Randall W. Engle’s research while affiliated with Georgia Institute of Technology and other places

Objective: This study examined how cognitive abilities – working memory (WM), attention control (AC), fluid intelligence (Gf) – were related to the dynamics of trust. Background: Prior research has highlighted the potential importance of individual difference factors such as working memory capacity on trust in automation (e.g., Rovira, Pak, McLaughlin, 2017). However, the specific dynamics of trust change and how it is influenced by cognitive abilities are unknown. Method: Participants completed a series of cognitive ability tests and a computer-based automation task. Trust was measured at three different time points. Results: WM and Gf significantly predicted trust recovery. Trust decline was unrelated to any ability. Conclusion: These findings further support the notion that trust in automation is related to cognitive abilities, and suggest that each cognitive ability influences the dynamics of trust differently. Application: Future automation designs should support cognitive abilities that are linked to the dynamics of trust, such as initial trust formation and trust recovery. Enhancing these specific cognitive processes related to trust enables users to calibrate their trust more accurately.

Early work on selective attention used auditory-based tasks, such as dichotic listening, to shed light on capacity limitations and individual differences in these limitations. Today, there is great interest in individual differences in attentional abilities, but the field has shifted towards visual-modality tasks. Furthermore, most conflict-based tests of attention control lack reliability due to low signal-to-noise ratios and the use of difference scores. Critically, it is unclear to what extent attention control generalizes across sensory modalities, and without reliable auditory-based tests, an answer to this question will remain elusive. To this end, we developed three auditory-based tests of attention control that use an adaptive response deadline (DL) to account for speed–accuracy trade-offs: Auditory Simon DL, Auditory Flanker DL, and Auditory Stroop DL. In a large sample (N = 316), we investigated the psychometric properties of the three auditory conflict tasks, tested whether attention control is better modeled as a unitary factor or modality-specific factors, and estimated the extent to which unique variance in modality-specific factors contributed incrementally to the prediction of dichotic listening and multitasking performance. Our analyses indicated that the auditory conflict tasks have strong psychometric properties and demonstrate convergent validity with visual tests of attention control. Auditory and visual attention control factors were highly correlated (r = .81)—even after controlling for perceptual processing speed (r = .75). Modality-specific attention control factors accounted for unique variance in modality-matched criterion measures, but the majority of the explained variance was modality-general. The results suggest an interplay between modality-general attention control and modality-specific processing.

Memory is essential for everyday life. The understanding and study of memory has continued to grow over the years, thanks to well controlled laboratory studies and theory development. However, major challenges arise when attempting to apply theories of memory function to practical problems in society. A theory might be robust in explaining experimental data but fail to capture all that is important when taken out of the lab. The good news is that the application of memory in science to challenges in society is rapidly expanding. In Memory in Science for Society leading international researchers share their passion for combining memory in science with applications of that science to a wide range of challenges in society. Chapters demonstrate how that scientific passion has addressed challenges in education, life attainment, second language learning, remembering life events and faces of strangers, future planning and decision making, lifespan cognitive development and age-related cognitive decline, following instructions, and assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive impairment following brain damage. Written and edited by the leading researchers in the field, this book offers an important and influential addition to the memory literature, providing a new and comprehensive focus on the connection between theory and practice in memory and society.

Memory is essential for everyday life. The understanding and study of memory has continued to grow over the years, thanks to well controlled laboratory studies and theory development. However, major challenges arise when attempting to apply theories of memory function to practical problems in society. A theory might be robust in explaining experimental data but fail to capture all that is important when taken out of the lab. The good news is that the application of memory in science to challenges in society is rapidly expanding. In Memory in Science for Society leading international researchers share their passion for combining memory in science with applications of that science to a wide range of challenges in society. Chapters demonstrate how that scientific passion has addressed challenges in education, life attainment, second language learning, remembering life events and faces of strangers, future planning and decision making, lifespan cognitive development and age-related cognitive decline, following instructions, and assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive impairment following brain damage. Written and edited by the leading researchers in the field, this book offers an important and influential addition to the memory literature, providing a new and comprehensive focus on the connection between theory and practice in memory and society.

Memory is essential for everyday life. The understanding and study of memory has continued to grow over the years, thanks to well controlled laboratory studies and theory development. However, major challenges arise when attempting to apply theories of memory function to practical problems in society. A theory might be robust in explaining experimental data but fail to capture all that is important when taken out of the lab. The good news is that the application of memory in science to challenges in society is rapidly expanding. In Memory in Science for Society leading international researchers share their passion for combining memory in science with applications of that science to a wide range of challenges in society. Chapters demonstrate how that scientific passion has addressed challenges in education, life attainment, second language learning, remembering life events and faces of strangers, future planning and decision making, lifespan cognitive development and age-related cognitive decline, following instructions, and assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive impairment following brain damage. Written and edited by the leading researchers in the field, this book offers an important and influential addition to the memory literature, providing a new and comprehensive focus on the connection between theory and practice in memory and society.

Memory is essential for everyday life. The understanding and study of memory has continued to grow over the years, thanks to well controlled laboratory studies and theory development. However, major challenges arise when attempting to apply theories of memory function to practical problems in society. A theory might be robust in explaining experimental data but fail to capture all that is important when taken out of the lab. The good news is that the application of memory in science to challenges in society is rapidly expanding. In Memory in Science for Society leading international researchers share their passion for combining memory in science with applications of that science to a wide range of challenges in society. Chapters demonstrate how that scientific passion has addressed challenges in education, life attainment, second language learning, remembering life events and faces of strangers, future planning and decision making, lifespan cognitive development and age-related cognitive decline, following instructions, and assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive impairment following brain damage. Written and edited by the leading researchers in the field, this book offers an important and influential addition to the memory literature, providing a new and comprehensive focus on the connection between theory and practice in memory and society.

Memory is essential for every day life. The understanding and study of memory has continued to grow over the years, thanks to well controlled laboratory studies and theory development. However, major challenges arise when attempting to apply theories of memory function to practical problems in society. A theory might be robust in explaining experimental data but fail to capture all that is important when taken out of the lab. The good news is that the application of memory in science to challenges in society is rapidly expanding, and Memory in Science for Society bridges that gap. Inspired by the synergy between theory and application in memory research, leading international researchers share their passion for combining memory in science with applications of that science to a wide range of challenges in society. Chapters demonstrate how that scientific passion has addressed challenges in education, life attainment, second language learning, remembering life events and faces of strangers, future planning and decision making, lifespan cognitive development and age-related cognitive decline, following instructions, and assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive impairment following brain damage. Written and edited by the leading researchers in the field, the book will be an important and influential addition to the memory literature, providing a new and comprehensive focus on the connection between theory and practice in memory and society. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/memory-in-science-for-society-9780192849069?q=robert%20logie&lang=en&cc=gb

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 psychometric issues that have stymied efforts to reliably measure differences in the ability to control attention. For theory to advance, our measures must improve. We introduce three efficient, reliable, and valid tests of attention control that each take less than three minutes to administer: Stroop Squared, Flanker Squared, and Simon Squared. Two studies (online and in-lab) comprising more than 600 participants demonstrate that the three “Squared” tasks have great internal consistency (avg. = .95) and test-retest reliability across sessions (avg. r = .67). Latent variable analyses revealed that the Squared tasks loaded highly on a common factor, which was strongly correlated with an attention control factor based on established measures (avg. r = .81). Moreover, attention control correlated strongly with fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and processing speed, and helped explain their covariation. We found that the Squared attention control tasks accounted for 75% of the variance in multitasking ability at the latent level, and that fluid intelligence, attention control, and processing speed fully accounted for individual differences in multitasking ability. Our results suggest that Stroop Squared, Flanker Squared, and Simon Squared are reliable and valid indicators of attention control. The tasks are freely available online (https://osf.io/7q598/).

For years, psychologists have wondered why people who are highly skilled in one cognitive domain tend to be skilled in other cognitive domains, too. In this article, we explain how attention control provides a common thread between higher-order cognitive abilities, including fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and sensory discrimination. Attention control allows us to pursue our goals in spite of distractions and temptations, to deviate from the habitual, and to keep information in mind amidst a maelstrom of divergent thought. Highlighting results from our lab, we describe the role of attention control in information maintenance and disengagement, and how these functions contribute to performance in a variety of complex cognitive tasks. We also describe a recent undertaking in which we developed new and improved attention control tasks, which had higher reliabilities, stronger inter-correlations, and higher loadings on a common factor than traditional measures. From an applied perspective, these new attention control tasks show great promise for use in personnel selection assessments. We close by outlining exciting avenues for future research.