M.Sc. Andrea Janker

• 10/2025 - present: PhD student, University of Regensburg, DFG-funded project (Toward an integrative understanding of the flexibility-stability-balance and its underlying mechanisms via computational modelling and behavioral experimentation)
• 04/2021 - 09/2023: Master of Science in Psychology, University of Regensburg (thesis: You can't always get what you want: When goal persistence requires flexibility)
• 10/2017 - 03/2021: Bachelor of Science in Psychology, University of Regensburg (thesis: You can't always get what you want: When persistence in task choice requires increased flexibility)

• 10/2023 - present: Research Associate, University of Regensburg, Chair for General and Applied Psychology

• cognitive control and the balance between stability and flexibility
• effects of reward and violation of expectation on cognitive control
• motivation

• Seminar Emotion & Motivation
• Experimental psychology project seminar I and II

The ability to balance cognitive flexibility and stability is crucial for human adaptive behaviour in constantly changing environments. However, there is a lack of consensus on the mechanisms that underlie both faculties. This lack of integration is a significant obstacle to comprehending the regulation of cognitive flexibility and stability in human cognition, such as understanding whether flexibility and stability are regulated independently or whether they need to be traded off against each other via shared mechanisms. Thus, a more mechanistic understanding is needed to advance our current understanding of cognitive flexibility and stability, and, ultimately, to devising effective interventions to enhance both faculties. With this grant proposal, we seek to obtain a more integrative understanding of the mechanisms underlying the regulation of cognitive flexibility and stability. Specifically, we seek to address recent conflicting results that (a) suggest that cognitive flexibility and stability trade off against each other versus (b) that they are regulated independently (Egner, 2023; Mayr & Grätz, 2024). The theoretical account probed in this work is capable of reconcealing these two differing perspectives, suggesting that cognitive flexibility and stability can be both dependent and independent: Cognitive flexibility and stability trade off within a level of information processing (e.g., the processing of task sets) but can be regulated independently across levels of information processing (e.g., the processing of task sets versus the processing of response sets).

PI - Project 1: Prof. Dr. Gesine Dreisbach (University of Regensburg)
Ph.D. student: M.Sc. Andrea Janker (University of Regensburg)

PI - Project 2: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Musslick (University of Osnabrück) (external link, opens in a new window)
Ph.D. student: M.Sc. Alessandra Brondetta (University of Osnabrück) (external link, opens in a new window)