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Self-control failures are often attributed to a lack of top-down behavioral regulation. Self-report measures of selfcontrol reflect higher-level cognitive appraisals of behavioral control and lower-level innate temperamental traits associated with reactive processes. However, few studies have examined the extent to which different aspects of self-control relate to reactive processes. Using a large sample (n = 246), we investigated whether individual differences in six self-control trait measures were predictive of low-level processing indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited from a passive auditory oddball task. Larger MMNs are associated with greater prediction error when the input stimulus conflicts with expectation. Self-control traits were measured by effortful control, perfectionism, impulsiveness, procrastination, perceived stress, and anxiety scales. We assumed personality traits develop around innate differences in reaction to environmental changes, resulting in differential adult expressions of self-control reflected in the six traits. All but perfectionism and perceived stress correlated with MMN amplitudes: reater self-control associated with smaller MMNs; stronger negative traits associated with larger MMNs. When the correlated measures were entered into a backwards multiple regression on MMN amplitudes, procrastination and anxiety remained in the model as significant, relatively independent contributors. Procrastination may reflect a top-down modulation of underlying reactivity. Trait anxiety may reflect a basic temperament of greater reactivity to environmental change. Individuals with strong innate reactivity and weaker top-down processes may be hypervigilant to deviations from expectation, producing larger prediction errors and MMNs. Self-control failures may reflect reduced top-down control, when the balance in cortical activity favors reactive systems over the prefrontal cortex. 

Introduction: Defined as a tendency to act without thinking or considering the consequences, impulsivity may affect the ability to detect and respond to errors. However, impulsivity is a multidimensional construct with attentional, motor and non-planning components, among others. Not all aspects of impulsivity may relate to error monitoring. In this event-related potential (ERP) study we used an individual difference approach with a large sample of healthy young adults (n = 261) and the flanker task to explore what specific facets of impulsivity were predictive of error monitoring as indexed by the error-related negativity (ERN). Methods: The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) was used to measure impulsivity and its subcomponents. A visual flanker task was administered to elicit the commission of errors and the associated ERN. Results: BIS-11 total scores did not correlate with ERN amplitude. Using an exploratory strategy, we first regressed scores for six previously identified components of impulsivity on the ERN, finding a significant coefficient for cognitive instability. Because internal consistency was low, we next conducted a principal component analysis of the 30 BIS-11 items; three factors emerged: planning, impetuosity and cognitive instability. When the three scale scores were regressed on ERN amplitudes, only cognitive instability ("racing thoughts") was predictive, associating greater cognitive instability with reduced ERN amplitudes. Conclusions: Increases in the cognitive instability aspect of impulsivity predicts reduced ERN amplitudes, which may be related to individual differences in the motivational salience of errors. 

Background: Animations of scientific concepts may improve comprehension by explaining and visualizing the steps of complex processes, but unless they engage student interest in meaningful ways, their effectiveness as teaching tools is limited. We achieve this through a novel approach to animation design that includes the target audience (undergraduates) so that the resultant animations align with their learner characteristics. Objective: This case study investigated whether undergraduate-generated animations were more effective educational tools than informationally equivalent text-and-illustration presentations and whether learners’ background influenced the relative benefits of animations. Method: Incorporating feedback from faculty and undergraduates, we created animations and text-plus-illustration content to explain how neural signals are generated and measured by scalp electrodes. Neuroscience majors and non-majors were presented with either animations or static presentations followed by comprehension and engagement assessments. Results: Both groups showed comprehension and engagement benefits for animations. Although majors showed better overall comprehension, animations improved comprehension for non-majors over static presentations. Conclusion: When educational content is directed for a target audience, animations can be more effective teaching tools for a broader student audience. Teaching Implications: The relevance of online tools for remote instruction makes animations, developed for and by undergraduates, important tools for effectively introducing difficult content. 

The lateralized ERP N2pc component has been shown to be an effective marker of attentional object selection when elicited in a visual search task, specifically reflecting the selection of a target item among distractors. Moreover, when targets are known in advance, the visual search process is guided by representations of target features held in working memory at the time of search, thus guiding attention to objects with target-matching features. Previous studies have shown that manipulating working memory availability via concurrent tasks or within task manipulations influences visual search performance and the N2pc. Other studies have indicated that visual (non-spatial) vs. spatial working memory manipulations have differential contributions to visual search. To investigate this the current study assesses participants' visual and spatial working memory ability independent of the visual search task to determine whether such individual differences in working memory affect task performance and the N2pc. Participants ( n = 205) completed a visual search task to elicit the N2pc and separate visual working memory (VWM) and spatial working memory (SPWM) assessments. Greater SPWM, but not VWM, ability is correlated with and predicts higher visual search accuracy and greater N2pc amplitudes. Neither VWM nor SPWM was related to N2pc latency. These results provide additional support to prior behavioral and neural visual search findings that spatial WM availability, whether as an ability of the participant's processing system or based on task demands, plays an important role in efficient visual search.