CAREER: Validating and applying a new class of drift-diffusion models for investigating individual differences in executive control

执行功能是指控制和指导自己的心理过程的能力，这对日常行为至关重要。 了解某些人如何以及为什么表现出执行能力的障碍，如集中注意力和抑制行动，对于行为和认知科学许多领域的研究人员来说都很重要。 这些功能通常通过测量一个人完成不同心理任务的速度和准确性来研究。 然而，这些任务中的行为可能会受到执行功能之外的多个过程的影响，这使得测量这些功能中的个体差异变得困难。 这个问题是解决在目前的研究使用认知模型。 这些模型可以将行为分解为不同的心理成分，从而更深入地了解个体在控制心理过程的能力方面如何以及为什么不同。 这项研究将开发和测试执行功能的新模型。这些模型将为研究认知功能及其在个体之间的差异提供一类新的工具。研究人员将提供公开的统计数据包，允许其他研究人员在自己的研究中使用它们。 由于执行功能任务广泛应用于心理学和神经科学的不同领域，这些模型将通过提供用于分析行为数据的测试工具来广泛影响我们对执行控制的理解。 本研究的主要目的是确定哪些计算模型，现有的或将被开发，提供最好的理论帐户的处理执行功能任务。 竞争模型将根据一系列执行功能任务的行为和模拟数据进行测试，这些任务旨在测量冲突处理，抑制控制和选择性注意力。 每个任务都将包括对不同认知组件的有针对性的操作，以提供对模型的严格测试。 成功的模型将根据其将行为数据分解为其组成认知组件的能力进行评估，特别是在可以收集有限行为数据的现实情况下。 一旦确定了最佳模式，将把它们编制成一套统计资料，供公众分发。 最后，将提供教程和示例数据集，使研究人员更容易将基于模型的分析纳入自己的研究。 总的来说，研究将1）确定哪些模型最适合分析执行功能任务的数据，2）确定可以使用模型的实验条件，3）为研究人员在自己的研究中使用模型提供软件包和说明。

Executive function refers to the ability to control and direct one's own mental processes, which is crucial for everyday behavior. Understanding how and why certain individuals show impairments in executive abilities like focusing attention and inhibiting actions is important for researchers in many areas of behavioral and cognitive sciences. These functions are typically studied by measuring how quickly and accurately an individual can complete different psychological tasks. However, behavior in such tasks can be affected by multiple processes outside of executive function, making the measurement of individual differences in these functions difficult. This problem is addressed in the current research using cognitive models. These models can break down behavior into different psychological components, allowing a deeper understanding of how and why individuals differ in the ability to control their mental processes. This research will develop and test new models of executive function. These models will provide a new class of tools for investigating cognitive function and how it differs across individuals. The researcher will provide publicly-available statistical packages that allow other researchers to use them in their own studies. As executive function tasks are widely used across different domains in psychology and neuroscience, these models will broadly affect our understanding of executive control by providing tested tools for analyzing behavioral data. The primary objective of this research is to determine which computational models, existing or to be developed, provide the best theoretical account of processing in executive function tasks. Competing models will be tested against behavioral and simulated data from a range of executive function tasks meant to measure conflict processing, inhibitory control, and selective attention. Each task will include targeted manipulations of different cognitive components to provide rigorous tests of the models. Successful models will then be evaluated in terms of their ability to decompose behavioral data into its constituent cognitive components, especially in real-world situations where limited behavioral data can be collected. Once the best models have been identified, they will be developed into a statistical package for public distribution. Finally, tutorials and example data sets will be provided to make it easier for researchers to incorporate the model-based analysis into their own research. Overall the research will 1) identify which models are best for analyzing data from executive function tasks, 2) determine the experimental conditions under which the models can be used, and 3) provide packages and instructions for researchers to use the models in their own studies.