Scherbaum Stefan, Frisch Simon, Holfert Anna-Maria, O'Hora Denis, Dshemuchadse Maja
Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2018 Jan;182:194-199. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.11.018. Epub 2017 Dec 5.
Cognitive control and self-control are often used as interchangeable terms. Both terms refer to the ability to pursue long-term goals, but the types of controlled behavior that are typically associated with these terms differ, at least superficially. Cognitive control is observed in the control of attention and the overcoming of habitual responses, while self-control is observed in resistance to short-term impulses and temptations. Evidence from clinical studies and neuroimaging studies suggests that below these superficial differences, common control process (e.g., inhibition) might guide both types of controlled behavior. Here, we study this hypothesis in a behavioral experiment, which interlaced trials of a Simon task with trials of an intertemporal decision task. If cognitive control and self-control depend on a common control process, we expected conflict adaptation from Simon task trials to lead to increased self-control in the intertemporal decision trials. However, despite successful manipulations of conflict and conflict adaptation, we found no evidence for this hypothesis. We investigate a number of alternative explanations of this result and conclude that the differences between cognitive control and self-control are not superficial, but rather reflect differences at the process level.
认知控制和自我控制常被用作可互换的术语。这两个术语都指追求长期目标的能力，但通常与这些术语相关联的受控行为类型至少在表面上有所不同。在注意力控制和克服习惯性反应中可观察到认知控制，而在抵制短期冲动和诱惑中可观察到自我控制。临床研究和神经成像研究的证据表明，在这些表面差异之下，共同的控制过程（如抑制）可能指导这两种受控行为。在此，我们在一项行为实验中研究这一假设，该实验将西蒙任务的试验与跨期决策任务的试验交织在一起。如果认知控制和自我控制依赖于共同的控制过程，我们预期西蒙任务试验中的冲突适应会导致跨期决策试验中的自我控制增强。然而，尽管成功操纵了冲突和冲突适应，我们并未发现支持这一假设的证据。我们研究了对这一结果的多种替代解释，并得出结论：认知控制和自我控制之间的差异并非表面的，而是反映了过程层面的差异。
