Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA.
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
Psychophysiology. 2022 Dec;59(12):e14124. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14124. Epub 2022 Jun 16.
Examining individual differences in pupil size and pupillary dynamics have revealed important insights into the nature of individual differences in cognitive abilities like working memory capacity, long-term memory, attention control, and fluid intelligence. These findings are often tied to the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, as this system has a tight temporal correlation with pupil diameter. Some recent research has demonstrated positive correlations between resting pupil size and cognitive ability, specifically fluid intelligence. The present study attempted to replicate such relations. Across three studies, a large sample of participants (N = 845) completed batteries of cognitive ability measures and measures of resting pupil size and pupillary hippus (fluctuations in pupil diameter). The cognitive measures comprised tasks previously used to measure attention control, visual short-term memory capacity, fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and visuospatial ability. At the factor level, cognitive ability and pupil size correlated near zero. We did observe some limited evidence for a negative correlation between resting pupillary hippus and cognitive ability. Given the null findings in the present data, we encourage further replication of relations between resting pupil measures and cognitive abilities before making any strong theoretical conclusions about such relations.
研究个体瞳孔大小和瞳孔动力学的差异,揭示了个体在工作记忆容量、长期记忆、注意力控制和流体智力等认知能力方面差异的重要见解。这些发现通常与蓝斑去甲肾上腺素(LC-NE)系统有关,因为该系统与瞳孔直径有紧密的时间相关性。一些最近的研究表明,静息瞳孔大小与认知能力,特别是流体智力之间存在正相关关系。本研究试图复制这些关系。在三项研究中,大量参与者(N=845)完成了认知能力测试和静息瞳孔大小及瞳孔波动(瞳孔直径的波动)测试。认知测试包括以前用于测量注意力控制、视觉短期记忆容量、流体智力、工作记忆容量和空间视觉能力的任务。在因子水平上,认知能力和瞳孔大小几乎呈零相关。我们确实观察到静息瞳孔波动与认知能力之间存在负相关的有限证据。鉴于本研究数据中的零结果,我们鼓励在对这些关系做出任何强有力的理论结论之前,进一步复制静息瞳孔测量值与认知能力之间的关系。