Cognitive Flexibility Task Research Articles

The Effect of Auditory Stressors on Cognitive Flexibility

Stress is known to activate the noradrenergic system which may have a modulatory influence on cognitive flexibility. We investigated whether an auditory stressor would thus affect performance on cognitive flexibility. A task utilizing cognitive flexibility and two memory tasks were presented in both stressful and non-stressful condition. In the stressful condition performance was impaired for the cognitive flexibility task but not for the memory tasks, arguing against the stressor serving as a general distracter. These findings suggest that stress caused by an auditory stressor may negatively impact performance on more complex tasks requiring a rapid search of the semantic and lexical associative networks.

Dopamine asymmetry interacts with medication to affect cognition in Parkinson's disease

Contradictory evidence exists regarding the nature and degree of impaired cognitive flexibility in PD. Dopaminergic medication may be expected to ameliorate such cognitive deficits, yet both medicated and unmedicated patients have been reported to perform more poorly than control subjects on tasks of cognitive flexibility, suggesting that such deficits may also be affected by other disease-related variables. The present study examined whether asymmetric dopamine deficiency (revealed by unilateral symptom onset) is related to the performance of spontaneous and reactive flexibility in PD, and the possible interaction of dopaminergic medication with such asymmetry. Thirty-five PD patients with mild motor symptoms and unilateral onset of PD (left-onset=14; right-onset=21) performed the Alternate Uses (AU) and intradimensional/extradimensional shift (IED) tasks. Interaction between side of onset and medication was observed for the number of errors in the AU task and number of reversal errors in the IED task. Significantly more AU errors were made by medicated patients with left-onset, as compared to all other participants. Conversely, medicated patients with right-onset made the most reversal errors. These results suggest that relatively early in the disease process when dopamine deficit in the less-affected hemisphere is mild, optimal dopaminergic medication (with respect to motor function) may involve over-medication of the less-affected hemisphere. Thus, AU errors may be the consequence of hyperdopaminergic state leading to impaired functioning of the left hemisphere, whereas increased reversal errors in right-onset PD patients receiving dopaminergic medication is related to impaired dopamine function in the right hemisphere.

Cognitive impairment in acute cocaine withdrawal.

To perform a pilot study to examine a range of cognitive flexibility tasks early in cocaine withdrawal. Previous neuropsychological investigations of cocaine withdrawal have conflicted regarding whether impaired cognitive flexibility occurs. However, most studies have examined patients later in withdrawal. Anxiety and yohimbine-induced panic are greatest early in withdrawal, and both anxiety and increased noradrenergic tone can impair cognitive flexibility. Twelve patients acutely withdrawing from cocaine were compared with gender-, age-, and estimated premorbid intelligence-matched control subjects on tests of cognitive flexibility as well as verbal fluency, verbal memory, spatial memory, and attention. As predicted, impairments were found on the cognitive flexibility tasks. Impairments also were present in verbal fluency and verbal memory but not spatial memory or attention. We propose that the cognitive flexibility impairment may relate to the increased noradrenergic activation recently described in cocaine withdrawal. Impairments on verbal tasks may also relate to an impaired flexibility in the search of semantic networks. Further research will explore the effects of pharmacologic manipulation of the noradrenergic system on cognition in acute withdrawal. Recently, propranolol has been shown to benefit patients in cocaine withdrawal. Further research will explore whether impaired cognitive flexibility related to altered noradrenergic tone could serve as a mechanism for this treatment response.

The Effect of Affect: The Hedonomic Evaluation of Human-Computer Interaction

We evaluated the use of color in a human-computer interface to investigate how affective cues influence usability judgments. Yellow and green, were found to enhance performance on a cognitive flexibility task as compared to white and gray. Such an outcome suggests that color promotes positive affect. The aesthetically designed interface that promoted positive affect was also found to enhance perceptions of interface usability. This relationship, however, was only found when underlying usability was effective. When usability was poor, aesthetics made users more cognizant of the usability weaknesses. The results suggest that designers consider incorporating color into designs to help elicit positive emotion in users but that they must be aware that incorporation of aesthetics comes with the potential cost of disposing users to be more discerning of usability.

Neuropsychological Correlates of Major Depression: A Short-term Follow-up

The present study investigated neuropsychological correlates of major depression and their course following treatment. We investigated 41 patients with major depression according to DSM-III-R criteria, who do not fulfil criteria of Alzheimer's disease, with a standardised clinical interview, different self- and observer-rating depression scales, and a comprehensive neuropsychological examination, and 27 subjects were reinvestigated 4.5 weeks after the first assessment. We found deficits in all cognitive domains with a predominant decline in tasks of cognitive flexibility and fluency. Patients who respond to antidepressive treatment showed a significant improvement in executive functions at the followup examination. Our data support the hypothesis that cognitive disorders in major depression may be associated with a frontostriatal dysfunction.

Neuropsychological Deficits in Withdrawn Cocaine-Dependent Males

Previous research suggests that cocaine abuse may result in neuropsychological deficits. To examine this further, we compared cocaine-withdrawn patients (N = 35) to normal controls (N = 17) on tasks of attention, concentration, perceptual-motor speed, and cognitive flexibility. The withdrawn cocaine patients performed significantly worse on Arithmetic, Grooved Peg Board Dominant and Non-Dominant, and Trails B tests. These findings suggest that withdrawn cocaine-dependent patients have more neuropsychological impairment than normal controls.

Lateralization, physiognomic perception, and flexibility of cognitive control.

32 left-handed and 34 right-handed college educated women were administered a hemispheric lateralization task and measures of physiognomic perception and cognitive flexibility. Results supported the hypothesis that differing hemispheric lateralization patterns would be reflected in differing degrees of physiognomic perception and flexibility of cognitive control. The demonstrated relationships suggest possible structural parallels between hemispheric lateralization patterns and cognitive style. Results further suggest that ambilateralization, rather than reducing hemispheric efficiency, may be a more advantageous psychological organization for certain cognitive tasks.