Shielding working memory from distraction is more effortful than flexible updating.

ABSTRACT: Exerting cognitive control is known to carry a subjective effort cost and people are generally biased to avoid it. Recent theorizing suggests that the cost of cognitive effort serves as a motivational signal to bias people away from excessive focusing and towards more cognitive flexibility. We asked whether the effort cost of stable distractor resistance is higher than that of non-selective flexible updating of working memory representations. We tested this prediction by using (1) a delayed response paradigm in which we manipulate demands for distractor resistance and flexible updating, as well as (2) a subsequent cognitive effort discounting paradigm that allows us to quantify subjective effort costs. We demonstrate, in two different samples (28 and 62 participants) that participants disc

SUBMITTER: Papadopetraki D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12008382 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature