Continuous goal representations: Distance in representational space affects goal switching.

ABSTRACT: Theorists across all fields of psychology consider goals crucial for human action control. Still, the question of how precisely goals are represented in the cognitive system is rarely addressed. Here, we explore the idea that goals are represented as distributed patterns of activation that coexist within continuous mental spaces. In doing so, we discuss and extend popular models of cognitive control and goal-directed behavior, which implicitly convey an image of goals as discrete representational units. To differentiate empirically between discrete and continuous formats of goal representation, we employed a set-shifting paradigm in which participants switched between color goals that varied systematically in their distance in representational space. Across three experiments, we found that

SUBMITTER: Senftleben U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12402036 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature