Attention and Memory

执行控制是认知科学和认知神经科学基础研究以及包括人因学和人体工程学在内的几个应用研究领域的一个基本问题。执行控制是指大脑控制自己的过程，通过编程来完成特定的任务，监控表现的速度和准确性，调整策略，在任务之间切换。这项研究将扩展洛根的执行控制理论，以解决在任务之间切换的新兴文献中的广泛现象。像许多关于执行控制的理论一样，洛根的理论假设了一个执行过程，该过程将下属任务编程以完成特定任务。它将任务切换解释为重新编程：执行过程为即将到来的任务开发一个新程序，并将其传递给下属，就像程序员在计算机中安装新软件一样。洛根的理论超越了以往的行政控制理论，明确而具体地规定了下属过程。它采用了强大的注意和分类理论作为从属过程的理论，并通过编程从属理论来描述执行控制以执行任务。这可以精确、定量地预测在各种情况下的表现，包括人们从一项任务切换到另一项任务的情况。这项研究将包括三个项目。第一种方法是对在不同任务之间切换所需的时间进行定量测量。在洛根的理论中，这个转换时间代表了高管制定新程序并将其安装到下属流程中所需的时间。第二个项目将研究短期工作记忆在执行控制中的作用。它将重点关注一个新的实验程序，在这个程序中，受试者被告知要执行的任务的名称，然后列出执行这些任务的刺激因素，就像一个人在下班回家的路上记住一系列要做的差事，或者在周六下午记住一系列要做的家务。第三个项目将研究长期记忆在任务转换中的作用。它将关注最近在相同刺激下执行其他任务的经验所产生的竞争和干扰，就像与老板共进午餐时从工作场所角色转换到社会角色一样。本研究将对执行控制的基础研究产生直接影响。它还将对人因研究和工作设计产生影响。随着科技的不断进步，人们在工作场所经常被要求在同一环境中的不同任务之间切换；我们中的许多人在电脑屏幕上同时打开了几个窗口。了解在任务之间切换的成本，并学习如何减少成本，将有助于更好地设计软件、任务和工作。

Executive control is a fundamental issue in basic research in cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience and in several areas of applied research, including human factors and ergonomics. Executive control is the process by which the mind controls itself, programming itself to perform specific tasks, monitoring performance for speed and accuracy, adjusting strategies, and switching between tasks. This research will extend Logan's theory of executive control to address a broad range of phenomena in the burgeoning literature on switching between tasks. Like many theories of executive control, Logan's theory posits an executive process that programs a subordinate task to do specific tasks. It interprets task switching as re-programming: The executive process develops a new program for the upcoming task and transmits it to the subordinate, much like a programmer installs new software in a computer. Logan's theory goes beyond previous theories of executive control in specifying the subordinate process explicitly and specifically. It adopts a powerful theory of attention and categorization as the theory of the subordinate process, and it describes executive control in terms of programming the subordinate theory to perform tasks. This allows precise, quantitative predictions of performance in a broad range of situations, including those in which people switch from one task to another. The research will consist of three projects. The first will develop quantitative measures of the time required to switch between tasks. In Logan's theory, this switching time represents the time required for the executive to formulate a new program and install it in the subordinate process. The second project will investigate the role of short-term working memory in executive control. It will focus on a new experimental procedure in which subjects are given names of tasks to be performed and then a list of stimuli to perform them on, much like a person remembers a list of errands to be run on the way home from work or a list of chores to be done on a Saturday afternoon. The third project will examine the role of long-term memory in task switching. It will focus on competition and interference produced by recent experience with other tasks performed on the same stimuli, much like switching from workplace roles to social roles in having lunch with the boss. This research will have direct implications for basic research on executive control. It will also have implications for human factors research and job design. With increased advances in technology, people in the workplace are often required to switch between tasks in the same environment; many of us have several windows open at once on our computer screens. Understanding the costs of switching between tasks and learning what can be done to reduce them will allow better design of software, tasks, and jobs.