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In models of affect and cognition, it is held that positive affect broadens the scope of attention. Consistent with this claim, previous research has indeed suggested that positive affect is associated with impaired selective attention as evidenced by increased interference of spatially distant distractors. However, several recent findings cast doubt on the reliability of this observation. In the present study, we examined whether selective attention in a visual flanker task is influenced by positive mood induction. Across three experiments, positive affect consistently failed to exert any impact on selective attention. The implications of this null-finding for theoretical models of affect and cognition are discussed.

Recent findings suggest that, relative to negative feedback, positive feedback counteracts conflict processing and subsequent attentional adaptation. Here we hypothesize that this interaction may direct adjustments in perception and action via the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We recorded EEG while participants performed an arrow flanker task with monetary gain or loss as arbitrary reward feedback between trials. As predicted, we found a reduction in conflict-driven adaptation for trials in which conflict was followed by monetary gain (vs. monetary loss), a behavioral effect accompanied by a modulation in early visual processing related to the processing of the distracters. Moreover, time-frequency analyses showed that ongoing fronto-central theta oscillations induced by previous conflict sustained longer after loss than after gain, an interaction presumably reflecting ACC modulation. These data provide a first important step toward understanding the neural mechanism underlying the affective regulation of conflict-driven behavior., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Dual tasks and their associated delays have often been used to examine the boundaries of processing in the brain. We used the dual-task procedure and recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how mental rotation of a first stimulus (S1) influences the shifting of visual-spatial attention to a second stimulus (S2). Visual-spatial attention was monitored by using the N2pc component of the ERP. In addition, we examined the sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN) believed to index the retention of information in visual short-term memory. We found modulations of both the N2pc and the SPCN, suggesting that engaging mechanisms of mental rotation impairs the deployment of visual-spatial attention and delays the passage of a representation of S2 into visual short-term memory. Both results suggest interactions between mental rotation and visual-spatial attention in capacity-limited processing mechanisms indicating that response selection is not pivotal in dual-task delays and all three processes are likely to share a common resource like executive control., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Decision making often involves using prior contextual information to evaluate relevant events. A laboratory equivalent of context processing situations, the AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT), yields errors when a target probe appears in a nontarget context, or when a nontarget probe appears in a target context. According to goal-driven accounts, context information is used for top-down preparation towards processing of context-appropriate information. Performance costs in nontarget trials are attributed to inefficient cognitive control. In contrast, the episodic binding account predicts that prior experiences with combinations of a context, probe, and response are bound in episodic memory and thus bias future actions. Performance costs in this view are caused by the need to overrule prepotent associations. The current experiments tested the relative importance of proactive cognitive control versus episodic learning of appropriate stimulus-response relations for CPT performance. Support was obtained for both contributions.

Traditionally, dual-task interference has been attributed to the consequences of task load exceeding capacity limitations. However, the current study demonstrates that in addition to task load, the mutual compatibility of the concurrent processes modulates whether 2 tasks can be performed in parallel. In 2 psychological refractory period experiments, task load and process compatibility were independently varied. In Experiment 1, participants performed 2 mental rotation tasks. Task load (rotation angle) and between-task compatibility in rotation direction were varied. Results suggest more considerable parallel execution of compatible than of incompatible operations, arguing for the need to attribute dual-task interference not only to structural but also to functional capacity limitations. Experiment 2 tested whether functional capacity limitations to dual-task performance can be caused only by demanding processes or whether they are also induced by relatively automatic processes. Results indicate that an irrelevant circular movement of Stimulus 2 interfered more with mental rotation of Stimulus 1 if the rotation directions were opposite than if they were equal. In conclusion, compatibility of concurrent processes constitutes an indispensable element in explaining dual-task performance., ((c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.)

A crucial element of testing hypotheses about rules for behavior is the use of performance feedback. In this study, we used fMRI and EEG to test the role of medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and dorsolateral (DL) PFC in hypothesis testing using a modified intradimensional/extradimensional rule shift task. Eighteen adults were asked to infer rules about color or shape on the basis of positive and negative feedback in sets of two trials. Half of the trials involved color-to-color or shape-to-shape trials (intradimensional switches; ID) and the other half involved color-to-shape or shape-to-color trials (extradimensional switches; ED). Participants performed the task in separate fMRI and EEG sessions. ED trials were associated with reduced accuracy relative to ID trials. In addition, accuracy was reduced and response latencies increased following negative relative to positive feedback. Negative feedback resulted in increased activation in medial PFC and DLPFC, but more so for ED than ID shifts. Reduced accuracy following negative feedback correlated with increased activation in DLPFC, and increased response latencies following negative feedback correlated with increased activation in medial PFC. Additionally, around 250msec following negative performance feedback participants showed a feedback-related negative scalp potential, but this potential did not differ between ID and ED shifts. These results indicate that both medial PFC and DLPFC signal the need for performance adjustment, and both regions are sensitive to the increased demands of set shifting in hypothesis testing.

This study investigated how the speed-accuracy balance is modulated by changes in the time course of motor activation and inhibition of a primed response. Responses and event-related brain potentials were recorded in a paradigm in which the first stimulus indicated the correct response with 80% validity. The remaining 20% of the trials required no response (no-go) or a response opposite to the cued hand (change trials). Subjects were instructed either to balance speed and accuracy or to emphasize speed at the cost of accuracy. Analyses of error patterns, reaction time distributions and brain potentials show that subjects can modulate the amount of activation of the primed response. More surprisingly, the engagement of inhibition of the response also varied with the speed-accuracy instruction. The results are consistent with a model where the frontothalamic loop actively controls both the activation and the inhibition of responses, depending on the current task requirements.

Passionate love is associated with intense changes in emotion and attention which are thought to play an important role in the early stages of romantic relationship formation. Although passionate love usually involves enhanced, near-obsessive attention to the beloved, anecdotal evidence suggest that the lover's concentration for daily tasks like study and work may actually be impaired, suggesting reduced cognitive control. Affect might also contribute to changes in cognitive control. We examined the link between passionate love and cognitive control in a sample of students who had recently become involved in a romantic relationship. Intensity of passionate love as measured by the Passionate Love Scale was shown to correlate with decreased individual efficiency in cognitive control as measured in Stroop and flanker task performance. There was no evidence that affective changes mediate this effect. This study provides the first empirical evidence that passionate love in the early stages of romantic relationship is characterized by impaired cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on John Wilding's paper that lists concerns about measures of attention and control that are used throughout the field of clinical development psychology. The authors present an argument on Wilding's suggestion that executive dysfunction is the fundamental problem underlying attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. The authors defined the building-blocks of cognition. The fundamental role of executive functions in ADHD is discussed.