Task-evoked pupillary responses reveal a role for attentional intensity in auditory discrimination.

Sensory discrimination has long been theorized to reflect a core cognitive function underlying intelligence. Building on this tradition, we examined whether task-evoked pupil responses, as an index of mental effort, relate to attention control (AC) and auditory discrimination ability. Using a large data set (N = 336), participants completed three adaptive auditory discrimination tasks (pitch, duration, loudness), a cognitive battery assessing AC, working memory capacity, and fluid intelligence, and pupillometry during task performance. Structural equation modeling confirmed that AC predicted a