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Merve Ileri-Tayar1, Julie M Bugg1, Wouter Kool1

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Behavior

Background:

  • Cognitive control is crucial for adapting behavior to environmental changes.
  • Task switching costs are well-documented, but costs of switching control states within a single task are less understood.
  • Existing research has not clarified if internal control state adjustments (e.g., relaxed vs. focused) incur effort.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the intrinsic costs associated with internally switching between cognitive control states within a single task.
  • To examine the potential trade-off between the effort cost of control-state switching and interference demands.
  • To refine models of cognitive control regulation by assessing the costs of both exerting and adjusting control.

Main Methods:

  • A series of experiments using the Demand Selection Task.
  • Participants chose between options involving Stroop trials to assess avoidance of control-state switching and interference demands.
  • A novel parametric flanker task was developed to strongly manipulate both control-state switching and interference demands simultaneously.

Main Results:

  • Participants consistently avoided options with high demands for internal control-state switching or high interference.
  • Initial experiments showed no modulation of interference costs by control-state switching demands, possibly due to weak manipulations.
  • Stronger manipulations using the novel flanker task revealed that both control-state switching and interference costs influenced choices, indicating trade-offs.

Conclusions:

  • Switching between cognitive control states within a task incurs subjective effort costs.
  • Individuals actively avoid tasks that require frequent internal control-state adjustments.
  • The findings highlight that adjusting cognitive control, not just exerting it, has intrinsic costs, contributing to control regulation models.