Mental sets are high-level representations that regulate lower-level selection of action. Despite the relevance of mental sets for coherent and purposeful action, relatively little is known about how they are selected and maintained in the face of internal or external interference. The central thesis of this proposal is that a better understanding of set-level processes can be attained by looking at interactions between mental sets and lower-level representations that constrain action in a bottom-up manner (i.e., locations of stimuli or response keys). Specifically, an automatic process is proposed that binds action-related lower-level representations (e.g., stimulus or response locations) to the mental set that is in control of the action. Bindings between set-level and low-level codes should usually be in the service of stable and coherent goal-directed action. However, such bindings may get in the way of efficient control when the association between low-level and high-level codes is ambiguous or highly variable. In particular, problems should occur when high-level control is impaired, as in some patient groups and, albeit to lesser degree also in the context of normal aging. Interference elicited from bindings between high-level and low-level codes may also lie at the heart of executive-control deficits observed in old adults. Therefore, in a majority of the proposed experiments I suggest to explore the hypothesis that old adults are much more negatively affected by ambiguous mappings between low-level and set-level aspects than young adults. Such a result would point to age-related difficulties with """"""""keeping apart"""""""" high-level representations that share low-level elements. The proposed project promises a bridge between lower-level perceptual/attentional processes and executive processes as well as answers to the important question of age differences in executive control.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AG019296-04
Application #
6898808
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-4 (01))
Program Officer
Wagster, Molly V
Project Start
2002-06-01
Project End
2007-05-31
Budget Start
2005-07-01
Budget End
2007-05-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$145,193
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Oregon
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
948117312
City
Eugene
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97403
Mayr, Ulrich (2010) The surface structure and the deep structure of sequential control: what can we learn from task span switch costs? Psychon Bull Rev 17:693-8
Mayr, Ulrich (2009) Sticky plans: Inhibition and binding during serial-task control. Cogn Psychol 59:123-53
Mayr, Ulrich; Bryck, Richard L (2007) Outsourcing control to the environment: effects of stimulus/response locations on task selection. Psychol Res 71:107-16
Harbaugh, William T; Mayr, Ulrich; Burghart, Daniel R (2007) Neural responses to taxation and voluntary giving reveal motives for charitable donations. Science 316:1622-5
Mayr, Ulrich; Bell, Theodor (2006) On how to be unpredictable: evidence from the voluntary task-switching paradigm. Psychol Sci 17:774-80
Spieler, Daniel H; Mayr, Ulrich; LaGrone, Susan (2006) Outsourcing cognitive control to the environment: adult age differences in the use of task cues. Psychon Bull Rev 13:787-93
Mayr, Ulrich; Diedrichsen, Jorn; Ivry, Richard et al. (2006) Dissociating task-set selection from task-set inhibition in the prefrontal cortex. J Cogn Neurosci 18:14-21
Foroni, Francesco; Mayr, Ulrich (2005) The power of a story: new, automatic associations from a single reading of a short scenario. Psychon Bull Rev 12:139-44
Mayr, Ulrich; Awh, Edward; Laurey, Paul (2003) Conflict adaptation effects in the absence of executive control. Nat Neurosci 6:450-2
Mayr, Ulrich; Kliegl, Reinhold (2003) Differential effects of cue changes and task changes on task-set selection costs. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 29:362-72