PSYC2030 WEEK 9

COGNITIVE OFFLOADING 

The use of physical action to alter the information-processing requirements of a task so as to reduce cognitive demand. 

• Artificially shifts cognitive limits 

• Facilitates otherwise unachievable cognitive feats 

• Reduces cognitive effort 

INTENTION OFFLOADING 

Acting now so that you are guaranteed to carry out a future intention 

FACTORS OF OFFLOADING 

1. Task difficulty – as we get closer to the point of forgetting, we set more reminders. 

2. Unaided ability – a person with poor memory and a person with great memory, experience very different demands from the same task.  

3. Metacognitive beliefs about unaided ability – adults who think they are bad at memory set more reminders.  

THE METACOGNITIVE MODEL 

Proposes that the choice between offloading and relying on internal processes is shaped by metacognitive evaluations of our internal capacities and of the capacities of our extended mental system.  

METACOGNITION 

The ability to represent, evaluate and act on your own mental states and processes. 'Thinking about thinking'. 

• Identifies cognitive strengths and weaknesses 

• Makes learning, problem solving and decision making more effective 

• Encourages self-correction and flexible thinking 

METACOGNITION CALIBRATION

• Overconfidence = you think you are good at something you are not 

• Underconfidence = you think you are bad at something you are not  

• Metacognition is separate from objective truth  

• It is perfectly calibrated 

COMPENENTS OF METACOGNITION

Metacognitive knowledge 

• Declarative knowledge (facts, beliefs) about cognition/awareness of own abilities, gained by assessing and evaluating ongoing cognitive processes 

• Knowing whether you know something 

Metacognitive control 

• Using that knowledge to regulate behaviour, such as stopping, skipping something you do not know, or altering nature of the task 

TASK DIFFICULTY

Redshaw et al. (2018) 

• Child version of numbered-circle task 

• Older children increasingly set reminders in line with cognitive load  

Bulley et al. (2020) 

• Children had to remember where stickers were hidden under cups and could place markers on cups as reminders 

• Children of all ages offloaded more when it was harder 

• Offloading on easy trials fell with age  

SELECTIVE VS INDISCRIMINATE OFFLOADING 

Selective offloading: 

• Using offloading more when it is useful and less when it is not  

Indiscriminate offloading: 

• The same amount of offloading used regardless of demand  

MANIPULATING DIFFICULTY LINEARLY  

Mental rotations = mentally manipulating visual/spatial representations to work out how objects would look from a different perspective.  

Sheppard & Metzler (1971) 

• Pairs of objects: rotated versions of same objects or completely different objects 

• Reaction time increases linearly with the angle of rotation 

• Effect appears consistently from around 4 years old 

Armitage et al. (2020) 

• Children had to decide whether a figured rotated between 0 to 180 degrees was the same as, mirror image of, or an upright figure 

• They could move lazy Susan if they wanted 

• The greater the angular disparity, the more manual rotation, reproducing the linear effect 

Armitage et al. (2020) 

• Children counted either the blue people or people with arms up (the people were upside down on half the trials) 

• Blue people = rotating is useless as you are just counting blue circles 

• Arms up = rotating helps only when figures are upside down 

• Rotation (offloading) occurred most in the upside-down, arms-up condition 

• Children who only offloaded when it was useful grew strongly with age  

UNAIDED ABILITY  

Armitage & Redshaw (2022) 

• Phase 1: Baseline unaided performance (children were told 4 stickers were hidden in a room of plant pots. Four maps around the room each showed one pot marking a sticker's location. The maps were misaligned with the room and they had to infer this themselves and correct for it mentally). 

• Phase 2: Option for offloading (lazy Susan's were placed under the maps so children could rotate them physically). 

Results: 

• Unaided accuracy improved with age  

• Offloading increased with age 

  • Was equal for 90 and 180 degrees 

  • Older children rotated less on 0 degree trials, showing they knew it was unnecessary 

• 4-5-year-olds did poorly in both phases, rarely rotated, and when they did, it did not help 

DIRECTION OF ABILITY-OFFLOADING AND AGE

• Adults = the worse you are at a task, the more you offload 

• Children 4 – 9 = the better you are at a task, the more you offload 

• Children 10 – 11 = the better you are at a task, the less you offload 

CHILDREN ARE POOR AT TELLING US WHAT IS IN THEIR HEADS

• Five-year-olds mostly say they thought about nothing (this is impossible) 

• They are poor at verbalising 

NON-VERBAL BEHAVIOUR MEASURES REVEAL EARLIER ABILITIES

• 3.5-year-olds differentiate between being knowledgeable and unknowledgeable in cognitive tasks 

• This is very basic thought 

LAG BETWEEN METACOGNITIVE KNOWLEDGE AND CONTROL

• Knowledge does not automatically become control 

• Children of all ages could say that the hard items were harder (knowledge) 

• But they did not spend more time studying the harder items until around 9 or 10 (control) 

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT METACOGNITION AND OFFLOADING IN CHILDREN

• There are behavioural indications: children reflect on their unaided ability and compensate when doing badly  

• The precise relationship is unclear and there are large individual differences 

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS

High level cognitive processes underlying goal-directed behaviour that facilitate new ways of behaving and optimise our approach to unfamiliar circumstances.  

Working memory  

• Holding and manipulating information over short periods  

Inhibitory control 

• Suppressing automatic, impulsive or dominant responses in favour of goal-directed ones 

Cognitive flexibility  

• Switching perspectives, adapting to changes rules, shifting between tasks and adjusting strategies when conditions change. 

 

DEVELOPMENTAL TIMELINE OF COGNITIVE OFFLOADING

3 years old 

• Children possess basic metacognitive capacities, such as differentiating between knowledgeable and unknowledgeable 

• No evidence of cognitive offloading 

4 and 5 years old  

• Translating metacognitive knowledge into control  

• Initial evidence of cognitive offloading  

6 and 7 years old 

• Increases in use of cognitive offloading 

• Offloading strategies sensitive to task difficulty 

8 and 9 years old 

• Improved selectivity of offloading decisions  

• Use of offloading aligns with their metacognitive beliefs about task difficulty  

10 and 11 years old 

• Begin using offloading to compensate for individual cognitive weaknesses 

• Use of offloading aligns with metacognitive beliefs about unaided ability 

12 and over 

• Ongoing strategy calibration 

COMPLICATING FACTORS OF OFFLOADING

Effort-minimisation vs performance-maximisation 

• We may offload because we do not feel like doing something, not because we want to do well 

Willingness to engage in cognitive effort 

• Using offloading as a tool to improve performance or to free up resources 

Reliability of the cognitive aid  

• If a tool is delayed, loses information or seems unreliable, we offload less 

Earlier exposure 

• We tend to offload the way we have before 

Costs and benefits  

• Offloading is used when stakes are high enough to justify the time and effort 

Boredom, cognitive fatigue and novelty of offloading behaviour 

 

SOCIAL OFFLOADING

Using other people, deliberately or not, within a shared task to support your own cognitive performance. 

HOW MUCH SHOULD WE OFFLOAD?

Consequences of overuse: 

• Worse internal performance on the analogous task  

• Lost useful struggle 

Consequences of underuse: 

• Opportunity costs (resources can be used elsewhere) 

Optimal: 

• Must be considered at the individual level 

• Must account for unaided performance, costs and benefits