Implementation intentions and efficient action initiation.

Storage interference in working memory cannot be removed by attention

Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design

Research has shown that people prefer the letters in their names to letters that are not in their names. This name-letter effect seems to influence important life decision such as where one chooses to live or whom one chooses to marry. The authors' laboratory study investigated whether this effect generalizes to individuals' job-choice intentions under specific conditions. Furthermore, the authors hypothesized that name-letter preferences in job-choice intentions would be stronger under conditions of high cognitive load than under conditions of low cognitive load. Two experiments with final-year students attending a university in Belgium showed support for name-letter preferences in job-choice intentions. There was no support for the hypothesized moderating role of cognitive load. The authors discuss the implications of these results for theory and research on name-letter preferences and job choice.

Data analytics-driven solutions are widely used in various intelligent systems, where humans and machines make decisions collaboratively based on predictions. Human factors such as personality and trust have significant effects on such human–machine collaborations. This paper investigates effects of personality traits on user trust in human–machine collaborations under uncertainty and cognitive load conditions. A user study of 42 subjects in a repeated factorial design experiment found that uncertainty presentation led to increased trust but only under low cognitive load conditions when users had sufficient cognitive resources to process the information. Presentation of uncertainty under high load conditions led to a decrease in trust. When further drilling down into personality trait groups of users, overall, users with low Openness showed the highest trust. Furthermore, under the low cognitive load condition, it was found that the trust was enhanced under ambiguity uncertainty with low Agreeableness, low Neuroticism, high Extraversion, high Conscientiousness, and high Openness. Under the high cognitive load condition, high Neuroticism and low Extraversion benefitted the trust without the uncertainty presentation. The results demonstrated that different personality traits affected trust differently under uncertainty and cognitive load conditions. A framework of user trust feedback loop was set up to incorporate the study results into human–machine collaborations for the meaningful participatory design.

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the neural signature of dual-tasking deficits in idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder using a validated gait paradigm. Fifty-eight participants (28 controls; 30 idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder patients) were recruited; 52 participants had functional MRI scans as they performed a validated dual-task virtual reality gait paradigm using foot pedals. Forty-one participants completed single- and dual-task "overground walking" on a pressure sensor carpet. Idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder patients showed deficits in dual-tasking (i.e., greater mean step time) compared to controls during "overground walking." Functional MRI revealed that idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder patients had reduced blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal change in the dorsal caudate nucleus, and significantly different corticostriatal functional connectivity patterns from controls, when dual-tasking in high versus low cognitive load. While controls showed greater connectivity between frontoparietal and motor networks, idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder patients exhibited less change in this connectivity as a function of cognitive load. These findings demonstrate evidence of dual-task gait deficits in idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder patients, underpinned by disrupted corticostriatal connectivity. Minimal differences in the level of functional connectivity between dual-tasking conditions of high and low cognitive load suggest that idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder patients recruit cognitive networks to control gait even when the cognitive demands are low. This may indicate a compensatory strategy for early cognitive decline in idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Improving compliance to meal-replacement food regimens. Forming implementation intentions (conscious IF-THEN plans) increases compliance

While mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can lead to cognitive and functional impairments, little is known about how mTBI may affect driving, especially among young drivers who are at an increased risk of mTBI and motor vehicle collisions compared to other age groups. The objective of this multisite, pilot study was to examine the feasibility of assessing driving performance acutely post-injury (i.e., mTBI sustained < 2 weeks at assessment) among young drivers with and without mTBIs (N=42; nmTBI= 21; ncontrol=21) using high-fidelity driving simulators. Driving performance was hypothesized to be significantly degraded, especially under conditions of high cognitive load, among drivers with mTBI compared to matched controls. Neurocognitive measures used in clinical assessment of mTBI (i.e., Cogstate Brief Battery) were hypothesized to correlate with driving simulator performance metrics. Risk management protocols were successful (i.e., no participants withdrew due to simulator sickness) and no significant increase in post-concussion symptoms was found from pre-assessment to immediately following driving assessment. Group differences on key driving variables did not emerge; however, drivers with mTBI showed a differential pattern of driving under high cognitive load. Neurocognitive correlates of simulated driving performance suggested processing speed, attention, and working memory are important functions for driving. Implications and future directions discussed.

Mild depression has been shown as a precursor and as a consequence of low back pain, even in early phases of acute or subacute pain. Chronic daily life stress as well as dysfunctional pain-related cognitions such as thought suppression (TS) seem to play a role in the pain-depression cycle; however, the mechanisms of these associations are less understood. Experimentally induced TS, conceived as the attempt to directly suppress sensations such as pain, has been shown to paradoxically cause a delayed and non-volitional return of the suppressed thoughts and sensations and to increase affective distress. These dysfunctional processes are supposed to increase under high cognitive load, such as high stress. In the present cross-sectional study, we for the first time sought to examine a possible interaction between habitual TS and stress on depression in N=177 patients with subacute low back pain (SLBP), using the following questionnaires: Subscale Thought Suppression from Avoidance-Endurance Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, and Kiel Interview of Subjective Situation. A three-way ANOVA was conducted with two groups of TS (high/low), stress (high/low) and sex as independent factors and depression as dependent. Results indicated a significant three-way interaction with highest depression scores in female patients showing high TS and high stress. Overall main effects for sex and stress indicated higher depression in women and in highly stressed patients. Our findings support the hypothesis that TS heightens depressive mood under conditions of high cognitive load especially in female patients with SLBP indicating a special vulnerability for depressive mood in women with SLBP.

Blocked goals, persistent action: Implementation intentions engender tenacious goal striving

ObjectiveThe vestibular system has been hypothesized to serve as a cognitive anchor for spatial processing, yet its functional contribution under conditions of high cognitive load remains unclear. This study investigated how vestibular function interacts with attentional processes, specifically attentional breadth, to support perceptual discrimination during a demanding Multirule Visual Monitoring Task.MethodsParticipants performed a visual discrimination task with varying time pressure and load. Vestibular function, attentional shifting, and attentional breadth were assessed. Binary logistic regression and ROC analyses evaluated these factors’ ability to distinguish between high- and low-performance groups.ResultsIn-sample classification analyses indicated that models incorporating both vestibular function and attentional breadth achieved higher classification performance in both simple (AUC = 0.961) and difficult (AUC = 0.945) task conditions than single-predictor model. Conversely, analysis of variance based on continuous performance scores revealed no significant interaction between vestibular function and attention. This divergence suggests that the joint contribution may be nonlinear or threshold-dependent, primarily captured through categorical classification rather than linear modulation of performance.ConclusionThe findings are consistent with theoretical accounts of vestibular-cognitive interactions and indicate a joint contribution of vestibular function and attentional breadth to perceptual performance. The divergence between categorical and continuous analyses suggests this contribution may be nonlinear or threshold-dependent. Future work employing cross-validation and direct tests of nonlinear models is needed to further elucidate this relationship.

Altered sensory perception is a hallmark of autism and determines how autistic individuals engage with their environment. Among sensory modalities, tactile perception is particularly critical for daily functioning and social interactions. While these sensory alterations are thought to contribute to the cognitive differences observed in autism, the impact of cognitive processes —such as categorization, prior experience, and attention — on sensory perception remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the influence of top-down cognitive processes on tactile perception in the Fmr1-/y genetic mouse model of autism. We developed a translational, forepaw-based decision-making task designed to dissociate stimulus-driven tactile responses from those modulated by cognitive factors. This approach enabled us to assess multiple aspects of perceptual processing, including perceptual learning, stimulus categorization and discrimination, as well as the influence of prior experience and attention. Mice were initially trained to distinguish between high- and low-salience stimuli and were subsequently tested with a continuum of intermediate stimulus intensities. Our results revealed salience-dependent cognitive alterations that significantly influenced sensory performance. During the training phase, Fmr1-/y mice exhibited an increased choice consistency bias in low-salience trials, resulting in impaired perceptual learning. In the testing phase, Fmr1-/y mice demonstrated enhanced tactile discrimination under low-salience conditions, driven by a reduced influence of categorization during decision-making. However, increased tactile discrimination was dissociable from attention, with Fmr1-/y mice displaying attentional deficits under conditions of high cognitive load despite their enhanced tactile sensitivity. Together, our findings reveal that cognitive context critically shapes sensory phenotypes in autism. They advocate for a shift beyond traditional sensory–cognitive dichotomies to better capture the dynamic interplay between perceptual and cognitive alterations in autism.

Pupillometric and saccadic measures of affective and executive processing in anxiety

Effects of inhibitory control capacity and cognitive load on involuntary past and future thoughts: A laboratory study

Children with impulse control deficits (i.e., children with ADHD) are known to have special problems with delaying gratifications. As making if-then plans (i.e., forming implementation intentions) has been found to benefit self-control even in individuals whose action control is chronically hampered (e.g., critical samples such as patients with frontal lobe damage, the elderly), we analyzed whether delay of gratification is facilitated in children with and without ADHD who have formed respective implementation intentions. In Study 1, forty-five inpatient children with ADHD (M age = 10.7 years) increased delay of gratification performance after having formed respective implementation intentions. Study 2 replicated this finding in an outpatient sample of children with ADHD (n = 47, M age = 10.3 years) and also in a comparison group of children without ADHD (n = 40, M age = 11.3 years). Results are discussed with respect to their implications for action control in children with ADHD as well as research on implementation intentions and delay of gratification.

Childhood emotional maltreatment, anxiety, attachment, and mindfulness: Associations with facial emotion recognition