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Annual Review of Psychology

Volume 76, 2025

Cognitive Control

Abstract

Humans and other primates have a remarkable ability to perform a wide range of tasks and behaviors, even novel ones, in order to achieve their goals. Further, they are able to shift flexibly among these behaviors as the contexts demand. Cognitive control is the function at the base of this remarkable behavioral generativity and flexibility. The present review provides a survey of current research on cognitive control focusing on two of its primary features within a control systems framework: () the ability to select new behaviors based on context and () the ability to monitor ongoing behavior and adjust accordingly. Throughout, the review places an emphasis on how differences in the content and structure of task representations affect these core features of cognitive control.

Keyword(s): behavioral flexibility, cognitive control, cognitive representation, executive function, generalization, learning, performance monitoring
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/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-022024-103901
2025-01-17
2025-04-24
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Cognitive Control
Annual Review of Psychology 76, 167 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-022024-103901
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-022024-103901
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