Date of Award

3-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in General Experimental Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Reader/Committee Chair

Reimer, Jason

Abstract

The dual mechanism of cognitive control framework (DMC) describes cognitive control via two strategies: proactive and reactive. Individuals using a proactive strategy, focus on actively maintaining goal-relevant information in memory, whereas reactive individuals store goal-relevant information and retrieve it when cues are present. Reimer and colleagues (2015, 2017) added cue-probe location shifts to the typical AX-CPT, as well as, a virtual-reality environment version of the AX-CPT. Through this, they found that the effect of location shifts vary depending on whether a proactive or reactive mode of control is utilized. Thus, the aim of the present study was to test whether the effect of location shifts on cognitive control depends on type of control strategy used. Two versions of the AX-CPT were used: shift alone and shift with no-go trials. The shift alone AX-CPT examined the influence of location shifts in proactively-biased young adults. The shift with no-go trials AX-CPT examined the influence of location shifts with a manipulation that is known to induce a reactive control strategy (Gonthier et al., 2016). It was hypothesized that cue-probe location shifts would have a differential effect on mode of control. Results demonstrated that type of AX-CPT given, cue-probe location, and type of trial presented individually influenced participant performance. There was also an interaction between AX-CPT type and trial type that provides evidence for a successful manipulation of mode of control. The hypothesized interaction between all variables, however, was not found. Possible limitations of the present study, as well as, future direction were discussed.

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