Effortful control is associated with executive attention: A computational study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Temperament Research

Background:

• Effortful control (EC) is a key aspect of self-regulation, theorized to reflect executive attention (EA) efficiency.
• Previous research on the EC-EA relationship in adults yielded inconsistent findings.
• A computational approach was utilized to investigate this association more deeply.

Purpose of the Study:

• To clarify the relationship between self-reported effortful control (EC) and executive attention (EA) in adults.
• To determine if EC correlates with specific components of cognitive processing during attention tasks.
• To employ a computational model to dissect decision-making processes.

Main Methods:

• Four hundred twenty-seven healthy adults completed the Adult Temperament Questionnaire and the revised Attention Network Task.
• Executive attention (EA) was assessed via the flanker effect (FE) and a drift-diffusion model.
• The drift-diffusion model provided parameters for drift rate and extra-decisional time.

Main Results:

• Self-reported EC did not correlate with the classic flanker effect (FE).
• EC positively correlated with the drift rate for incongruent trials.
• This association remained significant after controlling for congruent trial drift rate and extra-decisional time.

Conclusions:

• This study confirms an association between self-reported effortful control (EC) and executive attention (EA) in adults.
• EC is specifically linked to improved goal-directed decision-making when faced with conflicting information.
• EC does not appear to be associated with general response facilitation.