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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 22, 2025

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

Learning to Overexert Cognitive Control in a Stroop Task.

Laura Bustamante¹, Falk Lieder², Sebastian Musslick³

¹Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA. lauraab@princeton.edu.

Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

|January 7, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

People learn to generalize control allocation strategies based on situation features. This can lead to overexerting cognitive control in new situations, even when it impairs performance, supporting the Learned Value of Control model.

Keywords:

Cognitive control Cognitive plasticity Metacognitive reinforcement learning Self-control failure

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Area of Science:

Cognitive psychology
Neuroscience
Decision-making

Background:

Cognitive control allocation is crucial for task performance.
The Learned Value of Control (LVOC) model proposes feature-based learning for control decisions.
Generalization of learned control values across situations is a key prediction.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if learned control allocation strategies generalize to new situations.
To test the LVOC model's prediction of potential overexertion of control due to feature-based generalization.
To examine how stimulus features influence the decision to engage cognitive control.

Main Methods:

Participants performed a modified Stroop task with choices between a control-demanding (color naming) and automatic (word reading) task.
Stimulus features (color, word) predicted task-specific rewards.
Transfer learning was assessed using novel stimuli with overlapping features to probe misestimations of control value.

Main Results:

Learned stimulus-task-reward associations were successfully acquired.
Participants exhibited overexertion of cognitive control in transfer conditions where learned associations incorrectly predicted a higher-reward, control-demanding task.
Performance was sometimes impaired due to this inappropriate control engagement.

Conclusions:

Findings support the LVOC model's mechanism of feature-based learning and control generalization.
Learned associations can lead to maladaptive overexertion of cognitive control in novel contexts.
Situational features play a significant role in learned control allocation strategies.