Individual differences in social and non-social cognitive control.
Kohinoor M Darda1, Emily E Butler2, Richard Ramsey3
1Wales Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales LL57 2AS, United Kingdom; Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, UK; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Cognition
|May 29, 2020
Summary
Cognitive control systems are largely unaffected by personality but show a sex difference, with females experiencing more interference in spatial tasks than males. This difference is not linked to social interaction partners.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Differential psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Cognitive control enables flexible adaptation to changing environments.
- Research has identified various mental processes in cognitive control.
- Understanding shared systems across social/non-social contexts and individual variations is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the relationship between stable individual traits (personality, sex) and cognitive control architecture.
- Examine shared cognitive control systems in social and non-social contexts.
- Clarify how cognitive control varies across individuals.
Main Methods:
- Integrated experimental and differential psychology approaches.
- Used paradigms indexing social (automatic imitation) and spatial interference control.
- Conducted three large-sample experiments (>600 participants).
Main Results:
- Cognitive control systems are largely invariant to personality traits.
- A significant sex difference emerged: females showed greater task-interference than males.
- This sex difference was specific to spatial interference control, not social imitation, and independent of interaction partner's sex.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive control architecture is largely independent of personality.
- A robust sex difference exists in spatial interference control mechanisms.
- Findings suggest specialized systems for spatial interference control, unaffected by social factors like partner's sex.
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