Overview
I am a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Exeter. My research falls into the areas of cognitive and developmental psychology. I am particularly interested in how adults and children are able to control their behaviour in response to their internal goals and the external environment. Much of my recent research focusses on how language helps people to acquire novel skills.
I also teach at BSc (2nd year Cognition Practical) and MSc (Introduction to Statistics) level, and I supervise research projects in the areas of cognitive and developmental psychology.
Qualifications
PhD in Psychology – University of Exeter (2008-2012)
MSc in Neuroscience – University of Oxford (2007-2008)
BSc in Psychology – University of Exeter (2004-2007).
Career
I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Exeter in 2007. I then went on to do an MSc in Neuroscience at Oxford, before returning to Exeter to complete my PhD in Psychology under the supervision of Stephen Monsell and Aureliu Lavric. I subsequently worked as a post doc in Bristol, before returning to Exeter as a Lecturer in 2020.
Research group links
Research
Research interests
I am interested in people’s ability to flexibly control their behaviour, and the cognitive mechanisms that support this ability. Specifically, my research investigates working memory, which can be defined as the ability to maintain and manipulate information over a short period of time; and task-set control, which enables people to flexibly switch between existing tasks, as well as learn novel tasks.
Most of my research has examined the relationship between working memory and task-set control in adults and children. More recently, I have begun to examine the process by which people acquire novel tasks and skills, and particularly the contribution of language to this process. These different research projects are described in more detail below.
Research projects
Task-set control and working memory
My PhD research (University of Exeter; 2008-2012) investigated the relationship between task-set control and working memory in adults. Using task switching paradigms, I investigated the process of retrieving a task-set from long-term memory into working memory (Van ‘t Wout et al., 2015); and the factors influencing the representation of the currently operative task-set within working memory (Van ‘t Wout et al., 2013; Van ‘t Wout, 2018).
Children’s working memory capacity and task-set control
Following my PhD, I worked at the University of Bristol (2015-2018) as a postdoc on a Leverhulme-funded project investigating children’s ability to maintain and execute task rules, together with Chris Jarrold. This research found that children’s working memory capacity for task rules increases throughout childhood (Van ‘t Wout et al., 2019). Another series of experiments showed that this age-related improvement in working memory capacity contributes to children’s developing ability to switch between tasks.
Additionally, as part of a JSPS-funded collaboration with colleagues in Japan (Kaichi Yanaoka and Satoru Saito) and Bristol (Christopher Jarrold) I have recently begun to investigate children’s ability to implement cognitive control strategies, and their ability to transfer such strategies to novel environments (e.g., Yanaoka et al., 2021).
The role of language in novel task learning
More recently my research has begun to focus on the cognitive mechanisms which enable people to learn novel tasks or skills. Daily life frequently requires us to learn new skills, and humans appear especially adept at rapidly acquiring novel tasks, often with very little practice. I am especially interested in how language supports our ability to learn novel tasks. Together with my collaborator Chris Jarrold, we have shown that language plays a crucial role in the acquisition of novel cognitive tasks. In trial-and-error learning, the role of language emerges as participants construct a declarative representation of the task, and then diminishes again as the task becomes well-practised (Van ‘t Wout & Jarrold, 2020; 2022a). When learning via instructions, participants are able to use language to encode the task during the instruction phase (Van ‘t Wout & Jarrold, 2022b).
Following these discoveries, I have become interested in how the contribution of language to novel task learning might differ in people with an atypical inner speech profile. For example, a recent project sought to determine whether the use of inner speech in novel task learning is modulated by the expression of autism traits.
Research grants
- 2020 Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS
Acquisition and development of strategic skill knowledge for cognitive control in adults and children.
- 2015 The Leverhulme Trust
The development of procedural working memory.
Links
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Publications by category
Journal articles
van ‘t Wout F, Jarrold C (2023). To What Extent is the Contribution of Language to Learning via Instructions Modulated by the Expression of Autism Traits?. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1-8.
van ’t Wout F, Jarrold C (2022). Articulatory suppression during instruction encoding impedes performance in choice reaction time tasks. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29(5), 1960-1968.
van 't Wout F, Jarrold C (2022). How Does Language Support the Acquisition of Novel Cognitive Tasks? Investigating the Role of Task Complexity and Task Instructions. Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition, 48(3), 416-431.
Yanaoka K, van't Wout F, Saito S, Jarrold C (2021). Prior task experience increases 5‐year‐old children's use of proactive control: Behavioral and pupillometric evidence. Developmental Science, 25(5).
van 't Wout F, Jarrold C (2020). The role of language in novel task learning. Cognition, 194, 104036-104036.
van 't Wout F, O’Donnell M, Jarrold C (2019). An investigation of children’s working memory capacity for task rules. Cognitive Development, 51, 14-31.
van ‘t Wout F (2017). The contribution of stimulus frequency and recency to set-size effects. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(3), 1123-1128.
van 't Wout F, Lavric A, Monsell S (2015). Is it harder to switch among a larger set of tasks?.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn,
41(2), 363-376.
Abstract:
Is it harder to switch among a larger set of tasks?
When stimuli afford multiple tasks, switching among them involves promoting one of several task-sets in play into a most-active state. This process, often conceptualized as retrieving task parameters and stimulus-response (S-R) rules into procedural working memory, is a likely source of the reaction time (RT) cost of a task-switch, especially when no time is available for task preparation before the stimulus. We report 2 task-cuing experiments that asked whether the time consumed by task-set retrieval increases with the number of task-sets in play, while unconfounding the number of tasks with their frequency and recency of use. Participants were required to switch among 3 or 5 orthogonal classifications of perceptual attributes of an object (Experiment 1) or of phonological/semantic attributes of a word (Experiment 2), with a 100 or 1,300 ms cue-stimulus interval. For 2 tasks for which recency and frequency were matched in the 3- and 5-task conditions, there was no effect of number of tasks on the switch cost. For the other tasks, there was a greater switch cost in the 5-task condition with little time for preparation, attributable to effects of frequency/recency. Thus, retrieval time for active task-sets is not influenced by the number of alternatives per se (unlike several other kinds of memory retrieval) but is influenced by recency or frequency of use.
Abstract.
Author URL.
van 't Wout F, Lavric A, Monsell S (2013). Are stimulus-response rules represented phonologically for task-set preparation and maintenance?.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn,
39(5), 1538-1551.
Abstract:
Are stimulus-response rules represented phonologically for task-set preparation and maintenance?
Accounts of task-set control generally assume that the current task's stimulus-response (S-R) rules must be elevated to a privileged state of activation. How are they represented in this state? in 3 task-cuing experiments, we tested the hypothesis that phonological working memory is used to represent S-R rules for task-set control by getting participants to switch between 2 sets of arbitrary S-R rules and manipulating the articulatory duration (Experiment 1) or phonological similarity (Experiments 2 and 3) of the names of the stimulus terms. The task cue specified which of 2 objects (Experiment 1) or consonants (Experiment 2) in a display to identify with a key press. In Experiment 3, participants switched between identifying an object/consonant and its color/visual texture. After practice, neither the duration nor the similarity of the stimulus terms had detectable effects on overall performance, task-switch cost, or its reduction with preparation. Only in the initial single-task training blocks was phonological similarity a significant handicap. Hence, beyond a very transient role, there is no evidence that (declarative) phonological working memory makes a functional contribution to representing S-R rules for task-set control, arguably because once learned, they are represented in nonlinguistic procedural working memory.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Verbruggen F, Adams RC, van 't Wout F, Stevens T, McLaren IPL, Chambers CD (2013). Are the effects of response inhibition on gambling long-lasting?.
PLoS One,
8(7).
Abstract:
Are the effects of response inhibition on gambling long-lasting?
A recent study has shown that short-term training in response inhibition can make people more cautious for up to two hours when making decisions. However, the longevity of such training effects is unclear. In this study we tested whether training in the stop-signal paradigm reduces risky gambling when the training and gambling task are separated by 24 hours. Two independent experiments revealed that the aftereffects of stop-signal training are negligible after 24 hours. This was supported by Bayes factors that provided strong support for the null hypothesis. These findings indicate the need to better optimise the parameters of inhibition training to achieve clinical efficacy, potentially by strengthening automatic associations between specific stimuli and stopping.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Publications by year
2023
van ‘t Wout F, Jarrold C (2023). To What Extent is the Contribution of Language to Learning via Instructions Modulated by the Expression of Autism Traits?. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1-8.
2022
van ’t Wout F, Jarrold C (2022). Articulatory suppression during instruction encoding impedes performance in choice reaction time tasks. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29(5), 1960-1968.
van 't Wout F, Jarrold C (2022). How Does Language Support the Acquisition of Novel Cognitive Tasks? Investigating the Role of Task Complexity and Task Instructions. Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition, 48(3), 416-431.
2021
Yanaoka K, van't Wout F, Saito S, Jarrold C (2021). Prior task experience increases 5‐year‐old children's use of proactive control: Behavioral and pupillometric evidence. Developmental Science, 25(5).
2020
van 't Wout F, Jarrold C (2020). The role of language in novel task learning. Cognition, 194, 104036-104036.
2019
van 't Wout F, O’Donnell M, Jarrold C (2019). An investigation of children’s working memory capacity for task rules. Cognitive Development, 51, 14-31.
2017
van ‘t Wout F (2017). The contribution of stimulus frequency and recency to set-size effects. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(3), 1123-1128.
2015
van 't Wout F, Lavric A, Monsell S (2015). Is it harder to switch among a larger set of tasks?.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn,
41(2), 363-376.
Abstract:
Is it harder to switch among a larger set of tasks?
When stimuli afford multiple tasks, switching among them involves promoting one of several task-sets in play into a most-active state. This process, often conceptualized as retrieving task parameters and stimulus-response (S-R) rules into procedural working memory, is a likely source of the reaction time (RT) cost of a task-switch, especially when no time is available for task preparation before the stimulus. We report 2 task-cuing experiments that asked whether the time consumed by task-set retrieval increases with the number of task-sets in play, while unconfounding the number of tasks with their frequency and recency of use. Participants were required to switch among 3 or 5 orthogonal classifications of perceptual attributes of an object (Experiment 1) or of phonological/semantic attributes of a word (Experiment 2), with a 100 or 1,300 ms cue-stimulus interval. For 2 tasks for which recency and frequency were matched in the 3- and 5-task conditions, there was no effect of number of tasks on the switch cost. For the other tasks, there was a greater switch cost in the 5-task condition with little time for preparation, attributable to effects of frequency/recency. Thus, retrieval time for active task-sets is not influenced by the number of alternatives per se (unlike several other kinds of memory retrieval) but is influenced by recency or frequency of use.
Abstract.
Author URL.
2013
van 't Wout F, Lavric A, Monsell S (2013). Are stimulus-response rules represented phonologically for task-set preparation and maintenance?.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn,
39(5), 1538-1551.
Abstract:
Are stimulus-response rules represented phonologically for task-set preparation and maintenance?
Accounts of task-set control generally assume that the current task's stimulus-response (S-R) rules must be elevated to a privileged state of activation. How are they represented in this state? in 3 task-cuing experiments, we tested the hypothesis that phonological working memory is used to represent S-R rules for task-set control by getting participants to switch between 2 sets of arbitrary S-R rules and manipulating the articulatory duration (Experiment 1) or phonological similarity (Experiments 2 and 3) of the names of the stimulus terms. The task cue specified which of 2 objects (Experiment 1) or consonants (Experiment 2) in a display to identify with a key press. In Experiment 3, participants switched between identifying an object/consonant and its color/visual texture. After practice, neither the duration nor the similarity of the stimulus terms had detectable effects on overall performance, task-switch cost, or its reduction with preparation. Only in the initial single-task training blocks was phonological similarity a significant handicap. Hence, beyond a very transient role, there is no evidence that (declarative) phonological working memory makes a functional contribution to representing S-R rules for task-set control, arguably because once learned, they are represented in nonlinguistic procedural working memory.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Verbruggen F, Adams RC, van 't Wout F, Stevens T, McLaren IPL, Chambers CD (2013). Are the effects of response inhibition on gambling long-lasting?.
PLoS One,
8(7).
Abstract:
Are the effects of response inhibition on gambling long-lasting?
A recent study has shown that short-term training in response inhibition can make people more cautious for up to two hours when making decisions. However, the longevity of such training effects is unclear. In this study we tested whether training in the stop-signal paradigm reduces risky gambling when the training and gambling task are separated by 24 hours. Two independent experiments revealed that the aftereffects of stop-signal training are negligible after 24 hours. This was supported by Bayes factors that provided strong support for the null hypothesis. These findings indicate the need to better optimise the parameters of inhibition training to achieve clinical efficacy, potentially by strengthening automatic associations between specific stimuli and stopping.
Abstract.
Author URL.
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Teaching
The modules I teach on (see below) are aligned with my research interests in cognitive and developmental psychology. I also teach Statistics at MSc level for our MSc Conversion courses.
Modules I teach:
PSY2212 Cognition Practical (BSc Psychology)
PSYM221 Introduction to Statistics (MSc Conversion)
PSYM221Z Introduction to Statistics (MSc Conversion Online)
PSYM214 Methods in Cognitive and Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience (MSc Psychological Research Methods)
Modules
2022/23
Information not currently available
