University of Granada
Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Science, Cognitive Psychology
Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC, Spain)
Cognitive Control in Language and Numerical Cognition
Fatty snacks are delicious for some people; however, it is difficult to decide you like them. In this situation, one dimension of the stimulus (fatty food is unhealthy) is incompatible with another (they taste good), conflict emerges, and cognitive control is required to answer. In this talk, we review recent work about conflict and control regulation in several areas of cognitive psychology. In the field of bilingualism, people seem to activate their first language (L1) while speaking in their second language (L2), which produces conflict between L1 and L2 representations. Coactivation occurs in numerical cognition as well, for instance, when individuals receive two-digit numbers to compare and they select the larger number. In some occasions, this task involves conflict because the comparison of decades and units leads to different responses (e.g., 47-38, where 4 > 3 but 7 < 8). As another numerical example, conflict emerges when individuals solve addition problems due to the concurrent activation of several arithmetic facts in associative memory. For instance, it is difficult to indicate that 3 + 2 = 6 is an incorrect addition because the proposed result is correct for the multiplication counterpart (3 x 2 = 6). In this talk, we propose that inhibition might be the underlying control mechanism in charge of resolving conflict in different cognitive areas. Moreover, we offer recent evidence indicating that cognitive control acts across domains as shown by conflict adaptation effects between magnitude processing and arithmetic tasks.
Recent Papers:
Macizo, P. (2016). Phonological coactivation in the bilinguals’ two languages: Evidence from the color naming task. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, 19, 361-375. doi:10.1017/S136672891500005X
Macizo, P. (2017). Conflict resolution in two-digit number processing: Evidence of an Inhibitory mechanism. Psychological Research, 81, 219-230. doi: 10.1007/s00426-015-0716-3
Megías, P., & Macizo, P. (2016). Simple arithmetic: Electrophysiological evidence of coactivation and selection of arithmetic facts. Experimental Brain Research, 234, 3305-3319. doi: 10.1007/s00221-016-4728-z
