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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 22, 2026

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

Stability and flexibility in cognitive control: Interindividual dynamics and task context processing.

Deborah J Serrien¹, Louise O'Regan¹

¹School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

|July 11, 2019

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Handedness influences cognitive control, with right-handers favoring stability and left-handers favoring flexibility in instructed decision-making. Voluntary choices override these handedness-related biases, altering the stability-flexibility balance.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Human Behavior

Background:

Adaptive behavior necessitates cognitive control for managing goal stability and flexibility.
The interplay between stability (resisting distractors) and flexibility (switching goals) is crucial for decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the stability-flexibility balance in left- and right-handers.
To examine how instructed versus voluntary decision-making affects cognitive control and handedness biases.

Main Methods:

Behavioral study assessing distractor inhibition and hand/task switching.
Comparison of decision-making under instructed (sensory-cued) and voluntary (self-chosen) conditions.
Analysis of cognitive control differences between left- and right-handers.

Main Results:

Right-handers demonstrated superior distractor inhibition (stability), while left-handers showed enhanced switching abilities (flexibility) in instructed decision-making.
Opposite tendencies in stability-flexibility balance were observed between left- and right-handers for instructed choices.
No significant handedness effects were found during voluntary decision-making, indicating altered cognitive control.

Conclusions:

Handedness is associated with individual variations in cognitive control, influencing the stability-flexibility trade-off during instructed decision-making.
Voluntary decision-making processes can override inherent handedness biases through top-down control.
Understanding the stability-flexibility balance is key to examining cognitive control and the impact of internal/external factors.