Measuring Adaptive Control in Conflict Tasks

Adapting attention flexibly is a fundamental ability of the human control system. In the color-word Stroop task, for example, congruency effects are typically smaller for colors and words that appear mainly in incongruent stimuli (mostly-incongruent items) than for colors and words that appear mainly in congruent stimuli (mostly-congruent items). At least part of this item-specific proportion-congruent (ISPC) effect is due to a process of reactive conflict adaptation that affords higher selectivity (i.e., more efficient selection of task-relevant information) when a specific stimulus is presented that is frequently associated in the experiment with conflicting task-irrelevant information. What is unclear, however, is whether, normally, this stimulus-specific adaptation is triggered by the task-relevant component, the task-irrelevant component, or both components of the stimulus. In two experiments, using modified color-word (Experiment 1) and spatial (Experiment 2) Stroop tasks that allowed task-relevant and task-irrelevant triggering processes to be dissociated, we found that the two processes have approximately equivalent impacts. Because these results were obtained in experiments imposing no limitations on the processes potentially contributing to the ISPC effect, these results challenge claims that the ISPC effect involves conflict-adaptation processes only in special situations. The ISPC effect may involve conflict-adaptation processes in most situations, with both task-relevant and task-irrelevant information triggering such processes. 

/pdf/both-task-irrelevant-and-task-relevant-information-trigger-1i45s4r9.pdf

Both task-irrelevant and task-relevant information trigger reactive conflict adaptation in the item-specific proportion-congruent paradigm

Multiple expectancies underlie the congruency sequence effect in confound-minimized tasks.

In interference tasks, the magnitude of the congruency effect is reduced in trials that follow an incongruent trial. This congruence sequence effect (CSE) reflects cognitive control processes, yet accounts disagree when and how control is exerted. Here, we address these questions in the context of the prime-target task. In this task, control can either modulate early prime or late target information. Furthermore, control can utilize information specific to the stimulus (perceptual features) or relational information between stimuli (temporal order). Two experiments (N = 41 | N = 62) were conducted using a prime-target task with arrows (prime) and letters (target). We presented either the prime before the target or the target before the prime. For both trial-type transitions, the CSE was assessed. Regarding the first question, when is control exerted, results showed a larger CSE for prime→target relative to target→prime trials. This suggests that control in the prime-target task modulates prime activity. Regarding the second question, how is control exerted, a combined analysis of both experiments showed a larger CSE for repetition of the same prime and target order across two trials (e.g., previous trial: prime→target; current trial: prime→target) compared to changes (e.g., previous trial: prime→target; current trial: target→prime), suggesting that control in the prime-target task can employ temporal selection.

/pdf/multiple-routes-to-control-in-the-prime-target-task-49wrdy9jb0.pdf

Multiple Routes to Control in the Prime-Target Task: Congruence Sequence Effects Emerge Due to Modulation of Irrelevant Prime Activity and Utilization of Temporal Order Information

Sequential modulations have been found in both conflict and spatial orienting tasks. The former is called congruency sequence effects (CSE) and the latter is called validity sequence effects (VSE). Although the two effects have similar phenomenon descriptions, the relationship of the cognitive control mechanisms under the two effects is still unclear. Using a modified attentional network test (ANT), a flanker task and an arrow cueing task are integrated into a single task, which enables the test of the possible interactions between CSE and VSE. Since a confound-minimized design is used, the observed sequence effects cannot be attributed to the feature integration of low-level stimulus features or the contingency learning. It was found that the CSE are only significant when the arrow cue in preceding trial is invalid, and the VSE are only significant when the target letter in preceding trial is congruent with the distractor letters. The findings suggest that the sequential modulations during orienting and executive control of attention networks are highly interacted with each other, and the sequence effects in these networks are possibly controlled by a complex and multifaceted adaptive control mechanism.

Interactive modulations between congruency sequence effects and validity sequence effects.

Cross-task congruency sequence effect without the contribution of multiple expectancy.

Determining the scope of control underlying the congruency sequence effect: roles of stimulus-response mapping and response mode.

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Cross-task congruency sequence effect without the contribution of multiple expectancy.

Determining the scope of control underlying the congruency sequence effect: roles of stimulus-response mapping and response mode.