Stability and Flexibility in Cognitive Control: Interindividual Dynamics and Task Context Processing

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2019 Jul 11

PMID 31291325

Citations 2

Authors

Deborah J Serrien

Louise ORegan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Adaptive behaviour requires cognitive control for shielding current goals from distractors (stability) but at the same time for switching between alternative goals (flexibility). In this behavioural study, we examine the stability-flexibility balance in left- and right-handers during two types of decision-making, instructed (sensory cued) and voluntary (own choice), by means of distractor inhibition and hand/task switching. The data revealed that both groups showed opposite tendencies for instructed decision-making. Moreover, right-handers resisted distracting information more efficiently whereas left-handers showed superior switching abilities. When participants were involved in voluntary decision-making, no effects of handedness were noted, which suggests that free-choice processing alters the balance between stability and flexibility. These data illustrate that handedness is an index of individual variation during instructed decision-making, biasing the proficiency of cognitive control towards stability and flexibility of information processing. These biases can however be overruled by top-down strategies that dominate during voluntary decision-making. Overall, the research underlines the antagonistic functions of stability and flexibility in decision-making, and offers an approach for examining cognitive control and the role of internal and external factors in balancing the stability-flexibility trade-off.

Citing Articles

The Role of Effector-Specific Task Representations in Voluntary Task Switching.

Mittelstadt V, Leuthold H, Mackenzie I, Dykstra T, Hazeltine E J Cogn. 2023; 6(1):9.

PMID: 36698784 PMC: 9838227. DOI: 10.5334/joc.255.

No need to choose: Independent regulation of cognitive stability and flexibility challenges the stability-flexibility trade-off.

Geddert R, Egner T J Exp Psychol Gen. 2022; 151(12):3009-3027.

PMID: 35617233 PMC: 9670017. DOI: 10.1037/xge0001241.

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