Rationalizing constraints on the capacity for cognitive control

Humans are remarkably limited in: (i) how many control-dependent tasks they can execute simultaneously, and (ii) intensely focus on a single task. These limitations universal assumptions of most theories cognition. Yet, rationale for why humans subject to these constraints remains elusive. This feature review draws recent insights from psychology, neuroscience, machine learning, suggest that cognitive control may result rational adaptation fundamental, computational dilemmas in neural architectures. The reviewed literature implies multitasking trade-off between learning efficacy processing efficiency the intensity commitment task reflect stability flexibility.