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The intrinsic cost of cognitive control

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2013

Wouter Kool  and
Matthew Botvinick
Wouter Kool
Affiliation:
Princeton Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540. wkool@princeton.eduwww.wouterkool.commatthewb@princeton.eduwww.princeton.edu/~matthewb
Matthew Botvinick
Affiliation:
Princeton Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540. wkool@princeton.eduwww.wouterkool.commatthewb@princeton.eduwww.princeton.edu/~matthewb
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Abstract

Kurzban and colleagues carry forward an important contemporary movement in cognitive control research, tending away from resource-based models and toward a framework focusing on motivation or value. However, their specific proposal, centering on opportunity costs, appears problematic. We favor a simpler view, according to which the exertion of cognitive control carries intrinsic subjective costs.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , December 2013 , pp. 697 - 698
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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