Cognitive Conflict Research Articles

Hearts, flowers, and fruits: All children need to reveal their post-error slowing

Slowing down responses after errors (i.e., post-error slowing [PES]) is an established finding in adults. Yet PES in young children is still not well understood. In this study, we investigated (a) whether young children show PES in tasks with different types of cognitive conflict and differing demands on executive functions, (b) whether PES is adaptive and efficient in the sense that it is associated with better task performance, and (c) whether PES correlates between tasks. We tested 4- to 6-year-old children on the Funny Fruits task (FF; n = 143), a Stroop-like task that incorporates semantic conflict and taxes children’s inhibition skills, and the Hearts and Flowers task (HF; n = 170), which incorporates spatial conflict and taxes children’s inhibition skills in its incongruent block and taxes both inhibition and cognitive flexibility (rule-switching) skills in its mixed block. A subgroup of children were tested on both FF and HF (n = 74). Results revealed that, first, children showed PES in FF and both blocks of HF, indicating that PES occurs in both types of conflict and under varying executive demands. Second, PES was associated with task accuracy, but only for FF and the mixed HF. Third, a between-task association in PES emerged only between FF and the mixed HF. Together, these findings indicate that PES is still a developing strategy in young children; it is present but only adaptive for, and correlates between, semantic inhibition and spatial flexibility.

Student’s Cognitive Conflict in Geometry Learning

This study aims to describe the cognitive conflicts of students in solving the equation of a circle. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. This study involved students who experienced cognitive conflict as a sample. The instruments used are tests and interviews. The results showed that there were eight forms of cognitive conflict that emerged when students completed the given questions. There is a tendency where students can determine the center and radius of a circle correctly but have difficulty drawing a circle from the given equation.

The dark side of AR usage on customers’ online purchase

PurposeThe usage of augmented reality (AR) in online shopping websites provides a “try-on” experience for consumers. AR technology combines the virtual and real world. Previous studies have addressed AR usage’s benefits to consumers’ online shopping experience. However, this study aims to explore the dark side of AR usage in consumers’ online purchasing process.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct six experiments to examine whether AR usage leads to adverse effects on consumers’ purchase intention and explain the mechanism of its dark side.FindingsThe result shows that AR usage in online shopping websites reduces consumers’ purchase intention. The authors further reveal that the usage of AR leads to more vital psychological ownership of the product, and psychological ownership positively relates to cognitive conflict. Cognitive conflict explains the negative influence of AR usage on purchase intention.Originality/valueFirst, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the impact of embedded AR function of websites on consumers’ decision-making process. Also, it is the first study on the application of AR in a real shopping scene, which makes the study of AR close to reality. Second, psychological ownership is introduced in this study. Although there are many types of research on psychological ownership, few scholars have explored it in AR research. Third, most studies stress the advantages of using AR during purchase; this research demonstrates that embedding AR function in a shopping website may negatively affect purchase intention.

Cognitive control mechanisms in language processing: are there both within- and across-task conflict adaptation effects?

Cognitive conflict is regarded as a crucial factor in triggering subsequent adjustments in cognitive control. Recent studies have suggested that the implementation of control following conflict detection might be domain-general in that conflict experienced in the language domain recruits control processes that deal with conflict experienced in non-linguistic domains. During language comprehension, humans often have to recover from conflicting interpretations as quickly and accurately as possible. In this study, we investigate how people adapt to conflict experienced during processing semantically ambiguous sentences. Experiments 1 to 3 investigated whether such semantic conflict produces the congruency sequence effect (CSE) within a subsequent manual Stroop task and whether Stroop conflict leads to adjustments in semantic processing. Experiments 4 to 6 investigated whether semantic conflict results in conflict adaptation in subsequent sentence processing. Although processing conflict was consistently experienced during sentence reading and in the Stroop task, we did not observe any within-task or cross-task adaptation effects. Specifically, there were no cross-task CSEs from the linguistic task to the Stroop task and vice versa (experiments 1-3)-speaking against the assumption of domain-general control mechanisms. Moreover, experiencing conflict within a semantically ambiguous sentence did not ease the processing of a subsequent ambiguous sentence (experiments 4-6). Implications of these findings will be discussed.

Mediating Role of Intra-Team Conflict between Paternalistic Leadership and Decision-Making Quality among China University's CMT during COVID-19.

Universities across China have set up crisis management teams (CMTS) to deal with the crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focuses on how the paternalistic leadership practices of a Chinese university CMT influence crisis strategic decisions by managing conflict. These relationships were verified using hierarchical regression analysis on 312 samples from the surveyed university during the pandemic and found the following: benevolent leadership and moral leadership have positive effects on decision quality. However, unlike most studies on paternalistic leadership, in crisis situations, the negative effects of authoritarian leadership disappear under the mediating effect of affective conflict. This means that affective conflict within CMT fully mediates the relationship between authoritarian leadership and decision quality, and partially mediates the relationship between moral leadership and decision quality, while cognitive conflict partially mediates the relationship between benevolent leadership and crisis decision quality. It indicates that a CMT must stimulate and maintain a certain level of cognitive conflict while suppressing affective conflict to achieve high-quality crisis decision-making. This state can be achieved by practicing lower levels of authoritarian leadership and maintaining high levels of moral and benevolent leadership practices.

Coping with Knowledge Inertia for Improving R&D Team Creativity by Using Structural Equation Modeling and Hierarchical Multiple Regression

The study reported here examined the relationship between knowledge inertia and R&D team creativity by focusing on the mediating effect of cognitive conflict with direct and moderating effect of intentional unlearning capability to find out how to improve R&D team creativity for sustainable innovation from the perspective of coping with knowledge inertia. Data from a two-wave survey of 135 R&D teams within 67 firms in China were used to conduct the analysis of structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression. Results showed that as predicted, knowledge inertia can not only decrease R&D team creativity directly but also decrease it by reducing the level of cognitive conflicts among the R&D team members, causing serious damage to R&D team creativity. In addition, intentional unlearning capability can help the R&D team reduce knowledge inertia directly and moderated the negative relationship between knowledge inertia and R&D team creativity, which was when intentional unlearning capability was high, the negative relationship between knowledge inertia and R&D team creativity would be weakened, and when it was low, the relationship would be strengthened, thus further verifying the important role of intentional unlearning capability in reducing the negative impact of knowledge inertia on R&D team creativity for sustainable innovation.

The social tensions felt within: Explaining felt ambivalence about polarized societal debates through perceived opinion discrepancies in the social environment.

Within the context of polarized societal debates (e.g. abortion, racism, climate change), scholars often assume that individuals have clear-cut positions, either in favour of or against the debated issue. However, recent work suggests that such debates can also be breeding grounds for felt ambivalence. Moving beyond previous work that mainly focused on ambivalence as internal cognitive conflict, we propose and test a social discrepancy hypothesis, which suggests that the discrepancies ambivalents perceive between and within their own opinion and the opinion of actors in their social network and society (e.g. friends, family, opinion-based groups) positively explain their levels of felt ambivalence. In doing so, we quantitatively extend recent qualitative work by examining whether these social tensions are indeed felt within. To this end, we employed a multi-survey research project (Ns=184, 181, 187) in the context of different societal debates in the Netherlands. Supporting our hypothesis across different debates, results showed that ambivalents' perceived opinion differences in the social environment explained their felt ambivalence. This suggests that polarized societal debates offer social discrepancies that, for ambivalents at least, can facilitate an internalization of social tensions.

Is cognitive conflict really effortful? Conflict priming and shielding effects on cardiac response.

Two experiments with N=221 university students investigated the impact of primed cognitive conflict on effort assessed as cardiac response in tasks that were not conflict-related themselves. Manifest cognitive conflict in cognitive control tasks is confounded with objective response difficulty (e.g., in incongruent Stroop task trials). This makes conclusions about the effortfulness of cognitive conflict itself difficult. We bypassed this problem by administrating pictures of congruent versus incongruent Stroop task stimuli as conflict primes. As predicted, primed cognitive conflict increased cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) responses in an easy attention task in Experiment 1. Accordingly, cognitive conflict itself is indeed effortful. This effect was replicated in an easy short-term memory task in Experiment 2. Moreover, as further predicted, the primed cognitive conflict effect on PEP reactivity disappeared when participants could personally choose task characteristics. This latter effect corresponds to other recent evidence showing that personal action choice shields against incidental affective influences on action execution and especially on effort-related cardiovascular response.

Distinctive types of aversiveness are represented as the same in a portion of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex: An fMRI study with the cue paradigm

Some studies have argued that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) is generally activated in response to aversive information, including pain, negative affect, and cognitive conflict. Other studies have claimed that the dACC has subdivisions, and each division has a specific function. By manipulating emotionally and cognitively aversive cues, the present study determined whether the dACC is generally responsive to aversiveness or it has subdivisions for specific forms of aversiveness. Conjunction functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis showed that emotionally and cognitively aversive cues activated the same portion of the dACC. When these cues were contiguously presented, the region demonstrated additive activity, further supporting the overlapping representation of the two different forms of aversiveness in the dACC. Additional effective connectivity analysis showed that the dACC was co-activated with different brain regions depending on the cue type, characterizing its behavioral control mechanism. Complementary multivariate analyses showed that the reaction time was negatively correlated with the activity of the dACC and that the activity of the dACC under the emotional cue was predicted by the individual state anxiety score but not under the cognitive cue. We also found that the superior part of the dACC was uniquely activated in response to cognitively aversive cues, partially supporting the functional segregation account. Collectively, our results provide evidence that the specific locus of the dACC is generally responsive to distinctive motivational information, whereas the other loci may have segregated functions. Discussion includes recent neurocomputational theories that seem to satisfactorily account for the present results.

Midfrontal Theta Activity Is Sensitive to Approach-Avoidance Conflict.

Midfrontal theta (FMθ) in the human EEG is commonly viewed as a generic and homogeneous mechanism of cognitive control in general and conflict processing in particular. However, the role of FMθ in approach-avoidance conflicts and its cross-task relationship to simpler stimulus-response conflicts remain to be examined more closely. Therefore, we recorded EEG data while 59 healthy participants (49 female, 10 male) completed both an approach-avoidance task and a flanker task. Participants showed significant increases in FMθ power in response to conflicts in both tasks. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show a direct relationship between FMθ and approach-avoidance conflicts. Crucially, FMθ activity was task dependent and showed no cross-task correlation. To assess the possibility of multiple FMθ sources, we applied source separation [generalized eigendecomposition (GED)] to distinguish independent FMθ generators. The activity of the components showed a similar pattern and was again task specific. However, our results did not yield a clear differentiation between task-specific FMθ sources for each of the participants. Overall, our results show FMθ increases in approach-avoidance conflicts, as has been established only for more simple response conflict paradigms so far. The independence of task-specific FMθ increases suggests differential sensitivity of FMθ to different forms of behavioral conflict.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT FMθ is well established as an indicator for cognitive conflict in tasks involving simple stimulus-response conflicts. However, we do not yet know about its role in more complex forms of goal ambivalence, such as approach-avoidance conflicts. Thus, we implemented an approach-avoidance task and a flanker task to investigate FMθ in response to simple as well as more complex response conflicts. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show a direct relationship between FMθ and approach-avoidance conflicts. Although the transient FMθ increase is similar to that induced in a simple response conflict task, individual FMθ responsiveness to these two forms of conflict were independent of each other, suggesting intraindividual differences in the sensitivity of FMθ to different forms of behavioral conflict.

Understanding democratic conflicts: The failures of agonistic theory

Western democracies experience profound conflicts that induce concerns about polarization and social cohesion. Yet although conflicts are a core feature of democracies, the forms, functions, and dynamics of democratic conflicts have rarely been subject of political theory. This paper aims at furthering our understanding of democratic conflicts. It analyzes the theory of conflict in Mouffe's agonistic pluralism, confronts it with sociological conflict theory, and presents concrete points of departure for a more comprehensive theory of democratic conflicts. The paper, thus, contributes to two lines of research: (1) Regarding agonistic theories, the paper shows that agonistic pluralism fails to provide a convincing theory of conflict since it underestimates the mechanisms and effects of conflict dynamics (e.g. intergroup cohesion, intragroup conflict, domination, and escalation) and fails to account for the variety of conflict interactions. Proponents of agonistic pluralism should therefore invest more into clarifying their core concept. (2) For a general account of democratic conflicts, the paper proposes to pursue interdisciplinary research on the cognitive concepts shaping conflict interactions, the linked practices of conflict regulation, and the processual dynamics of conflicts.

Neural correlates of abnormal cognitive conflict resolution in major depression: An event-related potential study.

Abnormal cognitive conflict resolution has been considered as a critical element of executive dysfunctions inpatient with major depression (MD). Further clarifying whether there was a deficit at perceptual encoding stage or the early response-execution stage in conflict control function by event-related potential (ERP) technique in MD would be helpful in understanding the neural mechanism of MD. Participants included twenty-six depressed patients and twenty-six healthy controls (HCs). All participants measured with Hamilton Depression Scale (17-item edition, HAMD) and a Simon task. Electroencephalograms were synchronously recorded when performing the Simon task. The method of residue iteration decomposition was used to analyze the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) and P300 components, which contributed to divides ERP components into a stimulus-locked component (S-cluster), a response-locked component (R-cluster) and an intermediate component cluster (C-cluster) by using latency variability and time markers. Results showed that reactive times (RTs) for both groups were fastest in congruent trials, and slowest in incongruent trials; however, there is no difference in RTs under the three conditions between two groups. Accuracy Rate (ACC) for both groups were the highest in neutral trials, and the lowest in incongruent trials; ACC in MD group were all lower than that of HC group under three conditions. ERP data analyses showed that depressed patients had a deficit in activating the correct response, as reflected by reduced amplitudes of R-LRP, but no abnormality in LRP-S and P300-C. In conclusion, patients with MD present conflict control dysfunction (i.e., abnormal cognitive conflict resolution) at the early response-execution stage, not at perceptual encoding stage, which may be reflected by the reduced R-LRP amplitudes. The abnormal cognitive conflict resolution in activating the correct response might constitute an interesting treatment target.

The Development of Learning Device Based on Cognitive Conflict to Improve Mathematics Problem Solving Skills for Students in Madrasah Tsanawiyah

According to the National Council of Mathematics Teachers (NCTM) 2005, Mathematics is a means of problem-solving. NCTM also emphasizes that problem solving cannot be separated from learning Mathematics because problem-solving is an integral part of learning Mathematics. This study aims to improve the mathematical problem-solving ability of students in the Madrasah Tsanawiyah by using a cognitive conflict-based learning model. The subjects of this study were students of class VII Madrasah Tsanawiyah. This type of research is development research. Data collection was carried out in 3 stages, the investigation stage, the prototype phase, and the assessment phase as the level of implementation and achievement in using the cognitive conflict-based learning model. The instruments used in this study were in the form of interview guidelines, questionnaires, and observation sheets. The data analysis carried out is the analysis of data on the validity, practicality, and effectiveness of learning tools. The results of problem-solving abilities can be seen from the results of students' final tests in each meeting which always increase. Based on the study's results, it can be concluded that Cognitive Conflict-based mathematics learning tools can improve students' mathematical problem-solving abilities.

Revision as an essential step in modeling to support predicting, observing, and explaining cellular respiration system dynamics

ABSTRACT Comprehensive understanding of complex biological systems necessitates the use of computational models because they facilitate visualisation and interrogation of system dynamics and data-driven analysis. Computational model-based (CMB) activities have demonstrated effectiveness in improving students’ understanding and their ability to use and reason with models. To maximise the effectiveness of computational modelling, this study examined an improved cognitive scaffolding and its impact on student learning of cellular respiration. This scaffolding proposes the predict-observe-revise-explain (PORE) sequence of tasks that explicitly challenge students to revise their predictions and computational models to resolve cognitive conflict. Based on revision work in a CMB activity, a sample of n = 362 undergraduate biology students were categorised into three groups – not expected to revise (NR, n = 109), required-revised (RR, n = 179), and required-did not revise (RDNR, n = 74). Students’ performance in predict, revise, and explain tasks were significantly associated with post-test performance. RR students were more than twice as likely to demonstrate a positive learning gain in the post-test (odds ratio = 2.47) compared to RDNR students. While science education has implicitly acknowledged revision as a critical cognitive process in modelling, this study presents evidence that making revision an explicit cognitive task in a CMB activity supports student learning of a complex biological system.

Asymmetric responses to multidimensional performance evaluation systems: The role of non-pathological narcissism

We experimentally investigate how narcissism affects individuals’ responses to multidimensional performance evaluation systems (PES). Because these systems are characterized by cognitive conflict, which inhibits performance, prior research has explored how exogenous control systems, such as the provision of feedback, can enhance task performance. Our experimental evidence shows that narcissism moderates the performance implications of conflict and of the tone with which feedback is provided under multidimensional PES. In Experiment 1, we find that task performance among participants with a low (high) level of narcissism is (not) significantly worse under PES associated with higher conflict. In Experiment 2, we find that, while task performance of all participants is better (worse) when feedback is provided with encouraging (discouraging) tone, the effects are stronger among participants with a high level of narcissism. Collectively, our findings suggest that under multidimensional PES, task performance among narcissists is less susceptible to conflict consistent with their analytic cognitive-perceptual style and abnormal need for self-enhancement, and more susceptible to feedback tone, consistent with their grandiose self-image. Hence, we inform both research and practice on the effectiveness of multidimensional PES by examining the role of personality.

Examining students’ geometrical misconceptions by eye tracking

This study was conducted to reveal potential sources of students’ difficulty and misconceptions about geometrical concepts with the help of eye tracking. In this study, the students’ geometrical misconceptions were explored by answering the questions on the geometry test prepared based on the literature and test-taking processes and represented with the help of eye tracking data to make interpretations about their visual and cognitive attention. With this aim, the mixed method research design was used. The data were collected through the geometry test, eye tracking measurements, and the think aloud strategy. Geometry test scores were represented by descriptive statistics such as percentage. The quantitative eye tracking data were analysed by Kruskal–Wallis tests and Mann–Whitney U-tests among the choices for each question. The qualitative data collected through the think aloud strategy were analysed by the content analysis. In the findings, the students’ geometrical misconceptions were examined and reported in detail from a different perspective with the help of data related to eye tracking. Then, eye tracking data and qualitative data showed the geometry misconception items on which the students had difficulty and cognitive conflict in addition to geometrical misconception based on the students’ answers to the geometry questions.

Six- to eight-year-olds' performance in the Heart and Flower task: Emerging proactive cognitive control.

The Heart and Flower task is used worldwide to measure age-dependent and individual differences in executive functions and/or cognitive control. The task reliably maps age and individual differences and these have consistently been found to be predictive for different aspects of school readiness and academic achievement. The idea has been put forward that there is a developmental shift in how children approach such a task. While 6-year-olds’ tend to adapt their task strategy ad hoc and reactively, older children increasingly engage in proactive cognitive control. Proactive cognitive control entails finding the right response speed without risking errors, always dependent on the cognitive conflict. The main goal of the present contribution was to examine children’s adjustments of response speed as a function of age and cognitive conflict by addressing RTs surrounding errors (i.e., errors and post-error trials). Data from a large sample with three age groups was used (N = 106 6-year-olds’ with a mean age of 6 years; 3 months; N = 108 7-year-olds’ with a mean age of 7 years; 4 months; N = 78 8-year-olds’ with a mean age of 8 years; 1 month). Response speed adjustments and the development thereof were targeted both across the Flower and Mixed block, respectively, and within these blocks focusing on errors and post-error slowing. Results revealed evidence for a developmental shift toward more efficient proactive cognitive control between 6 and 8 years of age, with the older but not the younger children strategically slowing down in the Mixed block and smoother post-error slowing. At the same time, we found that even the youngest age group has emerging proactive cognitive control skills at their disposal when addressing post-error slowing in the Flower block. The present study thus tracks the early roots of later efficient executive functions and cognitive control, contributes to a better understanding of how developmental progression in cognitive control is achieved, and highlights new avenues for research in this domain.

Scale development of apparel customization brand value: From the perspectives of practitioners and consumers.

China apparel customization brands (CACBs) have been recently growing in massive quantities despite being in their infancy stages of brand value building. Although scholars have proven brand value’s importance in sustainable brand growth, studies on the specific context of CACBs are still limited. This research proposes a conceptual framework of CACBs’ brand value measured dimension based on previous studies and divides brand value into both general and specific dimensions. Accordingly, qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (online survey) studies were conducted from the perspectives of practitioners and consumers. Ultimately, a scale of 30 items with nine dimensions was generated. Results reveal that brand association in the general dimensions and brand service in the special dimensions were the largest promoters of CACB brand value. Hence, practitioners should pay more attention to dimensions of cognitive conflicts. Practical suggestions for apparel customization marketers are proposed to build and enhance brand value.

Conflicts in peer interaction of collaborative writing – A case study in an EFL context

Despite extensive interest in peer interaction in collaborative writing (CW) research, few studies have focused on conflict during the knowledge co-construction process. This study adopting a CT (complexity theory) perspective investigated the complex and dynamic nature of conflict during peer interaction in collaborative L2 writing. Recruited from a Chinese university, 15 students formed five face-to-face writing groups. With data triangulated with observation notes, stimulated-recall interviews, screen recordings, and tree diagrams, the study identified three types of conflict. One case group was chosen and analyzed in depth to reveal how elements in the conflict system dynamically interacted with the component agents and the context. We also examined the link between conflicts and the writing outcome. The results showed that cognitive conflicts led to better writing outcome in most cases, particularly in the absence of other types of conflict. However, when cognitive conflicts co-existed with other types of conflicts, students tended to perform less well in writing. Pedagogical implications for implementing CW in L2 writing classrooms are examined.

Different intuitive rules in mathematical thinking

This study examines the behavior of individuals when two intuitive rules in their minds lead to two different outcomes concerning a problem. In the absence of the formal knowledge, intuitive rules can affect the mathematical thinking. Hence, studies have usually compared the correct answer of the related formal knowledge with the incorrect one obtained from one intuitive rule. What has been rather less explored is the situation where both correct and incorrect answers are obtained from intuitive rules. In so doing, comparing infinite sets as a challenging issue for learning was selected as the theme of the study. Two specific geometric representations regarding the comparison of two intervals were employed, one in line with the intuitive rule ‘More A - More B’ and the other in line with the ‘Same A - Same B’ rule, so that two different results are produced by each of the rules. 85 first grader high school students who had no formal knowledge about comparing infinite sets were participated in the study, and the data were collected through interview. Analysis of the data showed that when the two intended different intuitive rules can be activated in mind and, in turn, create a cognitive conflict, individuals rank intuitive rules based on the degree of transparency of the concepts they have already known.