Modeling the Role of Priming in Executive Control

描述（由申请人提供）：提出的研究涉及认知处理的执行控制问题，这是认知科学，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。在包括精神分裂症和注意缺陷多动障碍在内的几种疾病中，已经发现了执行控制缺陷。这项研究的主要目标是发展行为方法，以区分真正反映执行控制的自上而下的影响和模仿执行控制的自下而上的影响。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，该模型试图纯粹从自下而上的过程来解释任务切换实验中的行为。在启动模型无法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，而中心过程则不需要。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特定的目的：(1)发展启动模型，并在需要在可以通过记忆检索执行的中心任务之间切换的实验中测试其基本假设。(2)通过在需要切换感知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，从而突破启动模型的极限。第一个目标将确定该模式的有效性，第二个目标将确定其局限性，并为行政控制的一般模式奠定基础。

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.