What happens when we switch tasks: pupil dilation in multitasking.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied What Happens When We Switch Tasks: Pupil Dilation in Multitasking

A closer look at cognitive control: differences in resource allocation during updating, inhibition and switching as revealed by pupillometry

The present study investigated resource allocation, as measured by pupil dilation, in tasks measuring updating (2-Back task), inhibition (Stroop task) and switching (Number Switch task). Because each cognitive control component has unique characteristics, differences in patterns of resource allocation were expected. Pupil and behavioral data from 35 participants were analyzed. In the 2-Back tas...

Pupil dilation reveals top-down attentional load during spatial monitoring.

It has long been known that the diameter of human pupil enlarges with increasing effort during the execution of a task. This has been observed not only for purely mechanical effort but also for mental effort, as for example the computation of arithmetic problems with different levels of difficulty. Here we show that pupil dilation reflects changes in visuospatial awareness induced by attentiona...

Pupil dilation does not predict subsequent stability in perceptual rivalry.

What is the cause of perceptual switching of ambiguous stimuli? Although local competition between stimulus-specific representations can explain bistable perception dynamics (1), Einhäuser et al. (2) argue that norepinephrine (NE) release in the locus coeruleus (a nonperceptual structure) could play a critical role in perceptual bistability. They reported an NEmediated increase in pupil diamete...

In Press, International Journal of Psychophysiology Pupillary Dilation to Simple Versus Complex Tasks and its Relationship to Thought Disturbance in Schizophrenia Patients

Task-evoked pupil dilation is a measure of attentional allocation. Schizophrenia patients have pupil dilation deficits during high cognitive load tasks, which have been attributed to attentional resource deficits. Moreover, this attentional impairment is thought to be linked to cognitive fragmentation and thought disturbance. Previous attempts to associate attentional deficits to thought distur...