Date of Award

12-2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Michael Beran

Abstract

Cognitive control has been defined as the use of various executive functions (such as inhibition, attention control, and task shifting) to execute goal-directed behavior. For this reason, cognitive control is considered essential for complex cognition and flexible behavior, especially in the face of response competition or novel circumstances. However, complex behavior has also been explained by behaviorists using associative stimulus-response theories. The current study examined the role of cognitive and stimulus control in problem-solving behavior. Adult humans, preschool children, adult rhesus macaques, and adult capuchin monkeys completed a computerized conditional discrimination task. Participants completed various psychomotor tasks using a specialized cursor to do so. The cursors differed in speed, size, and their ability to move through walls in a way that made each cursor beneficial for two specific tasks. Participants completed three of the six tasks with the specialized cursors to learn through associative experience which cursor was optimal for each task. Those that could not discern this on their own experienced a correction procedure to facilitate learning. Participants who were able to make correct conditional discriminations were then presented with the remaining three tasks to use with the specialized cursors for the first time. With the aid of correction experience, adults learned how to discriminate the cursors based on their functionality during the primary tasks. They also showed optimal use of the cursors during the first three trials of the transfer tasks, suggesting cognitive control over behavior and a conceptual understanding of the tools. Children showed partial success and monkeys showed minimal success in learning to discriminate the cursors based on their functionality during the primary tasks. Neither children nor monkeys showed generalization of choice behavior to the transfer tasks. However, both groups did show limited associative learning of the cursors’ optimality during these tasks. The present results highlight the role that both cognitive and stimulus control play in successful choice behavior in a novel conditional discrimination task. As well as their influence on flexible, goal-driven behavior across species and age ranges.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/7ggv-hh91

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