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SUMMARY:Metacontrol: The Yin and Yang of cognitive control    - Professor 
 Bernhard Hommel\, Leiden University Institute for Psychological Research &
 amp\; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition\, Leiden University\, The N
 etherlands
DTSTART:20171124T163000Z
DTEND:20171124T173000Z
UID:TALK72919@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Louise White
DESCRIPTION: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 complexit
 y and dynamics of cognitive control. I describe an alternative approach th
 at assumes that control emerges from the interaction of at least two count
 eracting forces: one system promoting persistence and the maintenance of a
 ction goals and another promoting mental and behavioral flexibility. I des
 cribe 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 Mo
 del\, MSM) that explains how this shaping process works. Then I provide an
  overview of studies from various fields (including perception\, attention
 \, performance monitoring\, conflict resolution\, creativity\, meditation\
 , religion\, and social cognition/behavior) that successfully tested predi
 ctions from the MSM.\n\n \n\n\nProf. Dr. Bernhard Hommel holds the chair o
 f “General Psychology” at Leiden University since 1999\, after having 
 worked as senior researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Psychological 
 Research (PhD at the University of Bielefeld in 1990\; Habilitation at the
  Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich). He is a co-founder and board me
 mber of the Leiden Institute for Brain & Cognition (LIBC)\, secretary of t
 he International Association for Attention and Performance\, senator of th
 e German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina)\, and he (co-) directs 
 the Leiden University Research Focus “Brain function and dysfunction acr
 oss the lifespan”. His research focuses on cognitive\, computational\, d
 evelopmental\, neural\, and neurochemical mechanisms of human attention an
 d action control\, and the role of consciousness therein. Recent work also
  addresses the role of emotion\, creativity\, and religion in human cognit
 ion. In 2016\, he received an ERC Advanced Grant for work on the impact of
  metacontrol on human cognition and social behaviour. He is chief editor o
 f the journals Psychological Research and Frontiers in Cognition and has (
 co-) authored >330 articles in international journals\, >60 chapters in re
 aders and psychological textbooks\, (co-)edited 2 books and wrote 2 textbo
 oks on action control and the relationship between perception and action\,
  and (co-)edited several special issues on attention and action control. \
 n\n
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Department of Psychology
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