Executive functions in decision making: An individual differences approach

This individual differences study examined the relationships between three executive functions (updating, shifting, and inhibition), measured as latent variables, and performance on two cognitively demanding subtests of the Adult Decision Making Competence battery: Applying Decision Rules and Consistency in Risk Perception. Structural equation modelling showed that executive functions contribute differentially to performance in these two tasks, with Applying Decision Rules being mainly related to inhibition and Consistency in Risk Perception mainly associated to shifting. The results suggest that the successful application of decision rules requires the capacity to selectively focus attention and inhibit irrelevant (or no more relevant) stimuli. They also suggest that consistency in risk perception depends on the ability to shift between judgement contexts.

[1]  B. Shiv,et al.  Spontaneous versus Controlled Influences of Stimulus-Based Affect on Choice Behavior , 2002 .

[2]  J. Kagan,et al.  Rational choice in an uncertain world , 1988 .

[3]  J. Duncan.  Disorganisation of behaviour after frontal lobe damage , 1986 .

[4]  J. Cummings,et al.  Executive control function: a review of its promise and challenges for clinical research. A report from the Committee on Research of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. , 2002, The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[5]  K. Stanovich,et al.  On the relative independence of thinking biases and cognitive ability. , 2008, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  A. Jersild.  Mental set and shift , 2011 .

[7]  Edward T. Cokely,et al.  Cognitive abilities and superior decision making under risk: A protocol analysis and process model evaluation , 2009, Judgment and Decision Making.

[8]  T. Mäntylä,et al.  Time monitoring and executive functioning in children and adults. , 2007, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[9]  S. Monsell,et al.  Costs of a predictible switch between simple cognitive tasks. , 1995 .

[10]  T. Robbins,et al.  The neuropsychology of ventral prefrontal cortex: Decision-making and reversal learning , 2004, Brain and Cognition.

[11]  Wim De Neys,et al.  Conflict monitoring in dual process theories of thinking , 2008, Cognition.

[12]  D. Kumaran,et al.  Frames, Biases, and Rational Decision-Making in the Human Brain , 2006, Science.

[13]  Jonathan Evans.  In two minds: dual-process accounts of reasoning , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[14]  John W. Payne,et al.  Walking with the scarecrow: The information-processing approach to decision research. , 2008 .

[15]  T. Robbins,et al.  Decision-making processes following damage to the prefrontal cortex. , 2002, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[16]  Dylan M. Jones,et al.  Memory updating in working memory : the role of the central executive , 1990 .

[17]  A. Miyake,et al.  The relations among inhibition and interference control functions: a latent-variable analysis. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[18]  L. Schooler,et al.  The aging decision maker: cognitive aging and the adaptive selection of decision strategies. , 2007, Psychology and aging.

[19]  Jonathan Evans,et al.  Rationality and reasoning , 1996 .

[20]  M. F. Luce,et al.  Constructive Consumer Choice Processes , 1998 .

[21]  A. Miyake,et al.  Not All Executive Functions Are Related to Intelligence , 2006, Psychological science.

[22]  John W. Payne,et al.  Cognitive Considerations in Designing Effective Labels for Presenting Risk Information , 1986 .

[23]  T. Salthouse.  Relations between cognitive abilities and measures of executive functioning. , 2005, Neuropsychology.

[24]  J. Nigg.  On inhibition/disinhibition in developmental psychopathology: views from cognitive and personality psychology and a working inhibition taxonomy. , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[25]  M. Kliegel,et al.  Components of Executive Functioning in Metamemory , 2010, Applied neuropsychology.

[26]  Lars Bäckman,et al.  Transfer of Learning After Updating Training Mediated by the Striatum , 2008, Science.

[27]  Lola L. Lopes,et al.  [Advances in Experimental Social Psychology] Advances in Experimental Social Psychology Volume 20 Volume 20 || Between Hope and Fear: The Psychology of Risk , 1987 .

[28]  Gerd Gigerenzer,et al.  How do we tell an association from a rule , 1996 .

[29]  G. Logan.  On the ability to inhibit thought and action , 1984 .

[30]  Timo Mäntylä,et al.  Executive Control Functions in Simulated Driving , 2009, Applied neuropsychology.

[31]  Cesare Cornoldi,et al.  Updating in working memory: a comparison of good and poor comprehenders. , 2005, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[32]  J. Baron.  Thinking and deciding, 4th ed. , 2008 .

[33]  J. Ridley.  Studies of Interference in Serial Verbal Reactions , 2001 .

[34]  T. Klingberg,et al.  Increased prefrontal and parietal activity after training of working memory , 2004, Nature Neuroscience.

[35]  P. Whitney,et al.  Somatic markers, working memory, and decision making , 2002, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.

[36]  Keith E. Stanovich,et al.  Individual differences in rational thought. , 1998 .

[37]  Paul Slovic,et al.  Task complexity and older adults' decision-making competence. , 2005, Psychology and aging.

[38]  M. Osman.  An evaluation of dual-process theories of reasoning , 2004, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[39]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Methodology of Frontal and Executive Function , 1999 .

[40]  B. Shiv,et al.  Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making , 1999 .

[41]  Kathryn M. McMillan,et al.  N‐back working memory paradigm: A meta‐analysis of normative functional neuroimaging studies , 2005, Human brain mapping.

[42]  K. Holyoak,et al.  The Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning , 2005 .

[43]  S. Bryson,et al.  Executive function in preschoolers: a review using an integrative framework. , 2008, Psychological bulletin.

[44]  V. Reyna.  CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE How People Make Decisions That Involve Risk A Dual-Processes Approach , 2022 .

[45]  M. Denckla,et al.  A theory and model of executive function: A neuropsychological perspective. , 1996 .

[46]  Daniel Västfjäll,et al.  Adult Age Differences in Dual Information Processes: Implications for the Role of Affective and Deliberative Processes in Older Adults' Decision Making , 2007, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[47]  C. K. Mertz,et al.  Aging and decision‐making competence: an analysis of comprehension and consistency skills in older versus younger adults considering health‐plan options , 2002 .

[48]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis , 1972 .

[49]  J. Jonides,et al.  Storage and executive processes in the frontal lobes. , 1999, Science.

[50]  V. Goel.  Sketches of thought , 1995 .

[51]  Andrew M. Parker,et al.  Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/bdm.481 Decision-making Competence: External Validation through an Individual-differences Approach , 2005 .

[52]  Akira Miyake,et al.  Greater Attention Problems During Childhood Predict Poorer Executive Functioning in Late Adolescence , 2007, Psychological science.

[53]  J. Baron.  Thinking and Deciding , 2023 .

[54]  Elizabeth C. Hirschman,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[55]  Daniel Tranel,et al.  Development of the concept of "executive function" and its relationship to the frontal lobes , 1994 .

[56]  Rolph E. Anderson,et al.  Multivariate Data Analysis (7th ed. , 2009 .

[57]  A. Damasio,et al.  Severe disturbance of higher cognition after bilateral frontal lobe ablation , 1985, Neurology.

[58]  Seymour Epstein,et al.  Some basic issues regarding dual-process theories from the perspective of cognitive–experiential self-theory. , 1999 .

[59]  K. Stanovich,et al.  Heuristics and Biases: Individual Differences in Reasoning: Implications for the Rationality Debate? , 2002 .

[60]  A. Bröder.  Decision making with the "adaptive toolbox": influence of environmental structure, intelligence, and working memory load. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[61]  James R. Bettman,et al.  Issues in Designing Consumer Information Environments , 1975 .

[62]  Richard P. Larrick,et al.  Who uses the cost-benefit rules of choice? implications for the normative status of microeconomic theory , 1993 .

[63]  Andrew M. Parker,et al.  Individual differences in adult decision-making competence. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[64]  P. Whitney,et al.  Impulsive decision making and working memory. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[65]  M. Isingrini,et al.  Age related differences in metacognitive control: Role of executive functioning , 2004, Brain and Cognition.

[66]  A. Miyake,et al.  Individual differences in executive functions are almost entirely genetic in origin. , 2008, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[67]  Eric J. Johnson,et al.  The adaptive decision maker , 1993 .

[68]  A. Baddeley.  Exploring the Central Executive , 1996 .

[69]  Christopher S Martin,et al.  Executive cognitive functioning and aggressive behavior in preadolescent boys at high risk for substance abuse/dependence. , 1996, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[70]  Baruch Fischhoff,et al.  Explaining adult age differences in decision‐making competence , 2012 .

[71]  T. Salthouse,et al.  Executive functioning as a potential mediator of age-related cognitive decline in normal adults. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[72]  G. Keren,et al.  Two Is Not Always Better Than One , 2009, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[73]  I. Biederman,et al.  Mental set and mental shift revisited , 1976 .

[74]  David R Mandel,et al.  Are risk assessments of a terrorist attack coherent? , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[75]  Jonathan Evans.  Hypothetical Thinking: Dual Processes in Reasoning and Judgement , 2007 .

[76]  Gail Ramsberger,et al.  Commonalities and differences in the working memory components underlying letter and category fluency tasks: a dual-task investigation. , 2002, Neuropsychology.

[77]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[78]  B. Fasolo,et al.  Decision technology. , 2001, Annual review of psychology.

[79]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[80]  Melissa L. Finucane,et al.  Decision-Making Competence of Older Adults : Models and Methods , .

[81]  D. Kahneman.  A perspective on judgment and choice: mapping bounded rationality. , 2003, The American psychologist.

[82]  Jonathan Evans.  Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social cognition. , 2008, Annual review of psychology.

[83]  S. Sloman.  The empirical case for two systems of reasoning. , 1996 .

[84]  M. J. Emerson,et al.  The Unity and Diversity of Executive Functions and Their Contributions to Complex “Frontal Lobe” Tasks: A Latent Variable Analysis , 2000, Cognitive Psychology.