Modeling the Role of Priming in Executive Control

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议的研究解决了认知过程的执行控制问题，这些问题是认知科学、认知神经科学、寿命发展和个体差异基础研究的核心。这些问题对心理健康有直接影响。执行控制缺陷已经在几种障碍中被发现，包括精神分裂症和注意缺陷多动障碍。这项研究的主要目标是开发行为方法，以区分真正反映执行控制的自上而下效应和模仿执行控制的自下而上效应。这个问题对于设计和解释其他研究领域的执行控制措施很重要，特别是对精神障碍缺陷的研究。区分自上而下和自下而上效应的目标将通过开发和评估一个启动模型来实现，该模型试图纯粹根据自下而上过程来解释任务切换实验中的行为。在启动模型未能提供完整解释的情况下，可以看到执行控制的足迹。根据启动模型，外围过程可能需要自上而下的控制，但中央过程不需要。知觉和运动过程以及注意力定向可能需要执行处理，但记忆提取不需要。这一假设导致了两个具体的目标：(1)发展启动模型，并在需要通过记忆提取在中央任务之间进行切换的实验中检验其基本假设。(2)通过在需要切换知觉和运动系统以及改变注意方向的实验中对启动模型进行测试，以达到启动模型的极限。第一个目标将确定模型的有效性，第二个目标将确定其局限性，并为建立一个通用的执行控制模型奠定基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research addresses issues in executive control of cognitive processing that are central in basic research in cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, lifespan development, and individual differences. These issues have direct implications for mental health. Deficits in executive control have been identified in several disorders, including schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The main goal of the research is to develop behavioral methods for distinguishing between top-down effects that truly reflect executive control and bottom-up effects that mimic it. This issue is important in designing and interpreting measures of executive control in other areas of research, especially research on deficits in mental disorders. The goal of distinguishing top-down from bottom-up effects will be accomplished by developing and evaluating a priming model that attempts to account for behavior in task-switching experiments purely in terms of bottom-up processes. The footprints of executive control may be seen in the situations in which the priming model fails to provide a complete account. According to the priming model, top-down control may be required for peripheral processes but not for central processes. Perceptual and motor processes and orienting of attention may require executive processing, but memory retrieval does not. This hypothesis leads to two specific aims: (1) To develop the priming model and test its fundamental assumptions in experiments that require switching between central tasks that can be performed by memory retrieval. (2) To push the limits of the priming model by testing it in experiments that require switching perceptual and motor systems and changing the orientation of attention. The first aim will establish the validity of the model, the second will establish its limits and set the stage for a general model of executive control.