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![Structural equation model with a Squared attention control factor predicting fluid intelligence, complex span working memory capacity, and processing speed. The residual variance in each cognitive ability construct represents the variance in each construct after accounting for attention control. Indicators for fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and processing speed are not depicted for visual clarity (Study 2). χ2 (38) = 103.67, p < .001; CFI = .931, TLI = .900, RMSEA = .083, 90% CI [.064, .102], SRMR = .057.](profile/Alex-Burgoyne/publication/370154085/figure/fig5/AS:11431281152881789@1682189032395/Structural-equation-model-with-a-Squared-attention-control-factor-predicting-fluid.png)
Structural equation model with a Squared attention control factor predicting fluid intelligence, complex span working memory capacity, and processing speed. The residual variance in each cognitive ability construct represents the variance in each construct after accounting for attention control. Indicators for fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and processing speed are not depicted for visual clarity (Study 2). χ2 (38) = 103.67, p < .001; CFI = .931, TLI = .900, RMSEA = .083, 90% CI [.064, .102], SRMR = .057.
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Individual differences in the ability to control attention are correlated with a wide range of important outcomes, from academic achievement and job performance to health behaviors and emotion regulation. Nevertheless, the theoretical nature of attention control as a cognitive construct has been the subject of heated debate, spurred on by psychomet...
Citations
... Researchers should investigate the degree to which tasks used in neuroimaging are reliable as measures of individual differences and take steps to improve them (Blair et al., 2022). Sometimes better options are already available; for example, new versions of the Stroop and Flanker tasks have recently been designed to improve measurement of individual differences, and they show excellent internal consistency and retest reliability (Burgoyne, Tsukahara, Mashburn, Pak, & Engle, 2023). ...
... Stoop and Flanker tasks that were specifically developed to detect individual differences Burgoyne et al. (2023) 3 ...
Linking neurobiology to relatively stable individual differences in cognition, emotion, motivation, and behavior can require large sample sizes to yield replicable results. Given the nature of between-person research, sample sizes at least in the hundreds are likely to be necessary in most neuroimaging studies of individual differences, regardless of whether they are investigating the whole brain or more focal hypotheses. However, the appropriate sample size depends on the expected effect size. Therefore, we propose four strategies to increase effect sizes in neuroimaging research, which may help to enable the detection of replicable between-person effects in samples in the hundreds rather than the thousands: (1) theoretical matching between neuroimaging tasks and behavioral constructs of interest; (2) increasing the reliability of both neural and psychological measurement; (3) individualization of measures for each participant; and (4) using multivariate approaches with cross-validation instead of univariate approaches. We discuss challenges associated with these methods and highlight strategies for improvements that will help the field to move toward a more robust and accessible neuroscience of individual differences.
... In parallel, we adapted the "squared" design introduced by Burgoyne et al. [53] across all three task types. This design introduces an additional layer of hierarchical conflict by requiring responses that are congruent or incongruent with the target along multiple dimensions, extending beyond the single-axis conflict of the standard versions. ...
Cognitive control refers to the ability to flexibly coordinate thought and action in pursuit of internal goals. A standard method for assessing cognitive control involves conflict tasks that contrast congruent and incongruent trials, measuring the ability to prioritize relevant information while suppressing interference. We evaluated 108 vision-language models on three classic conflict tasks and their more demanding ”squared” variants across 2,220 trials. Model performance corresponds closely to human behavior under resource constraints and reveals individual differences. This results indicate that some form of human-like executive function—albeit limited—may have emerged in current multi-modal foun- dational models.
... The IC measures were adapted from the literature for the child population (Burgoyne et al. 2023). Two instruments, which were already validated in the Italian sample, were used to assess math achievement (Amoretti et al. 1997) and MA (Caviola et al. 2017). ...
... The three measures of IC were taken using the Stroop Task, Flanker Task, and Simon Task. Importantly, these tasks have already been used on adult participants (Burgoyne et al. 2023), so an adaptation was needed for the child population. Specifically, unlike the original ones, a cut-off of 2 minimum correct responses in the training block was added to ensure that participants understood the instructions to perform in the test block. ...
A consistent amount of research has tried to study the contributions of cognitive and emotional factors involved in math achievement. Despite this, research examining their joint role in children is scarce. In this paper, we examined the joint role of cognitive and math anxiety on math achievement in a sample of 135 seventh-grade children (54% male, Mage = 12.79, SD = 0.47). Math achievement was measured using a validated paper-and-pencil test, while higher-order cognitive abilities were assessed with a PMAs test. Working memory was evaluated through two verbal and two visuo-spatial experimental span tasks. Inhibitory control was measured using three computerized tasks adapted from the classic Stroop, Flanker, and Simon tasks. Math anxiety was assessed with an AMAS questionnaire. A series of correlation analyses and path models were conducted to understand the complex relationships among the factors. The correlations showed a positive relationship among our cognitive abilities and a negative correlation with math anxiety. The results from the path analysis showed a strong effect of higher-order cognitive abilities on math achievement (β = 0.44, p < .001) and highlighted the mediating role of working memory between math anxiety and math performance (β = −0.04, 95%CI [−0.11; −0.00]). Conversely, inhibitory control did not seem to play a crucial role in this relationship (β = −0.03, 95%CI [−0.08; 0.00]). These findings are discussed in relation to current theoretical frameworks. Interventions aimed at reducing math anxiety could help improve math achievement.
... Notably, attention control has garnered significant attention from researchers, including Engle (2002). According to Engle, the attention control ability, independent from the short-term storage function, can account for the variances among individuals in performing cognitive tasks (Burgoyne et al., 2021(Burgoyne et al., , 2022(Burgoyne et al., , 2023Conway et al., 2002;Draheim et al., 2021Draheim et al., , 2022Engle et al., 1999;Kane et al., 2001;Unsworth et al., 2004). ...
... (Unsworth et al., 2005). Three squared tasks (ThreeSquared) To assess participants' attention control ability, this study incorporated the three squared tasks (Burgoyne et al., 2023), which included the Stroop, Flanker, and Simon squared tasks. These tasks were selected due to their methodological robustness in terms of efficiency, reliability, and validity (Burgoyne et al., 2023), as well as their effectiveness in capturing individual differences in attention control (Mashburn et al., 2024). ...
... Three squared tasks (ThreeSquared) To assess participants' attention control ability, this study incorporated the three squared tasks (Burgoyne et al., 2023), which included the Stroop, Flanker, and Simon squared tasks. These tasks were selected due to their methodological robustness in terms of efficiency, reliability, and validity (Burgoyne et al., 2023), as well as their effectiveness in capturing individual differences in attention control (Mashburn et al., 2024). Given the significant correlations observed among the three squared tasks (Burgoyne et al., 2023), a latent variable or composite score can be created using the scores from each task when examining the role of attention control. ...
This study investigated the role of working memory and attention control in incidental L2 vocabulary learning from engaging in reading-while-listening. Fifty-nine Cantonese ESL learners engaged in reading-while-listening to two English stories in which twelve adjective-pseudonoun collocations appeared three times in meaningful contexts. Immediately after the reading-while-listening task and again one week later, participants completed unannounced posttests that measured their receptive and productive knowledge about the pseudonouns and their collocations. Their working memory was assessed with an automated operation span task, and attention control ability was measured with three squared tasks that consisted of Stroop, Flanker, and Simon squared tasks. The results indicated that attention control played a significant role in remembering the target pseudonoun forms and their collocational features for both recall and recognition. The working memory, by contrast, did not emerge as a determinant factor. The implications of the findings were discussed in the context of L2 vocabulary learning.
... Reliabilities did improve but, again, between-task correlations were low. Finally, Burgoyne et al. (2023) have recently introduced modified versions of the most common conflict tasks. In these tasks, participants first have to focus on the relevant dimension of the stimulus and then choose which of two response-stimuli's irrelevant dimensions matches the correct response. ...
... Although none of the factors considered above is unique to conflict tasks per se (e.g., other difference measures, such as the task switch costs, still display good reliability, see von Bastian & Druey, 2017), their combination is problematic for obtaining reliable measures in these paradigms. Furthermore, these findings highlight that even when improving the tasks' design to better suit interindividual differences research, performance in conflict tasks still display little common variance (but see Burgoyne et al., 2023, for an exception). ...
... Should we indeed abandon conflict tasks due to their poor psychometric properties (Paap et al., 2020;Rey-Mermet et al., 2018)? A recently emerging line of research is urgently posing this question, testing different ways to improve the methodologies of currently existing paradigms (Burgoyne et al., 2023;Draheim et al., 2021;Rey-Mermet et al., 2019). The present study goes beyond the methodological aspects that may limit reliability in conflict tasks and instead proposes an approach based on theoretical insights from experimental research. ...
In conflict tasks, congruency effects are thought to reflect attentional control mechanisms needed to counteract response conflict elicited by incongruent stimuli. Although congruency effects are well-replicable experimentally, recent studies have evidenced low correlations between congruency effects measured across different paradigms, leading to a heated debate over whether these low correlations indicate a lack of construct validity or are rather attributable to high measurement error, as indicated by the poor reliability typically displayed by congruency effects. In the present study, we investigated whether the poor reliabilities of congruency effects are due to their poor theoretical specification. Specifically, we tested whether the psychometric properties of congruency effects can be improved by focusing exclusively on those trials in which response conflict is theoretically expected to be highest. We considered two factors modulating the degree of response conflict: previous trial congruency, with higher conflict following congruent trials, and the time elapsed since stimulus onset, with higher conflict in fast responses. Data from 195 participants completing a Simon and a spatial Stroop paradigm showed that generally poor split-half reliabilities for the full set of trials improved greatly when excluding postincongruent and slow trials. Importantly, between-task correlations also increased substantially when controlling for these factors, suggesting that, with increased reliability, these tasks capture common attentional control ability. Our results suggest that individual differences in conflict tasks can provide valid and reliable measures of inhibition as a major component of attentional control when focusing on the trials with the theoretically highest response conflict.
... Attention Control. Participants' attention control capacity was measured using the Three-Squared Task (Burgoyne et al., 2023); however, these data are not presented here. ...
Objective: To better understand automation transparency, we experimentally isolated the effects of
additional information and decision recommendations on decision accuracy, decision time, perceived
workload, trust, and system usability.
Background: The benefits of automation transparency are well documented. Previously, however,
transparency (in the form of additional information) has been coupled with the provision of decision
recommendations, potentially decreasing decision-maker agency and promoting automation bias. It may
instead be more beneficial to provide additional information without decision recommendations to inform
operators’ unaided decision making.
Methods: Participants selected the optimal uninhabited vehicle (UV) to complete missions. Additional
display information and decision recommendations were provided but were not always accurate. The level
of additional information (no, medium, high) was manipulated between-subjects, and the provision of
recommendations (absent, present) within-subjects.
Results: When decision recommendations were provided, participants made more accurate and faster
decisions, and rated the UV system as more usable. However, recommendation provision reduced
participants’ ability to discriminate UV system information accuracy. Increased additional information led
to faster decisions, lower perceived workload, and higher trust and usability ratings but only significantly
improved decision (UV selection) accuracy when recommendations were provided.
Conclusion: Individuals scrutinized additional information more when not provided decision recommendations,
potentially indicating a higher expected value of processing that information. However,
additional information only improved performance when accompanied by recommendations to support
decisions.
Application: It is critical to understand the potential differential impact of, and interaction between,
additional display information and decision recommendations to design effective transparent automated
systems in the modern workplace.
... At the level of individual differences, attention control and working memory capacity are closely related, yet distinct constructs. In latent variable analyses, they tend to share about 50% of their variance (Burgoyne et al., 2023;Draheim et al., 2022Draheim et al., , 2024Robison et al., 2023;Robison & Unsworth, 2017Unsworth et al., 2014;Unsworth & Spillers, 2010). Given those definitions, it stands to reason that attention capture should be negatively correlated with attention control and working memory capacity: people with relatively strong attention control and high working memory capacity should show less susceptibility to attentional capture. ...
... Fortunately, there are potential ways to resolve both psychometric issues-those with measuring attention control and those with measuring attention capture. 1 First, over the past several years, major strides have been made in the improvement of measurement approaches to attention control (Burgoyne et al., 2023;Draheim et al., 2021Draheim et al., , 2024Robison et al., 2023;. These studies have demonstrated that attention control can be measured reliably, both within and across measurement occasions, and the measures intercorrelate to the extent that they form a coherent latent-level factor. ...
Attention capture is an important mechanism that can be important for alerting one to danger, but other times, it is expedient to block distracting information from intrusion. In this experiment, we used an additional singleton paradigm to measure attention capture. Rather than solely using the subtraction method to measure the capture effect, we incorporated eye tracking to provide potentially more reliable measures of overt attention. We calculated multiple dependent variables based on the scan path and estimated a capture effect for each participant using linear mixed effects modeling, which yielded a more reliable measure than the subtraction method. The eye-tracking measures were in fact more reliable than other reaction time indicators of capture. Surprisingly, the reaction time effect was not correlated with dwell time on the distractor, distraction probability, or probability of the first saccade landing on the distractor, but the more reliable mixed model capture effect correlated with dwell time. Finally, we measured individual differences in working memory capacity and attention control with an independent set of measures. Neither working memory capacity nor attention control correlated with either reaction time capture effect, but dwell time on the distractor and verification time were negatively correlated with both.
... Flanker Square. The Flanker square task was one of the tasks modified from the Flanker task (Burgoyne et al., 2023). In each trial of the Flanker square task, participants were presented with a target stimulus alongside two possible responses. ...
... Simon Square. The Simon square task was one of the tasks modified from the Simon task (Burgoyne et al., 2023). In each trial of the Simon square task, participants were presented with a target stimulus and two response options. ...
Individual differences in working memory predict a wide range of cognitive abilities. However, little research has been done on whether working memory continues to predict task performance after repetitive learning. Here, we tested whether working memory ability continued to predict long-term memory (LTM) performance for picture sequences even after participants showed massive learning. In Experiments 1–3, subjects performed a source memory task in which they were presented a sequence of 30 objects shown in one of four quadrants and then were tested on each item’s position. We repeated this procedure for five times in Experiment 1 and 12 times in Experiments 2 and 3. Interestingly, we discovered that individual differences in working memory continually predicted LTM accuracy across all repetitions. In Experiment 4, we replicated the stable working memory demands with word pairs. In Experiment 5, we generalized the stable working memory demands model to attentional control abilities. Together, these results suggest that people, instead of relying less on working memory, optimized their working memory and attentional control throughout learning.
... Further, neo-Piagetian theories [11,12] and the executive attention view of WMC [13][14][15][16] have also underlined the role of WMC as a domain-general mechanism that explains individual differences in cognitive development and complex cognition in general. Additionally, processing speed has been associated with age-related cognitive changes throughout the life-span [17]. ...
... Furthermore, the ability to keep relevant information active while suppressing distractions is recognized as central to WMC [37]. Consequently, WMC is also regarded as the strength of the executive attention system [38], which is responsible for maintaining and retrieving relevant information under conditions of interference as maintained by the executive attention view of WMC [10,[14][15][16][39][40][41]. ...
... Regarding the structure and organization of inhibitory abilities, confirmatory factor analysis results indicated the suitability of a configural invariance model with a common single factor for inhibitory functions, which is invariant across ages. Thus, our findings suggest some commonality between the three postulated inhibitory constructs, as general inhibition [123] and the executive attention view of WMC [14,15,124,125] have been proposed. Therefore, our results corroborated neither the early dissociation between response inhibition and resistance to distractor interference found by [67,68] nor the dissociation between response-distractor and cognitive inhibition found by [69] in children and [30] in young adults. ...
The main purpose of this study was to examine the age-related changes in inhibitory control of 450 children at the ages of 7–8, 11–12, and 14–16 when controlling for working memory capacity (WMC) and processing speed to determine whether inhibition is an independent factor far beyond its possible reliance on the other two factors. This examination is important for several reasons. First, empirical evidence about age-related changes of inhibitory control is controversial. Second, there are no studies that explore the organization of inhibitory functions by controlling for the influence of processing speed and WMC in these age groups. Third, the construct of inhibition has been questioned in recent research. Multigroup confirmatory analyses suggested that inhibition can be organized as a one-dimension factor in which processing speed and WMC modulate the variability of some inhibition tasks. The partial reliance of inhibitory processes on processing speed and WMC demonstrates that the inhibition factor partially explains the variance of inhibitory tasks even when WMC and processing speed are controlled and some methodological concerns are addressed.
... To compensate for this limitation at least partially, we have made sure to select cognitive tasks with attested internal and external validity (Draheim et al., 2021(Draheim et al., , 2023. It is worth mentioning that modified attention control tasks with good psychometric properties and significantly shorter administration time have recently emerged, which might offer a promising avenue for future research (see Burgoyne et al., 2023). ...
The comprehension of irony involves a sophisticated inferential process requiring language users to go beyond the literal meaning of an utterance. Because of its complex nature, we hypothesized that working memory (WM) and fluid intelligence, the two main components of executive attention, would be involved in the understanding of irony: the former by maintaining focus and relevant information active during processing, the latter by disengaging irrelevant information and offering better problem-solving skills. In this eye-tracking reading experiment, we investigated how adults (N = 57) process verbal irony, based on their executive attention skills. The results indicated a null (or indirect) effect for WM, while fluid intelligence directly modulated the comprehension and processing of irony during reading. As fluid intelligence is an important individual-difference variable, the findings pave the way for future research on developmental and clinical populations who tend to struggle with nonliteral language.
