Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 31, 2026
09:37
Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
Published on: July 5, 2015
Are there control processes, and (if so) can they be studied?
Glenn R Wylie1, James F Sumowski, Micah Murray
1Kessler Foundation Research Center, West Orange, NJ 07052, USA. gwylie@kesslerfoundation.org
Psychological Research
|June 30, 2011
Summary
Investigating cognitive control processes, this study found no separate control mechanisms for within-modality task switching. However, switching between visual and auditory tasks may reveal distinct control processes.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Experimental Psychology
Background:
- Cognitive control processes are hypothesized to manage competing actions, such as less practiced actions, novel actions, or task switching.
- Evidence for distinct control processes remains ambiguous, despite investigations using physiological measures like neuroimaging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the existence of separable control processes by examining performance on distinct tasks within the same sensory modality.
- To explore whether switching between different modalities (visual and auditory) reveals unique control mechanisms.
Main Methods:
- Subjects performed tasks designed to be neuroanatomically distinct but within the same sensory modality (vision).
- A task-switching paradigm was employed, including conditions that involved switching between visual and auditory tasks.
Main Results:
- No evidence for a separable set of control processes was found when switching tasks within the visual modality.
- Switching between tasks of different modalities (visual and auditory) suggested potentially distinct control processes.
Conclusions:
- The findings challenge the necessity of separate control processes for within-modality task switching.
- Switching across modalities may offer a more promising avenue for identifying and understanding cognitive control mechanisms.
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