Book Notes: David Badre — On Task

This book transformed my understanding of cognitive control. It’s the most up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to the topic that I have seen. If you ever wondered how we can explain cognitive control without assuming a tiny controller pulling levers in the brain, then this book is for you.

The Book

Badre, D (2020): On task — How our brain gets things done. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Publisher Link

Review

How do we manage to make a cup of coffee without planning every single step? How can we deal with new situations that we never encountered before and come up with good solutions? Why do we struggle to remember things when we get older? This and other questions are addressed in David Badre’s authoritative text on the science of cognitive control — a similar, commonly used concept is executive function. Across 10 chapters, Badre introduces the history of thinking about cognitive control, the evolutions of this field, and the current state-of-the-art. He skilfully manages to provide a conceptual understanding without shying away from getting into the computational models that have driven much of the progress in this field in recent years. I found it especially refreshing that the book was so up-to-date. Many books from eminent scientists reflect insights that have become textbook…