ArticlePLoS computational biology2022
Developmental shifts in computations used to detect environmental controllability.
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sense of control buffers against stress.eLife · 2026Article
- Active disambiguation guides inferring controllability and cause in social interactions.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Coping Flexibility: Match Between Coping Strategy and Perceived Stressor Controllability Predicts Depressed Mood.Affective science · 2025Article
- The CuriousOpen mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025Article
- Adolescents flexibly adapt action selection based on controllability inferences.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- The computational psychopathology of emotion.Psychopharmacology · 2023Review
- Changes in adaptation to time horizons across development.Developmental psychology · 2023Article
- Environmental uncertainty and the advantage of impulsive choice strategies.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Reward-motivated memories influence new learning across development.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Accurate assessment of environmental controllability enables individuals to adaptively adjust their behavior-exploiting rewards when desirable outcomes are contingent upon their actions and minimizing costly deliberation when their actions are inconsequential. However, it remains unclear how estimation of environmental controllability changes from childhood to adulthood. Ninety participants (ages 8-25) completed a task that covertly alternated between controllable and uncontrollable conditions, requiring them to explore different actions to discover the current degree of environmental controllability. We found that while children were able to distinguish controllable and uncontrollable conditions, accuracy of controllability assessments improved with age. Computational modeling revealed that whereas younger participants' controllability assessments relied on evidence gleaned through random exploration, older participants more effectively recruited their task structure knowledge to make highly informative interventions. Age-related improvements in working memory mediated this qualitative shift toward increased use of an inferential strategy. Collectively, these findings reveal an age-related shift in the cognitive processes engaged to assess environmental controllability. Improved detection of environmental controllability may foster increasingly adaptive behavior over development by revealing when actions can be leveraged for one's benefit.
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Registered trials
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