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Appealing to the cognitive miser: Using demand avoidance to modulate cognitive flexibility in cued and voluntary task

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People can change their cognitive control by avoiding difficult tasks. Associating task difficulty with easier tasks improved cognitive flexibility, but not stability.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Cognitive control involves balancing stability and flexibility.
  • Goal-directed behavior requires dynamic regulation of these control states.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if avoiding cognitive demand can motivate dynamic regulation of cognitive control.
  • To test if demand avoidance influences the stability-flexibility continuum.

Main Methods:

  • Used cued and voluntary task-switching paradigms.
  • Associated cognitive demand with task switches or repetitions.
  • Measured performance changes after demand manipulation removal.

Main Results:

  • Associating demand with task repetitions enhanced cognitive flexibility.
  • Associating demand with task switches did not enhance cognitive stability.
  • Results contrasted with a control group.

Conclusions:

  • Avoidance of cognitive demand can modulate control regulation along the stability-flexibility continuum.
  • Task-switching paradigms have limitations in examining motivational influences on control adaptation.