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Alexandre Zénon
Dioscuri Université de Bordeaux, France
Abstract: Under constant lighting conditions, the diameter of the eye pupil, thought to index brain arousal, varies in response to many cognitive variables, such as attention, task difficulty, surprise, urgency, etc. In this presentation, I will show that these cognition-induced pupillary dilations have a quantitative relationship with information gain, an information-theoretic measure of task complexity that corresponds to the magnitude of the update between prior and posterior beliefs. I will introduce the theoretical concepts and will present some of the experimental evidence supporting this hypothesis. I will then discuss how it has the potential to explain the ensemble of relationships shown so far between cognition and pupillary dilation.
Laurent Beaupoil
Emotion and Perception Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Abstract: Pupil size variations are now widely recognised to be linked to a wealth of cognitive functions. We reasoned that this relationship between pupillometry and cognition may provide us with a way to probe psychological inter-individual differences non-invasively and reliably. During this presentation, I will show you the results of the first of four planned approaches of interindividual clusterisation based on pupil response by means on Variational Auto-Encoders. Although the results of this first naive approach were not sufficient to provide reliable separation of individuals, they showed encouraging trends and helped us prepare the next steps.
KKról-Józaga, B.1; Wichary, S.2; Cacek, J.2 ; van Steenbergen, H.3; Nieuwenhuis, S.3
1Department of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland
2Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
3Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
Abstract: Complex decision making requires cognitive effort, and attentional processes underlying effort can be indexed by changes in pupil size. Pupil dynamics has been linked to cognitive task demands, however baseline pupil size has also been linked to individual differences in information processing capacity. In the present study, we examined tonic changes of pupil size during two-minute baseline period in relation to the preference for simple vs. complex strategies in multi-attribute choice. Participants performed a choice task where they chose one of two diamonds based on six cues, and their preference for either a complex Weighted Additive (WADD) strategy or a simple heuristic Take The Best were calculated. Pupil size changes were recorded for 2 minutes before the task performance. Based on previous research, we analysed the baseline pupil signal to identify its various frequency components, in order to explore their relation with strategy preference, and we found only limited evidence for this relation. In contrast, we found substantial evidence for the relation between strategy preference and the baseline pupil signal averaged across four blocks 30 seconds each. We discuss this evidence in relation to theories and findings on arousal and effort in complex cognitive tasks.
Monika Riegel1,2, Patrik Vuilleumier2, Ulrike Rimmele1
1Centre interfacultaire de gérontologie et d'études des vulnérabilités, Emotion and Memory Lab, University of Geneva, Switzerland
2Centre Interfacultaire en Sciences Affectives, Laboratory of Neurology and Imaging of. Cognition, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Abstract: Our daily lives consist of a continuous stream of experience, yet our memories of past experiences are organized into distinct events, like chapters in a book. Given that we cannot remember everything we experience, we need our memory system to flexibly determine which events will be stored for future use. In particular, remembering events that are emotional is critical to our survival. Indeed, our memories of such events are particularly strong, vivid, and later remembered with high confidence. However, existing evidence is less homogenous when it comes to memory for their context, such as the where and when an event happened. Here, we addressed these critical gaps using an innovative approach, by combining behavioural and physiological measures with a novel memory paradigm in virtual reality (VR). This approach allowed us to investigate how emotion affect our ability to segment experience into events, based on the shared or distinct context in space and time. Our participants better remembered temporal order of objects coming from the same vs. different events. However, this ‘event segmentation’ effect differed between emotional or neutral events. The present results suggest that emotion affects the way we organize our memories of events in space and time.
Funding:MR was supported by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Mobility Plus 1625/MOB/V/2017/0) and Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (PPN/BEK/2020/1/00459).
Cacek, J.1; Wichary, S.1; Król-Józaga, B.2; van Steenbergen, H.3; Nieuwenhus, S.3
1Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
2AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland
3Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden
Abstract: CPupil size provides insights into cognitive processes, e.g. task-related pupil dilation is an accurate measure of cognitive effort and control in various tasks. In our study we went beyond these findings to explore whether baseline pupil size can predict subsequent strategy use in complex decision-making. Complex decision strategies involve intensive cognitive effort and control, thus they pose capacity demand on the decision maker. If pupil size is related to cognitive load, then baseline pupil size should predict subsequent strategy use. To verify this hypothesis, we conducted a process tracing decision making study, in which participants decided which of two diamonds is more expensive, based on six different cues. We measured how much information participants acquired before the choice and we identified the strategy the participants used, based on their choices. Using correlation and linear model analysis, we found that large pre-task baseline pupil size is associated with using simple choice strategy, yet this relationship is moderated by task conditions and individual responsiveness to the task. These results show that, with some limitations, we can predict subsequent decision making strategy from a relatively simple measurement of baseline pupil size.
