Haastrup Irwin (thomaschive8)

Cognitive control processes that enable purposeful behavior are often context-specific. A teenager, for example, may inhibit the tendency to daydream at work but not in the classroom. However, the nature of contextual boundaries for cognitive control processes remains unclear. Therefore, we revisited an ongoing controversy over whether such boundaries reflect (a) an attentional reset that occurs whenever a context-defining (e.g., sensory) feature changes or (b) a disruption of episodic memory retrieval that occurs only when the updated context-defining feature is linked to a different task set. To distinguish between these hypotheses, we used a cross-modal distractor-interference task to determine precisely when changing a salient context-defining feature-the sensory modality in which task stimuli appear-bounds control processes underlying the congruency sequence effect (CSE). Consistent with the task set hypothesis, but not with the attentional reset hypothesis, Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that changing the sensory modality in which task stimuli appear eliminates the CSE only when the task structure enables participants to form modality-specific task sets. Experiment 3 further revealed that such "modality-specific" CSEs are associated with orienting attention to the sensory modality in which task stimuli appear, which may facilitate the formation of a modality-specific task set. These findings support the view that task sets serve as boundaries for the CSE. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).By virtue of their occupational responsibilities, protective service workers are often exposed to stressors and hazards that may increase their risk for various mental health problems. Efforts are thus needed to enhance connection to psychological services across protective service worker groups and to tailor the delivery of these services based on the specific needs of these workers. To enhance the understanding of how to improve the provision of psychological services to protective service workers, the journal issued a call for papers. The 5 articles summarized in this introduction were accepted in response to this call and constitute this special section of articles. These articles represent a wide variety of public safety roles, including police officers, military service members, workers on secure forensic units, and human rights advocates. Despite this variety in specific roles and public service practice settings, findings from each study offer broad insights into bolstering mental health and improving the delivery of psychological services to all protective service workers. Together, these articles provide key perspectives on how to meet the mental health needs of protective service workers and illuminate unique considerations when providing care to this important group. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).Incidental features of a stimulus can increase how easily it is processed, which can then increase confidence in task performance. K-Ras(G12C) inhibitor 12 Here, we examine the impact of fluency stemming from procedural features embedded in a task rather than in the features of a stimulus. We propose that manipulating the consistency of procedural features over a series of stimuli can produce procedural fluency, a metacognitive sense of ease in processing that can inflate confidence without boosting accuracy. That is, even superficial consistency within a task can lead people to inaccurately believe they are performing better. As with fluency derived from features of individual stimuli, drawing attention to procedural consistency leads people to discount it, attenuating its impact on confidence. Further, the influence of procedural fluency on confidence relies on individuals' naïve theories about what fluency signals about their performance. Accordingly, manipulating these naïve theories mitigates the effects of procedural fluency on confidence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c