Maintenance and shifting of task-specific sets of stimulus selection in neurologically normal persons and ADHD patients

• Antragstellerinnen / Antragsteller: Professorin Dr. Caterina Gawrilow; Professor Dr. Thomas Jacobsen
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Allgemeine, Kognitive und Mathematische Psychologie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2015 bis 2020
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 274924186

The planned research project aims to explore the cognitive management of attentional constraints arising from dynamically changing demands of task-specific stimulus selection. It will focus on processes of integrating and switching between task-specific attentional sets. To this end, we will present different tasks associated with varying fits of selection demands in close succession and analyze task performance as a function of attentional constraints in the other task. In this vein, we will assess persistence and preparation of task-specific attentional sets and strategic processing adjustments depending on the context of specific task combinations. More specifically, such adjustments will be investigated contingent on the occurrence of task-specific attention-related manipulations, and on inter-task stimulus relations. Assessment of attentional processing will include determining performance costs in set-switching conditions as well as patterns of set-specific interference such as the modulation of attentional processing weights assigned to different stimulus features or dimensions. We will also apply electrophysiological recording to gain information about early stages of stimulus processing affected by attentional adjustment. Investigations will be made with normal participants as well as with patients with chronic deficits of attention (i.e., Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD). Comparing groups of participants with and without ADHD, and contrasting groups associated with different subtypes of ADHD, will provide insights into specific impairments and abnormal strategies regarding flexibility and goal-directedness of stimulus processing in dual-task situations. This project will contribute to our understanding of executive control of attentional selection in dynamically changing task environments.

• DFG-Verfahren: Schwerpunktprogramme
• Teilprojekt zu: SPP 1772: Human performance under multiple cognitive task requirements: From basic mechanisms to optimized task scheduling
• Mitverantwortlich: Professor Dr. Mike Wendt