Levels Of Executive Control Research Articles

The manipulation of alcohol-related interpretation biases by means of Cognitive Bias Modification – Interpretation (CBM-I)

Background and objectivesThere is a large body of evidence demonstrating that alcohol abuse and misuse is characterized by alcohol-related interpretation biases (IBs). The present study tested whether alcohol-related IBs can be trained, and whether this has an effect on alcohol-related associations and drinking behavior. A newly developed alcohol Cognitive Bias Modification – Interpretation (CBM-I) training was employed. The potential moderating effect of executive control on CBM-I training effects was tested. MethodParticipants were hazardously male drinking students. A classical Stroop was used to assess levels of executive control. Half of the sample was trained to interpret ambiguous alcohol-related scenarios in an alcohol-related manner (alcohol training group), whereas the other half was trained to interpret ambiguous alcohol-related scenarios in a neutral manner (neutral training group). A Single Target Implicit Association Test (STIAT) was used to test whether the training would generalize to implicit alcohol-related associations (target words: alcohol, attributes: positive vs. neutral). To test the training's effect on drinking behavior, a bogus taste test and a one week follow-up measure assessing participant's real life drinking behavior were used. ResultsThe CBM-I training was partly successful: When presented with novel ambiguous alcohol-related scenarios, participants of the alcohol training group interpreted these scenarios as more alcohol-related after the training. However, there was no reduction in alcohol-related IBs in the neutral training group. Results of the STIAT demonstrated that both training groups showed stronger positive than neutral alcohol-related associations. However, there were no between-group differences in alcohol-related associations. Moreover, the CBM-I training's effect was not moderated by levels of executive control. Finally, no group differences were found on levels of alcohol consumption (bogus taste test and at one week follow-up). LimitationsThe neutral training might have been operationalized sub-optimally. A multi-session training might have resulted in stronger effects. ConclusionsThese findings are the first to show that alcohol-related IBs can be trained. However, the training effect only partly generalized so more research is needed to advance our understanding of alcohol CBM-I effects.

Executive control of married and cohabiting couples

Attention mechanisms of 125 couples were assessed to determine whether married and cohabiting couples differ in their levels of executive control. Executive control is the attention network that is responsible for resolving cognitive conflicts among competing responses. Of the 125 couples, 85 were married (48 after premarital cohabitation) and 40 were in cohabiting unions. Executive control was assessed with a cognitive task, the Attentional Network Task. The participants’ task was to identify the direction of a central arrow that was surrounded by flanker arrows. As predicted, cohabiting couples exhibited stronger deficits in executive control than married ones, after controlling for demographic confounders. Moreover, similar differences in executive control were observed between the subsample of married couples who cohabited with their spouses prior to marriage and currently cohabiting couples. Taken together, our results reveal that cohabiting couples have more trouble responding to some stimuli while ignoring extraneous stimuli.

Hippocampal-dorsolateral prefrontal coupling as a species-conserved cognitive mechanism: a human translational imaging study.

Hippocampal-prefrontal cortex (HC-PFC) interactions are implicated in working memory (WM) and altered in psychiatric conditions with cognitive impairment such as schizophrenia. While coupling between both structures is crucial for WM performance in rodents, evidence from human studies is conflicting and translation of findings is complicated by the use of differing paradigms across species. We therefore used functional magnetic resonance imaging together with a spatial WM paradigm adapted from rodent research to examine HC-PFC coupling in humans. A PFC-parietal network was functionally connected to hippocampus (HC) during task stages requiring high levels of executive control but not during a matched control condition. The magnitude of coupling in a network comprising HC, bilateral dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), and right supramarginal gyrus explained one-fourth of the variability in an independent spatial WM task but was unrelated to visual WM performance. HC-DLPFC coupling may thus represent a systems-level mechanism specific to spatial WM that is conserved across species, suggesting its utility for modeling cognitive dysfunction in translational neuroscience.

The relationship between drinking motives and alcohol-related interpretation biases

Background and objectivesNumerous studies have investigated drinking motives and alcohol-related interpretation biases (IBs) separately. However, less is known about the relationship between them. Therefore, the present study examined whether coping and enhancement drinking motives were specifically related to negative and positive alcohol-related IBs, respectively. Furthermore, it was investigated whether such biases predict future drinking, especially in individuals with low levels of executive control (EC). MethodsParticipants were male and female university students. The Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R; Cooper, 1994) was administered to measure participants' drinking motives. To measure alcohol-related IBs, an adapted version of the Encoding Recognition Task (ERT) was used. During the ERT, participants were asked to read ambiguous alcohol-related scenarios. In a subsequent recognition phase, participants interpreted these scenarios. A classical Stroop was applied to assess levels of EC. ResultsCoping motives but not enhancement motives were a unique predictor of the tendency to interpret negatively valenced ambiguous alcohol-relevant situations in an alcohol-related manner. This relationship was significant even when controlling for other relevant predictors. Neither coping nor enhancement motives were predictive of positive alcohol-related IBs. Concerning the prediction of prospective drinking, results showed that particularly the negative alcohol-related IB predicted prospective drinking. However, EC did not moderate the prediction of prospective drinking by either positive or negative interpretation biases. LimitationsThe alcohol-ERT might not be the most optimal paradigm for assessing implicit alcohol-related IBs. ConclusionsThe present results emphasize the role of negative affect in the context of drinking motives and alcohol-related IBs. Follow-up studies are needed to test the robustness of these findings, and to further explore the general interplay between drinking motives and alcohol-related IBs.

Relations of growth in effortful control to family income, cumulative risk, and adjustment in preschool-age children.

The study examined growth in effortful control (executive control, delay ability) in relation to income, cumulative risk (aggregate of demographic and psychosocial risk factors), and adjustment in 306 preschool-age children (50% girls, 50% boys) from families representing a range of income (29% at- or near-poverty; 28% lower-income; 25% middle-income; 18% upper-income), with 4 assessments starting at 36-40 month. Income was directly related to levels of executive control and delay ability. Cumulative risk accounted for the effects of income on delay ability but not executive control. Higher initial executive control and slope of executive control and delay ability predicted academic readiness, whereas levels, but not growth, of executive control and delay ability predicted social competence and adjustment problems. Low income is a marker for lower effortful control, which demonstrates additive or mediating effects in the relation of income to children's preschool adjustment.

Evaluation of objective and perceived mental fatigability in older adults with vascular risk

ObjectivesMental fatigability refers to the failure to sustain participation in tasks requiring mental effort. Older adults with vascular risk are at particular risk for experiencing mental fatigability. The present study (1) tested a new way of measuring objective mental fatigability by examining its association with perceived mental fatigability; and (2) identified associated psychological, physiological, and situational predictors. MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted with 49 community-dwelling participants aged 75+ years with vascular risk. A 20-minute fatigability-manipulation task was used to induce mental fatigability and develop objective and perceived mental fatigability measures. Objective fatigability was calculated by the change of reaction time over the course of the task. Perceived fatigability was calculated by the change of fatigue self-reported before and after the task. A set of potential psychological, physiological, and situational predictors were measured. ResultsThere was a significant increase in reaction time and self-reported fatigue to the fatigability manipulation task, indicating occurrence of objective and perceived mental fatigability. Reaction time and self-reported fatigue were moderately, but significantly correlated. Higher levels of executive control and having a history of more frequently engaging in mental activities were associated with lower objective mental fatigability. None of the examined factors were associated with perceived mental fatigability. ConclusionObjective and perceived mental fatigability were sensitive to our fatigability-manipulation task. While these two measures were correlated, they were not associated with the same factors. These findings need to be validated in studies with a more heterogeneous sample and a greater variety of fatigability-manipulation tasks.

Does executive control relate to sacrificial behavior during conflicts of interests?

AbstractWhy is it that some people are better able to sacrifice their own immediate interest for the sake of their partner than others? We conducted two studies to test whether an individual's level of executive control plays a role in answering this question. Study 1 demonstrated that executive control is related to the tendency to continue a frustrating task to benefit one's partner. Study 2 replicated this effect by using two different indicators of sacrifice: a behavioral sacrifice measure and a questionnaire on the intention to make major sacrifices for one's partner. Together, our findings suggest that higher levels of executive control facilitate prorelational behavior when facing various conflicts of interests in a romantic relationship.

Parenting Mediates the Effects of Income and Cumulative Risk on the Development of Effortful Control

AbstractThis study tested the hypothesis that the effects of income and cumulative risk on the development of effortful control during preschool would be mediated by parenting. The study utilized a community sample of 306 children (36–40 months) representing the full range of family income, with 29 percent at or near poverty and 28 percent lower income. Two dimensions of effortful control (executive control and delay ability) were assessed at four time points, each separated by nine months, and growth trajectories were examined. Maternal warmth, negativity, limit setting, scaffolding, and responsiveness were observed. Above the effects of child cognitive ability, income, and cumulative risk, scaffolding predicted higher initial levels of executive control that remained higher across the study, and limit setting predicted greater gains in executive control. Parenting did not predict changes in delay ability. Significant indirect effects indicated that scaffolding mediated the effects of income and cumulative risk on growth in executive control. The findings suggest that parenting behaviors can promote effortful control in young children and could be targets of prevention programs in low‐income families.

ADHD performance reflects inefficient but not impulsive information processing: A diffusion model analysis.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with performance deficits across a broad range of tasks. Although individual tasks are designed to tap specific cognitive functions (e.g., memory, inhibition, planning, etc.), these deficits could also reflect general effects related to either inefficient or impulsive information processing or both. These two components cannot be isolated from each other on the basis of classical analysis in which mean reaction time (RT) and mean accuracy are handled separately. Seventy children with a diagnosis of combined type ADHD and 50 healthy controls (between 6 and 17 years) performed two tasks: a simple two-choice RT (2-CRT) task and a conflict control task (CCT) that required higher levels of executive control. RT and errors were analyzed using the Ratcliff diffusion model, which divides decisional time into separate estimates of information processing efficiency (called "drift rate") and speed-accuracy tradeoff (SATO, called "boundary"). The model also provides an estimate of general nondecisional time. Results were the same for both tasks independent of executive load. ADHD was associated with lower drift rate and less nondecisional time. The groups did not differ in terms of boundary parameter estimates. RT and accuracy performance in ADHD appears to reflect inefficient rather than impulsive information processing, an effect independent of executive function load. The results are consistent with models in which basic information processing deficits make an important contribution to the ADHD cognitive phenotype.

Independence of Valence and Reward in Emotional Word Processing: Electrophysiological Evidence

Both emotion and reward are primary modulators of cognition: emotional word content enhances word processing, and reward expectancy similarly amplifies cognitive processing from the perceptual up to the executive control level. Here, we investigate how these primary regulators of cognition interact. We studied how the anticipation of gain or loss modulates the neural time course (event-related potentials, ERPs) related to processing of emotional words. Participants performed a semantic categorization task on emotional and neutral words, which were preceded by a cue indicating that performance could lead to monetary gain or loss. Emotion-related and reward-related effects occurred in different time windows, did not interact statistically, and showed different topographies. This speaks for an independence of reward expectancy and the processing of emotional word content. Therefore, privileged processing given to emotionally valenced words seems immune to short-term modulation of reward. Models of language comprehension should be able to incorporate effects of reward and emotion on language processing, and the current study argues for an architecture in which reward and emotion do not share a common neurobiological mechanism.

Eating Disorders and Pathological Gambling in Males: Can They Be Differentiated by Means of Weight History and Temperament and Character Traits?

In the present study, we investigated whether binge/purge eating disorders (ED) and pathological gambling (PG) in males can be differentiated by means of weight history and temperament and character traits. We investigated 43 male ED patients, 46 pathological gamblers and 46 healthy controls (HC) by means of lifetime weight information and the Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R). The MANCOVA results showed that ED patients showed significantly more lifetime weight fluctuations compared with PG and HC after controlling for age. Additionally, both ED and PG patients showed significantly higher scores on Harm Avoidance and lower Self-Directedness compared with HC. Results of a multinomial logistic regression showed that ED versus HC membership was determined by more weight fluctuations and lower Self-Directedness; whereas ED versus PG membership was determined by more weight fluctuations. Finally, PG versus HC membership was characterized by more Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, and Persistence, and less Self-directedness. Given that both patient groups were characterized by low levels of Self-Directedness (i.e., low levels of effortful or executive control), they can benefit from training in self-regulation; and in PG patients special attention needs to be given on the training of behavioral control in the presence of novel and rewarding stimuli.

Partialism, Executive Control, and the Deportation of Permanent Residents from Australia

ABSTRACTMany migration policies in Western democracies can be categorised as what Matthew J. Gibney calls a ‘partialist’ approach to migration. Drawing from communitarian, conservative, and constitutionalist realist political theories, a partialist approach prioritises the interests and values of citizens and the community over the needs of non‐citizens. Stepping outside the normative debate, this paper examines the political implications of a partialist approach to migration policies. The paper argues that it is possible for such policies to be inconsistent with liberal democratic processes of government. Specifically, there is a risk that partialist ideas can be used to justify policies that set aside legal and administrative checks and balances in favour of executive control over migration policies. This is evident in the Australian policy of deportation of long‐term permanent residents on character grounds. The paper argues that partialist ideas have been used to justify a high level of executive control over deportations. Executive control is achieved in three ways: broad powers of ministerial discretion; a mechanical bureaucracy, and the use of immigration detention. The cumulative effect means that deportation policy is implemented without the checks and balances fundamental to ensuring limits to executive power. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Collaborative memory and part-set cueing impairments: The role of executive depletion in modulating retrieval disruption

When people are exposed to a subset of previously studied list items they recall fewer of the remaining items compared to a condition where none of the studied items is provided during recall. This occurs both when the subset of items is provided by the experimenter (i.e., the part-set cueing deficit in individual recall) and when they are provided during the course of a collaborative discussion (i.e., the collaborative inhibition effect in group recall). Previous research has identified retrieval disruption as a common mechanism underlying both effects; however, less is known about the factors that may make individuals susceptible to such retrieval disruption. In the current studies we tested one candidate factor: executive control. Using an executive depletion paradigm we directly manipulated an individual's level of executive control during retrieval. Results revealed no direct role of executive depletion in modulating retrieval disruption. In contrast, executive control abilities were indirectly related to retrieval disruption through their influence at encoding. Together these results suggest that executive control des not directly affect retrieval disruption at the retrieval stage, and that the role of this putative mechanism may be limited to the encoding stage.

A differential deficit in time- versus event-based prospective memory in Parkinson's disease.

The aim of the current study was to clarify the nature and extent of impairment in time- versus event-based prospective memory in Parkinson's disease (PD). Prospective memory is thought to involve cognitive processes that are mediated by prefrontal systems and are executive in nature. Given that individuals with PD frequently show executive dysfunction, it is important to determine whether these individuals may have deficits in prospective memory that could impact daily functions, such as taking medications. Although it has been reported that individuals with PD evidence impairment in prospective memory, it is still unclear whether they show a greater deficit for time- versus event-based cues. Fifty-four individuals with PD and 34 demographically similar healthy adults were administered a standardized measure of prospective memory that allows for a direct comparison of time-based and event-based cues. In addition, participants were administered a series of standardized measures of retrospective memory and executive functions. Individuals with PD demonstrated impaired prospective memory performance compared to the healthy adults, with a greater impairment demonstrated for the time-based tasks. Time-based prospective memory performance was moderately correlated with measures of executive functioning, but only the Stroop Neuropsychological Screening Test emerged as a unique predictor in a linear regression. Findings are interpreted within the context of McDaniel and Einstein's (2000) multiprocess theory to suggest that individuals with PD experience particular difficulty executing a future intention when the cue to execute the prescribed intention requires higher levels of executive control.

How can you resist? Executive control helps romantically involved individuals to stay faithful.

In the present research, we examined why some people have more difficulty than others in staying faithful to their romantic partners. Three studies supported our main prediction that executive control is associated with romantically involved individuals' ability to stay faithful. Study 1 showed that participants with a higher level of executive control reported less difficulty in staying faithful to their partners than did those with lower levels of executive control. In Study 2, romantically involved male participants were placed in a waiting room together with an attractive female confederate. Results showed that participants with a higher level of executive control showed less flirting behavior with the confederate than did those with lower levels of executive control. Study 3 demonstrated that a higher level of executive control was related to a lower expressed desire to meet an attractive other, but only for romantically involved participants. Together, these studies showed that executive control helps romantically involved individuals to deal with the lure of attractive alternatives.

Vocabulary learning

The purpose of this study is to compare the vocabulary learning of monolingual learners of English as a second language with bilingual learners of English as a third language. The study is based on data from 52 monolingual Persian-speaking learners of English and 45 bilingual Azeri-Persian-speaking learners of English. All the participants were females studying English as a foreign language at two universities in Iran. The informants were exposed to two incidental and four intentional vocabulary learning exercises. They were then measured at four difficulty levels using the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Paribakht & Wesche, 1997). Variables such as English language proficiency, intelligence, family educational background, gender, age and type of university were controlled. The third language learners outperformed their second language counterparts at all word difficulty levels. The findings are discussed in relation to bilinguals’ higher level of executive and inhibitory control.

Level of construal, mind wandering, and repetitive thought: Reply to McVay and Kane (2010).

In this reply to the comment of McVay and Kane (2010)Watkins’s (2008) elaborated control theory informs their perspective on the role of executive control in mind wandering. I argue that although in a number of places the elaborated control theory is consistent with the perspective of McVay and Kane that mind wandering represents a failure of executive control, their account makes a number of claims that are not articulated in the elaborated control theory—most notably, the hypothesis that level of construal moderates entry of thoughts into awareness. Moreover, the relevant literature suggests that the relationship between level of construal and executive control may be more complex, and may be determined by multiple factors beyond those proposed in this executive-control failure account of mind wandering. Finally, the implications of this model of mind wandering for understanding repetitive thought in general are considered, and it is proposed that examining level of executive control as a further moderating variable within elaborated control theory may be of value.

Prospective memory in Parkinson disease across laboratory and self-reported everyday performance.

Prospective memory is a complex cognitive construct ubiquitous in everyday life that is thought to sometimes rely on executive skills commonly affected by Parkinson's disease (PD). The present study investigated the effect of PD on prospective memory tasks with varying demand on executive control processes, namely on the amount of strategic attentional monitoring required for intention retrieval. Individuals with PD but without dementia and healthy adults performed laboratory event-based prospective memory tasks that varied in whether strategic attentional monitoring (nonfocal condition) or spontaneous processes (focal condition) were primarily involved in intention retrieval. Participants also completed a questionnaire rating their frequency of prospective memory failures in everyday life for both self-cued and environment-cued tasks. PD participants performed worse than non-PD participants in the nonfocal, but not focal, condition of the laboratory task. They also reported more everyday failures than non-PD participants for self-cued, but not environment-cued, prospective memory tasks. Thus, nondemented individuals with PD are preferentially impaired on prospective memory tasks for which higher levels of executive control are needed to support intention retrieval. This pattern is consistent across laboratory and reported real-world performance.

Charlie, a testbed for USV research

The Charlie Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), originally developed for the sampling of sea surface microlayer and exploited in the Italian Antarctic expedition 2003–'04, in the last four years has been supporting research in the field of unmanned marine vehicles. In particular, this prototype vehicle allowed the experimental validation of algorithms and methodologies proposed and developed by different research groups cooperating on the basis of heterogeneous programs. The supported research mainly focused on embedded real-time platforms for robotics and industrial automation; modelling and identification; basic navigation, guidance and control; straight line and generic path following; cooperative mission control and path-following. This paper, after a brief description of the electro-mechanical design and general software, control and communication architecture of the vehicle, discusses the critical aspects, in the authors' opinion, in facilitating its use as a testbed supporting cooperation between different research groups: light logistics, integration with a hardware-in-the-loop simulator, execution control level automatically handling task dependencies and conflicts, task description in terms of I/O and state variables, standard and free tools for developing application code.

Neurofeedback improves executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorders

Seven autistic children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) received a neurofeedback treatment that aimed to improve their level of executive control. Neurofeedback successfully reduced children's heightened theta/beta ratio by inhibiting theta activation and enhancing beta activation over sessions. Following treatment, children's executive capacities were found to have improved greatly relative to pre-treatment assessment on a range of executive function tasks. Additional improvements were found in children's social, communicative and typical behavior, relative to a waiting list control group. These findings suggest a basic executive function impairment in ASD that can be alleviated through specific neurofeedback treatment. Possible neural mechanisms that may underlie neurofeedback mediated improvement in executive functioning in autistic children are discussed.