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Difficulty matters: Unspecific attentional demands as a major determinant of performance highlighted by clinical studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2013

Mario Bonato ,
Marco Zorzi  and
Carlo Umiltà
Mario Bonato
Affiliation:
Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy. mario.bonato@ugent.be marco.zorzi@unipd.it carlo.umilta@unipd.it http://ccnl.psy.unipd.it/ Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, B9000 Ghent, Belgium
Marco Zorzi
Affiliation:
Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy. mario.bonato@ugent.be marco.zorzi@unipd.it carlo.umilta@unipd.it http://ccnl.psy.unipd.it/ IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, 30126 Lido-Venice, Italy
Carlo Umiltà
Affiliation:
Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy. mario.bonato@ugent.be marco.zorzi@unipd.it carlo.umilta@unipd.it http://ccnl.psy.unipd.it/
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Abstract

The cognitive impairments shown by brain-damaged patients emphasize the role of task difficulty as a major determinant for performance. We discuss the proposal of Kurzban et al. in light of our findings on right-hemisphere–damaged patients, who show increasing awareness deficits for the contralesional hemispace when engaged with resource-consuming dual tasks. This phenomenon is readily explained by the assumption of unspecific depletable resources.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , December 2013 , pp. 680 - 681
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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