Working memory’s workload capacity

Heathcote, Andrew; Coleman, James R.; Eidels, Ami; Watson, Jason M.; Houpt, Joseph W.; Strayer, David L.

doi:10.3758/s13421-015-0526-2

Cited by 28 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…We were also unable to meaningfully calculate post‐error accuracy adjustments, or to compare the traditional and robust methods of measuring post‐error slowing (see Williams, Heathcote, Nesbitt, & Eidels, ) because of the lack of errors. We therefore introduced a second decision in Experiment 2 to add cognitive load and therefore increase the number of errors (Heathcote et al, ; Strayer & Johnston, ). We hoped this would allow post‐error accuracy adjustments and additional post‐error slowing measures to be meaningfully calculated.…”

Section: Interim Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive dysfunction under emotional exposure: When participants with depression symptoms show no cognitive control

Williams

Howard

Ross

et al. 2018

Australian Journal of Psychology

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Objective: Adaptive human behaviour requires cognitive control -the monitoring of actions and performance, to regulate and coordinate ongoing behaviour. Major depression is associated with neuropsychological differences in cognitive control, however behavioural experiments have failed to consistently reflect this. We explore this discrepancy. Method: Two experiments were conducted, in which participants completed an Emotional Stroop task, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to judge the font colour of a printed word. The word could have emotional or non-emotional meaning. In Experiment 2, participants judged the font colour of the word, and also identified whether any letter was italicised. This manipulation was designed to induce errors to facilitate analysis. Results: Depression symptoms are linked to severe deficits in cognitive control following errors. In Experiment 1, for emotional words, major depression symptoms were associated with a failure to instigate behavioural adjustments following errors, leading to reduced performance (F(1,25) = 4.61, p = .042). For non-emotional content, we found major depression symptoms were associated with substantial adjustments following errors, mitigating reduced performance. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2 using a more robust analysis (F (1,30) = 6.45, p = .017). Conclusions: These findings suggest that under emotional priming, major depression is marked by a failure to adapt behaviour in response to relevant environmental feedback. This work has implications for interpreting prior and future scientific findings, and may also inform clinical applications for depression treatment.

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Section: Interim Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive dysfunction under emotional exposure: When participants with depression symptoms show no cognitive control

Williams

Howard

Ross

et al. 2018

Australian Journal of Psychology

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“…Therefore, in the current study, we compared HRV in two different groups: In a group in which participants had to engage in a cognitively demanding bimodal 2-back task (i.e. Gatekeeper task group [27,28]; and a Documentary-viewing group in which participants watched emotionally neutral documentary films without any specific task. The 2-back task chosen was the recently developed Gatekeeper task [27,28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced cardiac vagal tone in mental fatigue: Analysis of heart rate variability in Time-on-Task, recovery, and reactivity

et al. 2021

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Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has been suggested as a useful tool to assess fatigue-sensitive psychological operations. The present study uses a between and within-subject design with a cognitively demanding task and a documentary viewing condition, to examine the temporal profile of HRV during reactivity, Time-on-Task (ToT), and recovery. In the cognitive task group, participants worked on a bimodal 2-back task with a game-like character (the Gatekeeper task) for about 1.5 hours, followed by a 12-minute break, and a post-break block of performance (about 18 min). In the other group, participants watched documentaries. We hypothesized an increasing vagal-mediated HRV as a function of Time spent on the Gatekeeper task and no HRV change in the documentary viewing group. We also analyzed the trial-based post-response cardiac activity as a physiological associate of task-related motivation. Relative to the documentary-viewing, ToT was associated with an elevated level of subjective fatigue, decreased heart rate, and increased HRV, particularly in the vagal-mediated components. Based on fatigued participants’ post-error cardiac slowing, and post-error reaction time analyses, we found no evidence for motivation deficits. The present findings suggest that the parasympathetic branch of the autonomous nervous system functioning as a relaxation system tends to be activated under increasing mental fatigue. In addition, the study shows that many HRV indices also seem to change when individuals are engaged in a prolonged, less fatiguing activity (e.g. documentary viewing). This finding emphasizes the relevance of comparisons/control conditions in ToT experiments.

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“…Participants in the fatigue group performed an adapted version of the gatekeeper task (Heathcote et al, 2014(Heathcote et al, , 2015 which is a dual 2-back task with visual and auditory stimuli.…”

Section: Fatigue Group -Gatekeeper Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, in the current study, we compared the HRV functions in two different groups: a group in which participants have to engage in a cognitively demanding task (i.e. a bimodal 2back task; Heathcote et al, 2015;Heathcote et al, 2014) and a non-fatigue group in which participants watch documentary films. In the fatigue group, we hypothesized an increasing HRV (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Physiological Arousal in Mental Fatigue: Analysis of Heart Rate Variability during Time-on-task, Recovery, and Reactivity

Matuz

Linden

Kisander

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has been suggested as a useful tool to assess fatigue-sensitive psychological operations. The present study uses between and within-subject design to examine the temporal profile of HRV including the changes related to reactivity, time-on-task (ToT), and recovery on a cognitively demanding task. In the fatigue group, participants worked on a bimodal 2-back task with a game-like character (the gatekeeper task) for about 1.5 hours, followed by a 12-minute break, and a post-break block of performance (about 18 min). In the control group, participants watched documentaries. We hypothesized that mental fatigue is associated with low physiological arousal and increasing vagal-mediated HRV as a function of ToT. We also analysed the trial-based post-response cardiac activity as a physiological indicator of task-related motivation. Relative to the control, ToT was associated with an elevated level of subjective fatigue, decreased heart rate, and increased HRV most robustly in the vagal-mediated components. Based on fatigued participants’ post-error cardiac slowing, and post-error reaction time analyses, we found no evidence for motivation deficit in association with increasing HRV and ToT. The present findings support the low arousal state of mental fatigue and suggest that primarily the vagal components of the HRV spectrum are indicative of fatigue. In addition, the study provides evidence that many HRV indices might be changed not only in a fatiguing condition but also if individuals are engaged in a prolonged non-fatiguing activity. This finding emphasizes the relevance of control conditions in ToT experiments.

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Working memory’s workload capacity

Cited by 28 publications

References 62 publications

Cognitive dysfunction under emotional exposure: When participants with depression symptoms show no cognitive control

Cognitive dysfunction under emotional exposure: When participants with depression symptoms show no cognitive control

Enhanced cardiac vagal tone in mental fatigue: Analysis of heart rate variability in Time-on-Task, recovery, and reactivity

Low Physiological Arousal in Mental Fatigue: Analysis of Heart Rate Variability during Time-on-task, Recovery, and Reactivity

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