Adaptive Control Processes

Adaptive control processes are the brain’s way of making flexible, top-down adjustments to cognitive control, involving attention, learning, working memory, and decision-making. Mental tools—“actively maintaining goal-relevant information,” “inhibiting irrelevant information,” and “shifting information”—help match action to dynamic situations. Conflict adaptation is an adaptive process, occurring when our reactions, response times, and neural activity change based on the task’s difficulty. When a task is difficult, we increase control to achieve an accurate response. Also see Conflict Adaptation Theory