Reuss et al., 2014). In the present study, we aim at replicating the experiment of Heinemann et al. (2009) in which the proportion of congruent and incongruenttrials between different contexts was varied in a masked priming task. Their results showed a reduction of the congruency effect for the context with more incongruent trials. However, this CSPC effect was only observed when the prime-target conflict was conscious, rather than unconscious, suggesting that context-specific control operates within the boundaries of awareness. Our replication attempt however contrasts these findings. In the first experiment we found no evidence for a CSPC effect in reaction times (RTs), neither in the conscious nor in the unconscious condition. The error rate analysis did show a CSPC effect, albeit not one modulated by consciousness. In the second experiment we found an overall CSPC effect in RTs, independent of consciousness. The error rates did not display a CSPC pattern. These mixed results seem to nuance the findings of Heinemann etal. (2009) and highlight the need for replication studies in psychology research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When using lever tools, subjects have to deal with two, not necessarily concordant effects of their motor behavior: the body-related proximal effects, like tactile sensations from the moving hand, and/or more external distal effects, like the moving effect points of the lever. As a consequence, spatial compatibility relationships between stimulus (S; at which the effect points of the lever aim at), responding hand (R) and effect point of the lever (E) play a critical role in response generation. In the present study we examine whether the occurrence of compatibility effects needs real tool movements or whether a similar response pattern can be already evoked by pure mental imaginations of the tool effects. In general, response times and errors observed with real and imagined tool movements showed a similar pattern of results, but there were also differences. With incompatible relationships and thus more difficult tasks, response times were reduced with imagined tool movements than compared with real tool movements. On the contrary, with compatible relationships and thus high overlap between proximal and distal action effects, response times were increased with imagined tool movements. Results are only in parts consistent with the ideomotor theory of motor control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the relation between declarative and procedural working memory (WM; Oberauer, 2009). Two experiments test the assumption that representations in the two subsystems are selected for processing in analogous ways. Participants carried out a series of decisions on memorized lists of digits. For each decision, they had to select declarative and procedural representations. Regarding declarative representations, participants selected a memory set and a digit within this set as the input to each decision. With respect to the procedural representations, they selected a task set to be applied to the selected digit and a response within that task set. We independently manipulated the number of lists and the number of tasks to be switched among (one, two, or three; Experiment 1) and preparation time for a list switch (Experiment 2). For three effects commonly observed in task-switch studies, analogues in declarative WM were found: list-switch costs, mixing costs, and residual switch costs. List- and task-switch costs were underadditive, suggesting that declarative and procedural representations are selected separately and in parallel. The findings support the hypothesis of two analogous WM subsystems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The human cognitive system is equipped with various processes for dealing with everyday challenges. One of such processes is the inhibition of currently irrelevant goals or mental task-sets, which can be seen as a response to the critical event of information overflow in the cognitive system and challenging the cognitive system's ability to keep track of ongoing demands. In two experiments, we investigate the flexibility of the inhibitory process by inserting rare non-critical events (25% of all trials), operationalized as univalent stimuli (i.e., unambiguous stimuli that call for only one specific task in a multitasking context), and by introducing the possibility to prepare for an upcoming task (Experiment 2). We found that the inhibitory process is not influenced by a cue informing subjects about the upcoming occurrence of a univalent stimulus. However, the introduction of univalent stimuli allowed preparatory processes to modify the impact of the inhibitory process. Therefore, our results suggest that inhibitory processes are engaged in a rather global manner, not taking into account variations in stimulus valence, which we took as operationalization of critical, conflict-inducing events in the ongoing stream of information processing. However, rare uncritical events, such as univalent stimuli that do not cause conflict and interference in the processing stream, appear to alter the way the cognitive system can take advantage of preparatory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive flexibility enables the rapid change in goals humans want to attain in everyday life as well as in professional contexts, e.g., as musicians. In the laboratory, cognitive flexibility is usually assessed using the task-switching paradigm. In this paradigm participants are given at least two classification tasks and are asked to switch between them based on valid cues or memorized task sequences. The mechanisms enabling cognitive flexibility are investigated through two empirical markers, namely switch costs and n-2 repetition costs. In this study, we assessed both effects in a pre-instructed task-sequence paradigm. Our aim was to assess the transfer of musical training to non-musical stimuli and tasks. To this end, we collected the data of 49 participants that differed in musical training assessed using the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index. We found switch costs that were not significantly influenced by the degree of musical training. N-2 repetition costs were small for all levels of musical training and not significant. Musical training did not influence performance to a remarkable degree and did not affect markers of mechanisms underlying cognitive flexibility, adding to the discrepancies of findings on the impact of musical training in non-music-specific tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review explored how researchers operationalized bilingualism when investigating the relationship between bilingual code-switching experience and cognition. Through a PRISMA-guided systematic review of thirty-two studies with original data, published in English, focusing on adult non-clinical samples, with bilingualism as a key variable, we aimed to understand the prevalence of these issues. Criteria for inclusion required an assessment of bilingualism beyond language proficiency or age of acquisition, and consideration of naturalistic code-switching behaviors. We report our results through an analysis of themes that included aspects of language that are considered when measuring bilingualism and code-switching experience. We present our findings and offer insights for future research, advocating for the inclusion of sociocultural factors and more complex analytical modeling in bilingualism research to foster an evolution in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored how individual and age-related differences in working memory (WM) capacity affected subsequent long-term memory (LTM) retrieval. Unlike past studies, we tested WM and LTM not only for items, but also for item–color bindings. Our sample included 82 elementary school children and 42 young adults. The participants performed a WM task with images of unique everyday items presented sequentially at varying set sizes in different colors. Later, we tested LTM for items and item–color bindings from the WM task. The WM load during encoding constrained LTM, and participants with a higher WM capacity retrieved more items in the LTM test. Even when accounting for young children's poor item memory by considering only the items that they did remember, they exhibited an exacerbated difficulty with remembering item–color bindings in WM. Their LTM binding performance, however, as a proportion of remembered objects, was comparable to that of older children and adults. The WM binding performance was better during sub-span encoding loads, but with no clear transfer of this benefit to LTM. Overall, LTM item memory performance was constrained by individual and age-related WM limitations, but with mixed consequences for binding. We discuss the theoretical, practical, and developmental implications of this WM-to-LTM bottleneck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using baseline data (n = 9875) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study examining children aged 9 to 10 years, the current analyses included: (1) exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of neurocognitive measures administered during baseline collection, and (2) linear regression analyses on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors. The neurocognitive tasks measured episodic memory, executive function (EF; attention), language skills, processing speed, working memory, visuospatial ability, and reasoning. The CBCL included composite scores of parent-reported internalizing, externalizing, and stress-related behavior problems. The study reported here serves as an extension of prior research using a principal components analysis (PCA) of the ABCD baseline data. We propose an alternative solution using factor analysis. Analyses revealed a three-factor structure: verbal ability (VA), executive function/processing speed (EF/PS), and working memory/episodic memory (WM/EM). These factors were significantly correlated with the CBCL scores, albeit with small effect sizes. These findings provide a novel three-factor solution to the structure of cognitive abilities measured in the ABCD Study, offering new insights into the association between cognitive function and problem behaviors in early adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task-switching paradigm is deemed a measure of cognitive flexibility. Previous research has demonstrated that individual differences in task-switch costs are moderately inversely related to cognitive ability. However, current theories emphasize multiple component processes of task switching, such as task-set preparation and task-set inertia. The relations of task-switching processes with cognitive ability were investigated in the current study. Participants completed a task-switching paradigm with geometric forms and a visuospatial working memory capacity (WMC) task. The task-switch effect was decomposed with the diffusion model. Effects of task-switching and response congruency were estimated as latent differences using structural equation modeling. Their magnitudes and relations with visuospatial WMC were investigated. Effects in the means of parameter estimates replicated previous findings, namely increased non-decision time in task-switch trials. Further, task switches and response incongruency had independent effects on drift rates, reflecting their differential effects on task readiness. Findings obtained with the figural tasks employed in this study revealed that WMC was inversely related to the task-switch effect in non-decision time. Relations with drift rates were inconsistent. Finally, WMC was moderately inversely related to response caution. These findings suggest that more able participants either needed less time for task-set preparation or that they invested less time for task-set preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The relationship between executive functions (EF) and bilingualism has dominated debate in the field. This debate was characterised by optimism for a bilingual advantage until the last decade, when a steady stream of articles reported failure to find a consistently positive effect for bilingualism. In addition to addressing concerns about study quality, this turn of events has spurred research into other variables that may explain the conflicting findings. While recent studies have focused on sociodemographic variables and interactional contexts such as age, code-switching frequency, and socioeconomic class to account for various group and individual differences, the impact of culture is seldom scrutinised. This paper examines the possible effect of culture among bilingual studies on EF by first contextualising how bilingual EF are studied and outlining the absence of culture as a macro variable, followed by a discussion on how culture and language are often conflated. This paper directs attention to the small but emerging research that tracks the importance of culture as a separate variable from language. This review discusses why macro culture and individual monoculturalism or biculturalism need to be carefully elucidated as a factor that can interact with the bilingual experience in shaping EF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Two-hundred one college undergraduates completed four nonverbal interference tasks (Simon, spatial Stroop, vertical Stroop, and flanker) and trait scales of self-control and impulsivity. Regression analyses tested 11 predictors of the composite interference scores derived from three of the four tasks and each task separately. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationships between laboratory measures of self-control, self-report measures, and the degree to which control might be related to extensive experience in activities that logically require self-control. Results: Fluid intelligence and sex were significant predictors of the composite measure, but bilingualism, music training, video gaming, mindfulness/meditation, self-control, impulsivity, SES, and physical exercise were not. Conclusions: Common laboratory measures of inhibitory control do not correlate with self-reported measures of self-control or impulsivity and consequently appear to be measuring different constructs. Bilingualism, mindfulness/meditation, playing action video games, and music training or performance provide weak and inconsistent improvements to laboratory measures of interference control. Flanker, Simon, and spatial Stroop effects should not be used or interpreted as measures of domain-general inhibitory control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kotov, Roman, S9, S89, S91 Nelson, Brady, S9, S62, S76, S89, S105 Panitz, Christian, S4, S5, S32, S79 Pavlov, Yuri, S4, S5, S54, S59, S65, S68, S86 Perlman, Greg, S9, S89. [Extracted from the article]

The article offers a list of individuals who served as expert referees on submitted papers between September 1, 2017 and August 31, 2018 for magazine including Elger Abrahamse and Richard Allen.

Abstract: The article investigates the mechanisms of selecting and updating representations in declarative and procedural working memory (WM). Declarative WM holds the objects of thought available, whereas procedural WM holds representations of what to do with these objects. Both systems consist of three embedded components: activated long-term memory, a central capacity-limited component for building structures through temporary bindings, and a single-element focus of attention. Five experiments test the hypothesis of analogous mechanisms in declarative and procedural WM, investigating repetition effects across trials for individual representations (objects and responses) and for sets (memory sets and task sets), as well as set-congruency effects. Evidence for analogous processes was obtained from three phenomena: (1) Costs of task switching and of list switching are reduced with longer preparation interval. (2) The effects of task congruency and of list congruency are undiminished with longer preparation interval. (3) Response repetition interacts with task repetition in procedural WM; here we show an analogous interaction of list repetition with item repetition in declarative WM. All three patterns were reproduced by a connectionist model implementing the assumed selection and updating mechanisms. The model consists of two modules, an item-selection module selecting individual items from a memory set, or responses from a task set, and a set-selection module for selecting memory sets or task sets. The model codes the matrix of binding weights in the item-selection module as a pattern of activation in the set-selection module, thereby providing a mechanism for building chunks in LTM, and for unpacking them as structures into working memory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Process-Overlap Theory (POT) suggests that measures of cognitive abilities sample from sets of independent cognitive processes. These cognitive processes can be separated into domain-general executive processes, sampled by the majority of cognitive ability measures, and domain-specific processes, sampled only by measures within a certain domain. According to POT, fluid intelligence measures are related because different tests sample similar domain-general executive cognitive processes to some extent. Re-analyzing data from a study by De Simoni and von Bastian (2018), we assessed domain-general variance from executive processing tasks measuring inhibition, shifting, and efficiency of removal from working memory, as well as examined their relation to a domain-general factor extracted from fluid intelligence measures. The results showed that domain-general factors reflecting general processing speed were moderately and negatively correlated with the domain-general fluid intelligence factor (r = −.17–−.36). However, domain-general factors isolating variance specific to inhibition, shifting, and removal showed only small and inconsistent correlations with the domain-general fluid intelligence factor (r =.02–−.22). These findings suggest that (1) executive processing tasks sample only few domain-general executive processes also sampled by fluid intelligence measures, as well as (2) that domain-general speed of processing contributes more strongly to individual differences in fluid intelligence than do domain-general executive processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the best-established findings in intelligence research is the pattern of positive correlations among various intelligence tests. Although this so-called positive manifold became the conceptual foundation of many theoretical accounts of intelligence, the very nature of it has remained unclear. Only recently, Process Overlap Theory (POT) proposed that the positive manifold originated from overlapping domain-general, executive processes. To test this assumption, the functional relationship between different aspects of executive attention and the positive manifold was investigated by re-analyzing an existing dataset (N = 228). Psychometric reasoning, speed, and memory performance were assessed by a short form of the Berlin Intelligence Structure test. Two aspects of executive attention (sustained and selective attention) and speed of decision making were measured by a continuous performance test, a flanker task, and a Hick task, respectively. Traditional structural equation modeling, representing the positive manifold by a g factor, as well as network analyses, investigating the differential effects of the two aspects of executive attention and speed of decision making on the specific correlations of the positive manifold, suggested that selective attention, sustained attention, and speed of decision making explained the common but not the unique portions of the positive manifold. Thus, we failed to provide evidence for POT's assumption that the positive manifold is the result of overlapping domain-general processes. This does not mean that domain-general processes other than those investigated here will not be able to show the pattern of results predicted by POT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]