Attention and Memory

执行控制是认知科学和认知神经科学基础研究的基础问题，也是包括人的因素和人体工效学在内的多个应用研究领域的基础问题。执行控制是大脑控制自己的过程，通过自我编程来执行特定的任务，监控表现的速度和准确性，调整策略，以及在任务之间切换。这项研究将扩展洛根的执行控制理论，以解决新兴文献中关于任务切换的广泛现象。与许多执行控制理论一样，洛根的理论假设了一个执行过程，即为一个从属任务编制程序，以完成特定的任务。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，并将其传输给下属，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执行控制理论，明确和具体地规定了从属过程。它采用了强大的注意和分类理论作为从属过程理论，并通过编程从属理论来描述执行控制以执行任务。这使得能够在广泛的情况下准确、定量地预测表现，包括人们从一个任务切换到另一个任务的情况。这项研究将包括三个项目。第一个将制定在不同任务之间切换所需时间的量化衡量标准。在洛根的理论中，这一切换时间代表执行人员制定新程序并将其安装在从属进程中所需的时间。第二个项目将调查短期工作记忆在执行控制中的作用。它将专注于一种新的实验程序，在该程序中，受试者被给予要执行的任务的名称，然后是要执行这些任务的刺激列表，就像一个人记住在下班回家的路上要跑的差事列表或周六下午要完成的家务列表一样。第三个项目将研究长时记忆在任务转换中的作用。它将聚焦于最近在相同刺激下执行其他任务时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切换到社交角色一样。这项研究将对执行控制的基础研究产生直接的影响。它还将对人的因素研究和工作设计产生影响。随着技术的日益进步，工作场所的人们经常被要求在同一环境中切换任务；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，并了解可以做些什么来减少这些成本，将有助于更好地设计软件、任务和作业。

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.