scholarly journals Competition for Cognitive Resources During Rapid Serial Processing: Changes Across Childhood

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Heim ◽  
Nadine Wirth ◽  
Andreas Keil
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Serial Processing

Psychophysiological Responses to Stress Related to Anxiety in Healthy Aging

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Adorni ◽  
Agostino Brugnera ◽  
Alessia Gatti ◽  
Giorgio A. Tasca ◽  
Kaoru Sakatani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Stressful Condition ◽  
Healthy Elderly ◽  
Situational Stress ◽  
Anxiety Response ◽  
Nirs Signal ◽  
Psychophysiological Correlates

Abstract. The aim of the study was to explore the effects of situational stress and anxiety in a group of healthy elderly, both in terms of psychophysiological correlates and cognitive performance. Eighteen participants ( Mage = 70 ± 6.3; range 60–85) were assessed for anxiety and were instructed to perform a computerized math task, under both a stressful and a control condition, while near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) signal and electrocardiography (ECG) were recorded. NIRS results evidenced an increased activation of right PFC during the entire procedure, even if effect sizes between left and right channels were larger during the experimental condition. The amount of right activation during the stressful condition was positively correlated with anxiety. Response times (RTs) were slower in more anxious than in less anxious individuals, both during the control and stressful conditions. Accuracy was lower in more anxious than in less anxious individuals, only during the stressful condition. Moreover, heart rate (HR) was not modulated by situational stress, nor by anxiety. Overall, the present study suggests that in healthy elderly, anxiety level has a significant impact on cerebral responses, and both on the amount of cognitive resources and the quality of performance in stressful situations.

Cognitive Load Mediates the Effect of Emotion on Analytical Thinking

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 343-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastien Trémolière ◽  
Marie-Ève Gagnon ◽  
Isabelle Blanchette
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Deleterious Effect ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Emotional Problems ◽  
Syllogistic Reasoning ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Potential Explanation ◽  
Cognitive Mechanism ◽  
Analytical Thinking

Abstract. Although the detrimental effect of emotion on reasoning has been evidenced many times, the cognitive mechanism underlying this effect remains unclear. In the present paper, we explore the cognitive load hypothesis as a potential explanation. In an experiment, participants solved syllogistic reasoning problems with either neutral or emotional contents. Participants were also presented with a secondary task, for which the difficult version requires the mobilization of cognitive resources to be correctly solved. Participants performed overall worse and took longer on emotional problems than on neutral problems. Performance on the secondary task, in the difficult version, was poorer when participants were reasoning about emotional, compared to neutral contents, consistent with the idea that processing emotion requires more cognitive resources. Taken together, the findings afford evidence that the deleterious effect of emotion on reasoning is mediated by cognitive load.

Application of Information Introduced to Dynamic Message Processing and Enjoyment

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 196-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byungho Park ◽  
Rachel L. Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Orienting Response ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Message Complexity ◽  
Cognitive Resource ◽  
Cognitive Overload

Abstract. In an effort to quantify message complexity in such a way that predictions regarding the moment-to-moment cognitive and emotional processing of viewers would be made, Lang and her colleagues devised the coding system information introduced (or ii). This coding system quantifies the number of structural features that are known to consume cognitive resources and considers it in combination with the number of camera changes (cc) in the video, which supply additional cognitive resources owing to their elicitation of an orienting response. This study further validates ii using psychophysiological responses that index cognitive resource allocation and recognition memory. We also pose two novel hypotheses regarding the confluence of controlled and automatic processing and the effect of cognitive overload on enjoyment of messages. Thirty television advertisements were selected from a pool of 172 (all 20 s in length) based on their ii/cc ratio and ratings for their arousing content. Heart rate change over time showed significant deceleration (indicative of increased cognitive resource allocation) for messages with greater ii/cc ratios. Further, recognition memory worsened as ii/cc increased. It was also found that message complexity increases both automatic and controlled allocations to processing, and that the most complex messages may have created a state of cognitive overload, which was received as enjoyable by the participants in this television context.

Reasonable Bounds on Rationality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Grossmann ◽  
Richard Eibach
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Bounded Rationality ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Previous Theory ◽  
Making Choices ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Sound Judgment

Previous theory and research on bounded rationality has emphasized how limited cognitive resources constrain people from making utility maximizing choices. This paper expands the concept of bounded rationality to consider how people’s rationality may be constrained by their internalization of a qualitatively distinct standard for sound judgment, which is commonly labeled reasonableness. In contrast to rationality, the standard of reasonableness provides guidance for making choices in situations that involve balancing incommensurable values and interests or reconciling conflicting points-of-view. We review recent evidence showing that laypeople readily recognize the distinctions between rationality and reasonableness and thus are able to utilize these as distinct standards to inform their everyday decision-making. The fact that people appear to have internalized rationality and reasonableness as distinct standards of sound judgment supports the notion that people’s pursuit of rationality may be bounded by their determination to also be reasonable.

Emotional working memory load selectively increases negativity bias

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Harp ◽  
Michael D. Dodd ◽  
Maital Neta
Keyword(s):  
Memory Load ◽  
Response Competition ◽  
Negativity Bias ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Shared Resources ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Competing Demands ◽  
The Face ◽  
Positive Valence

Cognitive resources are needed for successful executive functioning; when resources are limited due to competing demands, task performance is impaired. Although some tasks are accomplished with relatively few resources (e.g., judging trustworthiness and emotion in others), others are more complex. Specifically, in the face of emotional ambiguity (i.e., stimuli that do not convey a clear positive or negative meaning, such as a surprised facial expression), our decisions to approach or avoid appear to rely on the availability of top-down regulatory resources to overcome an initial negativity bias. Cognition-emotion interaction theories (e.g., dual competition) posit that emotion and executive processing rely on shared resources, suggesting that competing demands would hamper these regulatory responses towards emotional ambiguity. Here, we employed a 2x2 design to investigate the effects of load (low versus high) and domain (non-emotional vs. emotional) on evaluations of surprised faces. As predicted, there were domain-specific effects, such that categorizations of surprise were more negative for emotional than non-emotional loads. Consistent with prior work, low load (regardless of domain; i.e., domain-general) was associated with greater response competition on trials resulting in a positive categorization, showing that positive categorizations are characterized by an initial negativity. This effect was diminished under high load. These results lend insight into the resources supporting a positive valence bias by demonstrating that emotion-specific regulatory resources are important for overriding the initial negativity in response to emotional ambiguity. However, both domain-general and domain-specific loads impact the underlying processes.

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