No need to choose: Independent regulation of cognitive stability and flexibility challenges the stability-flexibility trade-off.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive behavior requires the ability to focus on a current task and protect it from distraction (cognitive stability), as well as the ability to rapidly switch to another task in light of changing circumstances (cognitive flexibility). Cognitive stability and flexibility have been conceptualized as opposite endpoints on a stability-flexibility trade-off continuum, implying an obligatory reciprocity between the two: Greater flexibility necessitates less stability, and vice versa. Surprisingly, rigorous empirical tests of this critical assumption are lacking. Here, we acquired simultaneous measurements of cognitive stability (congruency effects) and flexibility (switch costs) on the same stimuli within the same task while independently varying contextual demands on the

SUBMITTER: Geddert R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9670017 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature