Cognitive control and attentional functions
Open accessAbstract
Cognitive control is essential to flexible, goal-directed behavior under uncertainty, yet its underlying mechanisms are not clearly understood. Because attentional functions are known to allocate mental resources and prioritize the information to be processed, we propose that the attentional functions of alerting, orienting, and executive control and the interactions among them contribute to cognitive control in the service of uncertainty reduction. To test this hypothesis, we examined the relationship between cognitive control and attentional functions. We used the Majority Function Task (MFT) to manipulate uncertainty in order to evoke cognitive control along with the Revised Attention Network Test (ANT-R) to measure the efficiency and the interactions of attentional functions. A backwards, stepwise regression model revealed that performance on the MFT could be significantly predicted by attentional functions and their interactions as measured by the ANT-R. These results provide preliminary support for our theory that the attentional functions are involved in the implementation of cognitive control as required to reduce uncertainty, though further investigation is needed.
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The test-retest reliability of ANT-R measures used in this study has been reported to be acceptable, with test-retest correlations ranging from r = 0.42-0.45 for alerting benefits to r = 0.72-0.84 for conflict costs.
“The test-retest reliability of ANT-R measures used in this study has been reported to be acceptable, with test-retest correlations ranging from r = 0.42-0.45 for alerting benefits to r = 0.72-0.84 for conflict costs (Fan et al., 2009; Mackie et al., 2013; Spagna et al., 2015).”
From Externally orienting cues improve cognitive control in OCD (2024) · cites this paper as Mackie et al., 2013
The Methods > Tasks section defines the ANT-R alerting benefit and conflict costs, and Results > Attentional functions as measured by the ANT-R reports their task effects. Neither reports test-retest reliability or the claimed correlation ranges. Searches for test-retest reliability and the specific coefficients found no supporting passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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References 71 · Cited by 235
- Authors
- Mackie, M.-A., Van Dam, N. T., & Fan, J.
- Affiliations
- Queens College, CUNY (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fan, Jin
- Venue
- Brain and Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-08
- Volume
- 82
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 301-312
- ISSN
- 0278-2626 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3722267
- OpenAlex
- W2131951285
- Cited by
- 235
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 45 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 4.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Brain and Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH094305)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- cognitive control, attention function, uncertainty reduction, alerting, orienting, executive function, attentional networks, goal-directed behavior
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Uncertainty, Young Adult
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