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处理的执行控制问题，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。执行控制的缺陷已被确定在几种疾病，包括精神分裂症和注意缺陷多动障碍。本研究的主要目的是开发行为方法，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，这一问题对于设计和解释其他研究领域的执行控制措施，特别是对精神障碍缺陷的研究非常重要。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的过程来解释任务转换实验中的行为。执行控制的足迹可以在启动模型无法提供完整解释的情况下看到。根据启动模型，自上而下的控制可能需要外围过程，但不是中央过程。知觉和运动过程以及注意力的定向可能需要执行处理，但记忆提取不需要。这一假设有两个具体的目的：（1）发展启动模型，并在实验中检验其基本假设，这些实验要求在记忆提取所能完成的中心任务之间进行转换。(2)通过在需要切换知觉和运动系统以及改变注意力方向的实验中测试启动模型，推动启动模型的极限。第一个目标是建立模型的有效性，第二个目标是建立模型的局限性，并为执行控制的一般模型奠定基础。

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.