A Comparison of Conflict Diffusion Models in the Flanker Task Through Pseudolikelihood Bayes Factors.

Conflict tasks are one of the most widely studied paradigms within cognitive psychology, where participants are required to respond based on relevant sources of information while ignoring conflicting irrelevant sources of information. The flanker task, in particular, has been the focus of considerab...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Psychological Review Vol. 127; no. 1; pp. 114 - 136
Autores principales: Evans, Nathan J., Servant, Mathieu
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: American Psychological Association Jan2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=140921709&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ssf
    uiTerm: 140921709
    longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        0033295X
        PYV
      jtl: Psychological Review
      issn: 0033295X
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Jan2020
      vid: 127
      iid: 1
      pid: 34
      pub: American Psychological Association
    artinfo:
      ui:
        140921709
        10.1037/rev0000165
      ppf: 114
      ppct: 22
      formats:
      tig:
        atl: A Comparison of Conflict Diffusion Models in the Flanker Task Through Pseudolikelihood Bayes Factors.
      aug:
        au:
          Evans, Nathan J.
          Servant, Mathieu
        affil:
          Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam
          Department of Psychology, University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté
      su:
        Cognitive Abilities Test
        Probability density function
        Differential evolution
        Approximation error
        Diffusion
      sug:
        subj:
          Cognitive Abilities Test
          Probability density function
          Differential evolution
          Approximation error
          Diffusion
      keyword:
        conflict diffusion models
        flanker task
        marginal likelihood approximation
        probability density approximation
        conflict diffusion models
        flanker task
        marginal likelihood approximation
        probability density approximation
      ab: Conflict tasks are one of the most widely studied paradigms within cognitive psychology, where participants are required to respond based on relevant sources of information while ignoring conflicting irrelevant sources of information. The flanker task, in particular, has been the focus of considerable modeling efforts, with only 3 models being able to provide a complete account of empirical choice response time distributions: the dual-stage 2-phase model (DSTP), the shrinking spotlight model (SSP), and the diffusion model for conflict tasks (DMC). Although these models are grounded in different theoretical frameworks, can provide diverging measures of cognitive control, and are quantitatively distinguishable, no previous study has compared all 3 of these models in their ability to account for empirical data. Here, we perform a comparison of the precise quantitative predictions of these models through Bayes factors, using probability density approximation to generate a pseudolikelihood estimate of the unknown probability density function, and thermodynamic integration via differential evolution to approximate the analytically intractable Bayes factors. We find that for every participant across 3 data sets from 3 separate research groups, DMC provides an inferior account of the data to DSTP and SSP, which has important theoretical implications regarding cognitive processes engaged in the flanker task, and practical implications for applying the models to flanker data. More generally, we argue that our combination of probability density approximation with marginal likelihood approximation—which we term pseudolikelihood Bayes factors—provides a crucial step forward for the future of model comparison, where Bayes factors can be calculated between any models that can be simulated. We also discuss the limitations of simulation-based methods, such as the potential for approximation error, and suggest that researchers should use analytically or numerically computed likelihood functions when they are available and computationally tractable.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: N
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N