Pupil dilation as an index of effort in cognitive control tasks: A review

By Pauline van der Wel, H. van Steenbergen. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2018

774 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Pupillometry research has experienced an enormous revival in the last two decades. Here we briefly review the surge of recent studies on task-evoked pupil dilation in the context of cognitive control tasks with the primary aim being to evaluate the feasibility of using pupil dilation as an index of effort exertion, rather than task demand or difficulty. Our review shows that across the three cognitive control domains of updating, switching, and inhibition, increases in task demands typically leads to increases in pupil dilation. Studies show a diverging pattern with respect to the relationship between pupil dilation and performance and we show how an effort account of pupil dilation can provide an explanation of these findings. We also discuss future directions to further corroborate this account in the context of recent theories on cognitive control and effort and their potential neurobiological substrates.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, General Decision Sciences

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/875792aeabfbda0f73243601db777c5e2ecc18d8

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Citations in the corpus

• Inhibitory control in WM gate-opening: Insights from alpha desynchronization and norepinephrine activity under atDCS stimulation (2024, background): “Phasic NE activity hints the task engagement and mental effort (Aston-Jones and Cohen, 2005; da Silva Castanheira et al., 2021; van der Wel and van Steenbergen, 2018).”