Maëlle Lerebourg, Surya Gayet, Floris P de Lange, Marius V Peelen
{"title":"Attention in the wild: balancing flexibility and stability.","authors":"Maëlle Lerebourg, Surya Gayet, Floris P de Lange, Marius V Peelen","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2026.04.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2026.04.004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To prioritize the visual processing of task-relevant objects in our surroundings, we rely on an attentional template-an internal representation of object features that guides attention toward potential targets. Decades of research have characterized attentional templates for simple targets in artificial arrays. How could templates function in real-world search, where target appearance is variable and objects are embedded in complex, dynamic scenes? We consider two possibilities: (i) flexible templates that are adapted to changing scene contexts and (ii) stable ('one-size-fits-all') templates that generalize across contexts. We review recent behavioral and neuroimaging evidence for both possibilities and discuss how optimal search depends on balancing the relative costs and benefits of template adaptation, enabling efficient attention 'in the wild'.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147845232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jesse C Niebaum, Allison Zengilowski, Benjamin Katz, Priti Shah, Yuko Munakata
{"title":"Adaptive habits: understanding executive function and its development.","authors":"Jesse C Niebaum, Allison Zengilowski, Benjamin Katz, Priti Shah, Yuko Munakata","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.10.016","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.10.016","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Executive functions (EFs) develop dramatically across childhood and predict important outcomes, including academic achievement. These links are often attributed to individual differences in EF capacities. However, individual difference accounts underemphasize contextual influences on EF. We propose a complementary perspective, the adaptive habits framework, which emphasizes how contextual factors support or hinder EF engagement in children. Contexts that support repeated EF engagement establish habits for engaging EF in similar contexts and in similar ways. Such habits, in turn, reduce the effort associated with engaging EF and thus increase the likelihood of deciding to engage EF in the future. We interpret empirical findings through the lens of adaptive habits, discuss the implications of this framework, and propose novel research approaches and interventions to support EF in children.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"449-463"},"PeriodicalIF":20.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13135620/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145783454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sven L Mattys, Ryan M O'Leary, Ronan A McGarrigle, Arthur Wingfield
{"title":"Reconceptualizing cognitive listening.","authors":"Sven L Mattys, Ryan M O'Leary, Ronan A McGarrigle, Arthur Wingfield","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.09.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.09.014","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research on 'cognitive listening' has grown exponentially in recent years. Lacking, however, is a conceptual framework to organize the abundance of data from the hearing, cognitive, and linguistic sciences. We offer the data-resource-language (DRL) framework that draws from the notions of data-limited and resource-limited processes to provide a roadmap for understanding the interaction between auditory sensitivity, cognitive resources, and linguistic knowledge during speech perception, especially in adverse conditions. The DRL framework explains how these three sets of abilities predict performance and resource engagement as a function of signal quality. It also provides a platform for characterizing similarities and differences in how normal-hearing, impaired-hearing, and non-native listeners process speech in challenging conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"409-421"},"PeriodicalIF":20.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145314000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sophia Vinci-Booher, Xueying Ren, Kendrick Kay, Chen Yu, Franco Pestilli, James R Booth
{"title":"Dense longitudinal neuroimaging reveals individual brain change trajectories.","authors":"Sophia Vinci-Booher, Xueying Ren, Kendrick Kay, Chen Yu, Franco Pestilli, James R Booth","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.09.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.09.005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Longitudinal measurements of brain structure and function are critical for understanding how humans change over time. Traditional longitudinal approaches sample sparsely across large windows of time to estimate coarse, long-term brain changes. This review showcases insights from dense longitudinal neuroimaging (DLN), an emerging approach that samples densely across relatively short windows of time to precisely estimate individual trajectories of brain change. DLN measures multiple samples from individuals throughout critical periods of rapid change. It allows precise estimates of nonlinear trajectories to advance a mechanistic understanding of brain change. Novel findings from this approach are improving our understanding of human cognition, such as the role of the motor system in visual development and learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"464-476"},"PeriodicalIF":20.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12667233/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145245624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Representations of social experience in hippocampal circuits.","authors":"Rachel S Clein, Elizabeth Gould","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.09.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.09.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>For most mammals, the ability to form, maintain, retrieve, and reshape memories of social experience is essential for individual survival and cooperative behavior. Considerable recent progress has been made in understanding how the hippocampus forms internal representations of social experience, with the CA2 region having emerged as an important integrator of multiple socially relevant inputs. In this review, we discuss recent studies exploring neural substrates of social recognition with a focus on the potential role of plasticity mechanisms in hippocampal circuits and their downstream targets. We also consider the neural bases of binding social with nonsocial and abstract features of the environment to create multidimensional representations that support adaptive social behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"434-448"},"PeriodicalIF":20.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12854208/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145356603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Moral decision-making with bounded cognitive resources and limited information.","authors":"Maximilian Maier, Vanessa Cheung, Falk Lieder","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.12.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.12.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Real-world moral decisions are constrained by limited information and bounded cognitive resources, necessitating heuristic strategies. We argue that choices in moral dilemmas should be analysed in terms of decision strategies rather than ethical theories and show how resource rationality and the bias-variance trade-off explain when people rely on particular strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"394-397"},"PeriodicalIF":20.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146221697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The process of affect labeling.","authors":"Ella Givon, Nachshon Meiran, Amit Goldenberg","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.09.017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2025.09.017","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Affect labeling can shape how emotions are experienced and shared, with important consequences for both well-being and relationships. While decades of research have explored the impact of articulating emotions through language, the labeling process itself has received limited attention until recently. We suggest that affect labeling can be considered analogous to perceptual decision making, as both involve accumulating evidence toward a decision. Building on perceptual theories of emotion, we explore how this perspective provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying affect labeling. We then review existing research applying sequential sampling models to affect labeling, illustrating how it accounts for the different processes involved in labeling and may explain mechanisms underlying individual differences in the labeling process.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"422-433"},"PeriodicalIF":20.3,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145318717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Awareness as the heart of working memory.","authors":"Richard J Allen, Alan D Baddeley, Graham J Hitch","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2026.04.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2026.04.001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The assumption that attention and short-term memory combine to play a crucial role in cognition continues to influence cognitive modeling. We trace the development of the multicomponent model of working memory, initially consisting of a limited-capacity central executive controlling two domain-specific systems: the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad. The later introduction of the episodic buffer addressed the need to explain how information from different sources is bound into unified episodes. Subsequent developments suggest that the buffer functions as a consciously accessible, multidimensional interface combining storage with executive manipulation and attentional control. These developments lead to a reformulation of the model in which the episodic buffer, renamed the 'awareness buffer', is placed at the focal point of working memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147787351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Looking forward: eye-gaze methods in vocabulary development research.","authors":"Haley Weaver, Jenny Saffran, Sudha Arunachalam","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2026.04.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tics.2026.04.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human multimodal processing abilities have provided researchers with an invaluable set of methods for interrogating language understanding. Even young infants fixate on visual stimuli that match incoming auditory information. Experimental paradigms have harnessed this behavior to demonstrate early language comprehension abilities. Researchers have since adapted these paradigms to address new questions, such as studying individual differences in vocabulary size and structure, identifying which words are learned earlier or later, and assessing language in populations with disabilities. However, fundamental questions persist about the assumptions linking eye gaze with underlying linguistic competence. We aim to articulate these assumptions and outline what we know about whether they are met. By making these issues explicit, we highlight considerations for language development research across different populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13148178/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147787288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dependency syntax as the simplest theory of grammar.","authors":"Edward Gibson","doi":"10.1016/j.tics.2026.03.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2026.03.002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The syntax of human languages has long been argued to be complex and even unlearnable from the input alone. However, the success of large language models (LLMs) has challenged this idea. I argue for a simple view of syntax, where the syntax of a language is just the set of dependency rules, with no phrase structure or transformation rules-constructs central to Chomsky's transformational grammar. This approach accounts for diverse phenomena in human language processing and explains crosslinguistic word order universals. Moreover, it better explains human data for cases that differentiate these accounts and eliminates the syntax learnability problem. I speculate that LLMs, similar to children, learn the dependency grammar from linguistic patterns, leading to their impressive syntactic competence.</p>","PeriodicalId":49417,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":17.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147718891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}