Attention Control: A Cornerstone of Higher-Order Cognition
Abstract
For years, psychologists have wondered why people who are highly skilled in one cognitive domain tend to be skilled in other cognitive domains, too. In this article, we explain how attention control provides a common thread among broad cognitive abilities, including fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and sensory discrimination. Attention control allows us to pursue our goals despite distractions and temptations, to deviate from the habitual, and to keep information in mind amid a maelstrom of divergent thought. Highlighting results from our lab, we describe the role of attention control in information maintenance and disengagement and how these functions contribute to performance in a variety of complex cognitive tasks. We also describe a recent undertaking in which we developed new and improved attention-control tasks, which had higher reliabilities, stronger intercorrelations, and higher loadings on a common factor than traditional measures. From an applied perspective, these new attention-control tasks show great promise for use in personnel selection assessments. We close by outlining exciting avenues for future research.
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Updating measures differ from working memory capacity measures mainly in how much they emphasize disengagement from outdated information.
“What distinguishes updating measures from working memory capacity measures is their relative emphasis on disengagement from outdated information”
From Which “working memory” are we talking about? Complex span tasks versus N-back (2025) · cites this paper as Burgoyne & Engle, 2020
The disengagement hypothesis treats maintenance and disengagement as two critical factors linking executive functioning to fluid intelligence.
“This framework views maintenance and disengagement as two critical factors linking executive functioning to fluid intelligence (Burgoyne & Engle, 2020;Burgoyne et al., 2019;Hambrick & Altmann, 2015;Shipstead et al., 2016).”
From Which “working memory” are we talking about? Complex span tasks versus N-back (2025) · cites this paper as Burgoyne & Engle, 2020
Attention control supports both maintenance and disengagement.
“Attention control supports both maintenance and disengagement (Burgoyne & Engle, 2020;Shipstead et al., 2016).”
From Which “working memory” are we talking about? Complex span tasks versus N-back (2025) · cites this paper as Burgoyne & Engle, 2020
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Which “working memory” are we talking about? Complex span tasks versus N-back
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- Authors
- Burgoyne, A. P., & Engle, R. W.
- Affiliations
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Engle, Randall W.
- Venue
- Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-11-23
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 624-630
- ISSN
- 0963-7214 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8721
- OpenAlex
- W3107034018
- Cited by
- 186
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 17.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Directions in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Office of Naval Research (N00173-20-2-C003, N00173-20-P-0135)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- attentional control, fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, sensory discrimination, information maintenance, attentional disengagement, cognitive ability, personnel selection, task reliability
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