Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Mar 27;14(1):7236. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-57800-w.
Human cognition is incredibly flexible, allowing us to thrive within diverse environments. However, humans also tend to stick to familiar strategies, even when there are better solutions available. How do we exhibit flexibility in some contexts, yet inflexibility in others? The constrained flexibility framework (CFF) proposes that cognitive flexibility is shaped by variability, predictability, and harshness within decision-making environments. The CFF asserts that high elective switching (switching away from a working strategy) is maladaptive in stable or predictably variable environments, but adaptive in unpredictable environments, so long as harshness is low. Here we provide evidence for the CFF using a decision-making task completed across two studies with a total of 299 English-speaking adults. In line with the CFF, we found that elective switching was suppressed by harshness, using both within- and between-subjects harshness manipulations. Our results highlight the need to study how cognitive flexibility adapts to diverse contexts.
人类认知具有令人难以置信的灵活性，使我们能够在各种环境中茁壮成长。然而，人类也往往坚持熟悉的策略，即使有更好的解决方案可用。我们如何在某些情况下表现出灵活性，而在其他情况下表现出不灵活性？受约束的灵活性框架（CFF）提出，决策环境中的可变性、可预测性和严酷性决定了认知灵活性。CFF 断言，在稳定或可预测的变化环境中，高选择性切换（从工作策略切换）是适应不良的，但在不可预测的环境中，如果严酷程度较低，则是适应的。在这里，我们使用一项决策任务提供了 CFF 的证据，该任务在两项共 299 名英语成年人的研究中完成。与 CFF 一致，我们发现，无论是在被试内还是被试间进行严酷性操纵，严酷性都会抑制选择性切换。我们的研究结果强调了研究认知灵活性如何适应不同环境的必要性。
