Abstract
Pupillometry research has experienced an enormous revival in the last two decades. Here we briefly review the surge of recent studies on task-evoked pupil dilation in the context of cognitive control tasks with the primary aim being to evaluate the feasibility of using pupil dilation as an index of effort exertion, rather than task demand or difficulty. Our review shows that across the three cognitive control domains of updating, switching, and inhibition, increases in task demands typically leads to increases in pupil dilation. Studies show a diverging pattern with respect to the relationship between pupil dilation and performance and we show how an effort account of pupil dilation can provide an explanation of these findings. We also discuss future directions to further corroborate this account in the context of recent theories on cognitive control and effort and their potential neurobiological substrates.
Highlights
What do the studies reviewed above tell us about the feasibility to use pupil dilation as an index of cognitive effort? First, the literature reviewed above clearly shows that increases in task demands generally led to increases in pupil dilation across the cognitive control domains of updating, switching, and inhibition
Consistent with an effort account of pupil dilation, some of the studies suggested that individuals with increased pupil dilation showed better task performance than individuals with smaller pupil dilation (Rondeel et al, 2015; Van Der Meer et al, 2010)
We think that these preliminary findings show that the effort account could have more explanatory power and might be preferred over an account that pupil dilation reflects mere task demands
Summary
BFace a mirror, look at your eyes and invent a mathematical problem, such as 81 times 17. Numerous recent studies have started to investigate the dilation of the human pupil under such conditions This body of pupil dilation has been investigated since the early 1960s (Hess & Polt, 1964; Kahneman & Beatty, 1966), pupillometry research has experienced an enormous revival in the last two decades. Multiple reviews have already been published on the topic of pupil dilation and its link with a broad range of cognitive processes (Andreassi, 1980; Beatty & Lucero-Wagoner, 2000; Sirois & Brisson, 2014), such as attention (Laeng, Sirois, & Gredeback, 2012), memory (Goldinger & Papesh, 2012), and mental load (Just, Carpenter, & Miyake, 2003; Kramer, 1990), a comprehensive review on recent studies that have investigated pupil dilation in the context of cognitive control tasks is still missing. The relationship between baseline pupil diameter and task performance (e.g., Tsukahara, Harrison, & Engle, 2016) is not covered in this review
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