Time: Saturday, October 14, 2023, 10:30
Location:  Lecture Hall 415, Building 3, Hainayuan, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University

Speaker: Bernhard Hommel

Professor, Shandong Normal University
Fellow, German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina)

Abstract

Traditional approaches to action control assume the existence of a more or less unitary control system that struggles with, and serves to overcome action tendencies induced by automatic processes. In this talk, I point out that and why these approaches fail to capture the complexity and dynamics of cognitive control. I describe an alternative approach that assumes that control emerges from the interaction of at least two counteracting forces: one system promoting persistence and the maintenance of action goals and another promoting mental and behavioral flexibility. I describe how this interaction might be shaped by various factors, including genetic predisposition, learning, personal experience, and the cultural context, and suggest a simple functional model (the Metacontrol State Model, MSM) that explains how this shaping process works. Then I provide an overview of studies from various fields that successfully tested predictions from the MSM.