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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 1, 2026

Assessment of Stress Effects on Cognitive Flexibility using an Operant Strategy Shifting Paradigm

Assessment of Stress Effects on Cognitive Flexibility using an Operant Strategy Shifting Paradigm

Published on: May 4, 2020

Getting a grip on cognitive flexibility.

Senne Braem¹, Tobias Egner²

¹Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, 9000, Belgium.

Current Directions in Psychological Science

|December 18, 2018

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Cognitive flexibility, the ability to switch tasks, can be learned through basic associative mechanisms. Environmental cues, even subliminal ones, can trigger cognitive flexibility, linking it to fundamental learning principles.

Keywords:

Associative learning Cognitive control Cognitive flexibility Reinforcement learning Task switching

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Last Updated: Feb 1, 2026

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Published on: June 4, 2020

The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice

The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice

Published on: February 4, 2015

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Learning Psychology

Background:

Cognitive flexibility enables rapid mental reconfiguration for tasks.
Existing research often views cognitive flexibility as a high-level executive function.

Purpose of the Study:

To review evidence linking cognitive flexibility to basic associative learning.
To propose a framework where cognitive control relies on fundamental learning mechanisms.

Main Methods:

Literature review of recent studies on cognitive flexibility and learning.
Analysis of how incentives and contextual cues influence cognitive flexibility.

Main Results:

Cognitive flexibility can be conditioned by simple incentives, similar to stimulus-response associations.
Environmental cues, including subliminal stimuli, can trigger cognitive flexibility.
Control functions mediating cognitive flexibility appear to be guided by basic associative learning.

Conclusions:

Cognitive flexibility is grounded in fundamental associative learning mechanisms.
This perspective integrates cognitive control with basic learning principles.
Offers new avenues for research, theory, and applications in cognitive flexibility.