No relation of Need for Cognition to basic executive functions

The benefit of extrinsic motivation on effortful cognitive control is influenced by need for cognition

Extrinsic motivation can foster effortful cognitive control. Moreover, the selective coupling of extrinsic motivation on low- versus high-control demands tasks would exert an additional impact. However, to what extent their influences are further modulated by the level of Need for Cognition (NFC) remains unclear. Thus, the current study sought to address this question. To this end, we conducted two behavioral experiments wherein cognitive control was triggered by the confound-minimized Stroop task and the NFC questionnaire was administered. Two different forms of extrinsic motivation were manipulated at the block level. In Experiment 1, extrinsic motivation was triggered by evaluative feedback. In Experiment 2, extrinsic motivation was triggered by reward incentives, while evaluative feedback was selectively coupled with low (congruent)- or high (incongruent)- control demands trials. The results indicated that two forms of extrinsic motivation (evaluative feedback vs. reward incentives) presented distinctive effects on effortful cognitive control; while their benefits on overall performance were further influenced by NFC. Interestingly, when incongruent rather than congruent trials were selectively coupled with reward incentives, not only conflict processing, but also overall performance for low-NFC participants only, benefited from this scenario. Taken together, the current study shows that extrinsic motivation can boost cognitive control, which gain was further reduced by high NFC.

Yes, I Can: The Interplay of Need for Cognition and Task Confidence in Cognitive Task Performance

Need for Cognition (NFC) refers to the enjoyment of and the search for intellectual challenges. Although numerous studies suggest associations between NFC and cognitive performance, the processes and factors that may mediate the relationship are not yet well understood. Based on the literature suggesting that self-efficacy (SE) expectancies mediate the relationship between NFC and cognitive performance, we sought to investigate this relationship systematically under controlled laboratory conditions. Additionally, we were interested in whether the visibility of the test subject's performance to others (i.e., the experimenter) would influence these correlations. After an online questionnaire assessing NFC, 204 participants completed a set of highly demanding intelligence tasks in the laboratory. Following the sample tasks and prior to working through the task battery, task-specific SE about solving the tasks was assessed. To examine the role of visibility, participants either worked alone or were observed by the investigator while completing the tasks. We found a moderate positive association between NFC and task-specific SE, as well as a significant small positive association between NFC and task performance. Further analyses indicated that the relationship between NFC and task performance is fully mediated by task-specific SE, without any moderation effects related to the visibility of one's own task performance to others. Our study suggests that the relationship between NFC and cognitive performance is also due to the positive influence of NFC on task-specific SE, which in turn influences cognitive performance.

Associations of an individual's need for cognition with structural brain damage and cognitive functioning/impairment: cross-sectional population-based study

BACKGROUND

High cognitive activity possibly reduces the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

AIMS

To investigate associations between an individual's need to engage in cognitively stimulating activities (need for cognition, NFC) and structural brain damage and cognitive functioning in the Dutch general population with and without existing cognitive impairment.

METHOD

Cross-sectional data were used from the population-based cohort of the Maastricht Study. NFC was measured using the Need For Cognition Scale. Cognitive functioning was tested in three domains: verbal memory, information processing speed, and executive functioning and attention. Values 1.5 s.d. below the mean were defined as cognitive impairment. Standardised volumes of white matter hyperintensities (WMH), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and presence of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) were derived from 3T magnetic resonance imaging. Multiple linear and binary logistic regression analyses were used adjusted for demographic, somatic and lifestyle factors.

RESULTS

Participants (n = 4209; mean age 59.06 years, s.d. = 8.58; 50.1% women) with higher NFC scores had higher overall cognition scores (B = 0.21, 95% CI 0.17-0.26, P < 0.001) and lower odds for CSVD (OR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.60-0.91, P = 0.005) and cognitive impairment (OR = 0.60, 95% CI 0.48-0.76, P < 0.001) after adjustment for demographic, somatic and lifestyle factors. The association between NFC score and cognitive functioning was similar for individuals with and without prevalent cognitive impairment. We found no significant association between NFC and WMH or CSF volumes.

CONCLUSIONS

A high need to engage in cognitively stimulating activities is associated with better cognitive functioning and less presence of CSVD and cognitive impairment. This suggests that, in middle-aged individuals, motivation to engage in cognitively stimulating activities may be an opportunity to improve brain health.

Need for cognition moderates the relief of avoiding cognitive effort

When making decisions, humans aim to maximize rewards while minimizing costs. The exertion of mental or physical effort has been proposed to be one those costs, translating into avoidance of behaviors carrying effort demands. This motivational framework also predicts that people should experience positive affect when anticipating demand that is subsequently avoided (i.e., a "relief effect"), but evidence for this prediction is scarce. Here, we follow up on a previous study [1] that provided some initial evidence that people more positively evaluated outcomes if it meant they could avoid performing an additional demanding task. However, the results from this study did not provide conclusive evidence that this effect was driven by effort avoidance. Here, we report two experiments that are able to do this. Participants performed a gambling task, and if they did not receive reward they would have to perform an orthogonal effort task. Prior to the gamble, a cue indicated whether this effort task would be easy or hard. We probed hedonic responses to the reward-related feedback, as well as after the subsequent effort task feedback. Participants reported lower hedonic responses for no-reward outcomes when high vs. low effort was anticipated (and later exerted). They also reported higher hedonic responses for reward outcomes when high vs. low effort was anticipated (and avoided). Importantly, this relief effect was smaller in participants with high need for cognition. These results suggest that avoidance of high effort tasks is rewarding, but that the size off this effect depends on the individual disposition to engage with and expend cognitive effort. They also raise the important question of whether this disposition alters the cost of effort per se, or rather offset this cost during cost-benefit analyses.

Cognitive effort investment: Does disposition become action?

Contrary to the law of less work, individuals with high levels of need for cognition and self-control tend to choose harder tasks more often. While both traits can be integrated into a core construct of dispositional cognitive effort investment, its relation to actual cognitive effort investment remains unclear. As individuals with high levels of cognitive effort investment are characterized by a high intrinsic motivation towards effortful cognition, they would be less likely to increase their effort based on expected payoff, but rather based on increasing demand. In the present study, we measured actual effort investment on multiple dimensions, i.e., subjective load, reaction time, accuracy, early and late frontal midline theta power, N2 and P3 amplitude, and pupil dilation. In a sample of N = 148 participants, we examined the relationship of dispositional cognitive effort investment and effort indices during a flanker and an n-back task with varying demand and payoff. Exploratorily, we examined this relationship for the two subdimensions cognitive motivation and effortful-self-control as well. In both tasks, effort indices were sensitive to demand and partly to payoff. The analyses revealed a main effect of cognitive effort investment for accuracy (n-back task), interaction effects with payoff for reaction time (n-back and flanker task) and P3 amplitude (n-back task) and demand for early frontal midline theta power (flanker task). Taken together, our results partly support the notion that individuals with high levels of cognitive effort investment exert effort more efficiently. Moreover, the notion that these individuals exert effort regardless of payoff is partly supported, too. This may further our understanding of the conditions under which person-situation interactions occur, i.e. the conditions under which situations determine effort investment in goal-directed behavior more than personality, and vice versa.

Need for cognition does not account for individual differences in metacontrol of decision making

Humans show metacontrol of decision making, that is they adapt their reliance on decision-making strategies toward situational differences such as differences in reward magnitude. Specifically, when higher rewards are at stake, individuals increase reliance on a more accurate but cognitively effortful strategy. We investigated whether the personality trait Need for Cognition (NFC) explains individual differences in metacontrol. Based on findings of cognitive effort expenditure in executive functions, we expected more metacontrol in individuals low in NFC. In two independent studies, metacontrol was assessed by means of a decision-making task that dissociates different reinforcement-learning strategies and in which reward magnitude was manipulated across trials. In contrast to our expectations, NFC did not account for individual differences in metacontrol of decision making. In fact, a Bayesian analysis provided moderate to strong evidence against a relationship between NFC and metacontrol. Beyond this, there was no consistent evidence for relationship between NFC and overall model-based decision making. These findings show that the effect of rewards on the engagement of effortful decision-making strategies is largely independent of the intrinsic motivation for engaging in cognitively effortful tasks and suggest a differential role of NFC for the regulation of cognitive effort in decision making and executive functions.

Processes Underlying the Relation between Cognitive Ability and Curiosity with Academic Performance: A Mediation Analysis for Epistemic Behavior in a Five-Year Longitudinal Study

Cognitive ability and curiosity are significant predictors of academic achievement; yet the processes underlying these relations are not well understood. I drew on ideas from the environmental enrichment hypothesis and the differential preservation hypothesis and hypothesized that epistemic behavior acts as a mediator. Longitudinal data were collected from 1964 individuals in three waves, spanning five years: cognitive ability and curiosity were assessed at time 1; epistemic behavior at time 2; at time 3, grade point average and highest degree of both secondary and tertiary academic education (if applicable) were obtained retrospectively via self-report. I found expected bivariate relations between all study variables, including a significant relation between cognitive ability and curiosity and significant relations of both of these variables with secondary academic performance. Epistemic behavior was related to curiosity and academic performance but, at odds with the hypothesis, did not mediate the relation between cognitive and personality variables and academic performance. It is concluded that the process underlying the behavioral consequences of cognitive ability and curiosity is not environmental enrichment.

Retrieval Practice Is Effective Regardless of Self-Reported Need for Cognition - Behavioral and Brain Imaging Evidence

There is an emerging consensus that retrieval practice is a powerful way to enhance long-term retention and to reduce achievement gaps in school settings. Less is known whether retrieval practice benefits performance in individuals with low intrinsic motivation to spend time and effort on a given task, as measured by self-reported need for cognition (NFC). Here, we examined retrieval practice in relation to individual differences in NFC by combining behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Using a within-subject design, upper-secondary school students (N = 274) learned a language-based material (Swahili-Swedish word-pairs), with half of the items by means of retrieval practice with feedback and half by study only. One week later, the students were tested on the word-pairs either in the classroom (n = 204), or in a fMRI scanner (n = 70). In both settings, a retrieval practice effect was observed across different levels of NFC (high or low). Relatedly, comparable fMRI effects were seen in both NFC subgroups. Taken together, our findings provide behavioral and brain-imaging evidence that retrieval practice is effective also for individuals with lower levels of NFC, which is of direct relevance for educational practice.

How cognitive and emotional empathy relate to rational thinking: empirical evidence and meta-analysis

Empathy is frequently described in opposition to rationality. Yet in two studies, we demonstrate that the relationship between rationality and empathy is nuanced and likely context dependent. Study 1 reports correlational data from two American samples and Study 2 presents a meta-analysis of existing literature (k = 22). We demonstrate that various types of cognitive empathy (perspective-taking, emotion recognition, and fantasy) are positively correlated with self-reported rationality, but unrelated to rational performance. In contrast, types of emotional empathy (empathic concern, personal distress, and emotion contagion) are generally negatively correlated with performance measures of rationality, but their relationships with self-reported rationality are divergent. Although these results do not settle the debate on empathy and rationality, they challenge the opposing domains hypothesis and provide tentative support for a dual-process model of empathy. Overall, these results indicate that the relationship between rationality and empathy differs depending upon how rationality and empathy are measured.

Curiosity helps: Growth in need for cognition bidirectionally predicts future reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms across 10 years

INTRODUCTION

Decreased motivational tendency to seek out, engage in, and enjoy investing in complex cognitive processes in a sustained manner (need for cognition; NFC) may be a predictor and consequence of heightened anxiety and depression symptoms (ADS). However, the majority of investigations on this topic have been cross-sectional, which hinders causal inferences.

METHODS

The current study thus determined the within-person relations between NFC and ADS by using random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) and bivariate dual latent change score (BLCS) approaches to separate between- and within-person effects. RI-CLPM and BLCS also present with advantages of adjusting for regression to the mean, baseline scores, autoregressive and lagged effects, and minimizing measurement error. Community-dwelling adults (n = 6750) completed the Mental Health Inventory-5 and trait-level NFC scales approximately every one year across 10 years.

RESULTS

RI-CLPM showed that within persons, lower level of NFC predicted higher future level of ADS, and vice versa (d = -0.852 to -0.498). Likewise, BLCS demonstrated that within persons, smaller change in NFC forecasted larger subsequent increase in ADS, and conversely (d = -0.631 to -0.519). Findings remained after adjusting for socio-demographic covariates.

CONCLUSION

Consistent with theories, findings suggested that the within-person level-to-future level and change-to-future change relations among NFC and ADS were bi-directional and negative, with moderate-to-large effect sizes. Targeting NFC may treat or prevent the emergence of depression and anxiety disorders. Such efforts may include augmenting or personalizing evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapeutic strategies for individuals with or at-risk for heightened ADS.