The Continuous Goal Dynamics of Cognitive Control: Combining Behavioral Experiments and Dynamic Field Modelling.

为了在一个充满分心的世界中追求适当的目标，认知控制过程支持根据当前的启示屏蔽和切换目标。在过去的十年里，认知心理学已经对认知控制有了很多了解，但对目标表征的时间和空间动态却知之甚少。目标在工作记忆中是如何表现的，认知控制过程如何以及何时进行干预以稳定或改变这些表现？直到最近，一个离散的目标动态占上风，隐含的标准任务的离散格式的支持，也反映在建模文献。然而，事实上，它仍然是悬而未决的，如果目标也可以表示为连续的和可能重叠的表示。这可能会导致认知控制过程的启示发生根本性的变化，例如如何保持目标激活模式的稳定或如何在目标的重叠模式之间切换。为了研究时间和表征空间中的连续目标动态，该项目将把认知控制研究与工作记忆动态和动态神经场建模的研究相结合。行为实验将使用连续的任务，使目标动态的研究，由建模支持，基于动态神经场模型。通过这种结合，我们将深入了解目标驱动的行为和认知控制，限制未来的意志理论和执行功能。

To pursue appropriate goals in a world full of distraction, cognitive control processes support the shielding and switching of goals according to current affordances. While cognitive psychology has learned much about cognitive control in the last decade, much less is known about the temporal and spatial dynamics of goal representations. How are goals represented in working memory, how and when do cognitive control processes intervene to stabilize or shift these representations?Until recently, a discrete view of goal dynamics prevailed, implicitly supported by the discrete format of standard tasks and also mirrored in the modelling literature. However, in fact, it is still unresolved if goals could also be represented as continuous and possibly overlapping representations. This could lead to a radical change of the affordances to cognitive control processes, e.g. how to keep goal activations patterns stable or how to switch between overlapping patterns of goals.To investigate continuous goal dynamics in time and representational space, this project will merge the line of cognitive control research with research about working memory dynamics and dynamic neural field modelling. Behavioral experiments will use continuous tasks to enable the study of goal dynamics, supported by modelling, based on dynamic neural field models. By this combination, we will gain insight into goal driven behaviour and cognitive control, constraining future theories of volition, and executive functions.