Search

In this study, we investigate whether task sets can be bound to visual context features and later retrieved by repeating the context feature. Importantly, to avoid context to task cue bindings we will map 2 task cues to 1 task and avoid task cue repetitions by design. We will test for binding effects in the current trial N. We will test for binding effects of task sets that were bound in the previous trial (N-1N analyses) and for binding effects of task sets that were bound two trials before (N-2N analyses).

In this study, we investigate whether task sets can be bound to visual context features and later retrieved by repeating the context feature. We will test for binding effects in the current trial N. We will test for binding effects of task sets that were bound in the previous trial (N-1N analyses) and for binding effects of task sets that were bound two trials before (N-2N analyses).

A commonly found effect in conflict tasks is the congruency sequence effect (CSE; Egner, 2008). This effect is defined by the reduction of congruency effects in post-conflict trials. Two theoretical approaches compete for the explanation of this phenomenon: Control accounts describe the CSE as the result of adaption processes, which regulate the attentional focus to the task-relevant dimension and/or result in the inhibition of task-irrelevant information. In contrast, binding accounts attribute the CSE to the learning of stimulus-response (S-R) combinations. This type of short term associative learning is referred to as binding. In subsequent trials the partial retrieval of such bound S-R combinations leads to impaired performance in comparison to the complete retrieval of an S-R combination or no retrieval at all. Recent theories tried to integrate both approaches. So, it is hypothesized that not only S-R combinations can be bound and retrieved, but also the current cognitive state, which would also include the degree of cognitive control currently implemented. There is first evidence indicating that the binding and retrieval of such control states has impact on the CSE (Dignath, Johannsen, Hommel, & Kiesel, 2019). In this experiment we plan to investigate whether the reliability of task features to which control states are bound (contexts) modulate the strength of such bindings. For this purpose we will use a task, in which we present a distractor followed by either the same stimulus as target (congruent) or a different stimulus (incongruent). We manipulate the retrieval of control states by repeating or changing the presentation context of the stimuli from trial to trial. The reliability of this context is manipulated by changing the presentation context in 20 % or 80 % of the trial sequences. Literature: Dignath, D., Johannsen, L., Hommel, B., & Kiesel, A. (2019). Reconciling cognitive-control and episodic-retrieval accounts of sequential conflict modulation: Binding of control-states into event-files. Egner, T. (2008). Congruency sequence effects and cognitive control. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 7(4), 380-390.

The aim of this experiment is to investigate whether control states linked to specific (task-irrelevant) contexts can be retrieved not only after short but also long time periods when the context is reencountered. We use a prime-target-task in which a word is presented two times sequentially in either the same (congruent) or a different color (incongruent) and the participant has to react to the second color. The semantic meaning of carrier words server as the context in our experiment. Every context word will be presented twice in the experiment: Either directly in a subsequent trial within the same block or at a random position in the following block.

A commonly found effect in conflict tasks is the congruency sequence effect (CSE; Egner, 2008). This effect is defined by the reduction of congruency effects in post-conflict trials. Two theoretical approaches compete for the explanation of this phenomenon: Control accounts describe the CSE as the result of adaption processes, which regulate the attentional focus to the task-relevant dimension and/or result in the inhibition of task-irrelevant information. In contrast, binding accounts attribute the CSE to the learning of stimulus-response (S-R) combinations. This type of short term associative learning is referred to as binding. In subsequent trials the partial retrieval of such bound S-R combinations leads to impaired performance in comparison to the complete retrieval of an S-R combination or no retrieval at all. Recent theories tried to integrate both approaches. So, it is hypothesized that not only S-R combinations can be bound and retrieved, but also the current cognitive state, which would also include the degree of cognitive control currently implemented. There is first evidence indicating that the binding and retrieval of such control states impact on the CSE (Dignath, Johannsen, Hommel, & Kiesel, 2019). With this study we want to replicate a lab pilot study that investigated the decay of control states (OSF Registration: https://osf.io/8thvs). Our study’s goal is to replicate the pilot study with a bigger sample size. The replication study will be conducted on an online testing environment using jsPsych (de Leeuw, 2015), a library for JavaScript that allows to program web browser based experiments.

The temporal stability of cognitive control states was already a topic of interest in cognitive psychology. Cognitive control is usually measured as the congruency sequence effect (CSE) in alternative forced choice tasks, in which distracting task features conflict with task relevant features (e. g. the Strop task). The CSE is defined as a reduction in the congruency effect, i. e. the performance difference between high and low conflict trials, after high compared to low conflict trials. Egner, Ely and Grinband (2010) could show that in a Stroop task in which the inter trial interval (ITI) was manipulated trialwise the CSE decays with longer ITIs. Duthoo, Abrahamse, Braem and Notebaert (2014) extended this scientific finding showing that the CSE is temporally stable if it is possible for the participants to have an expectancy about the duration of the ITI. However, both studies used feature binding confounded designs (Hommel, 2004). Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish between effects of stimulus-response binding and effects of adaptive attentional control. Research shows that stimulus-response bindings are affected by a temporal decay that progresses linearly (Hommel & Frings, 2020). Therefore stimulus-response binding might be the driving factor in the results of Egner and colleagues (2010) as well in the results of Duthoo an colleagues (2014). In support of this hypothesis, we could show that in a confound minimized design the CSE did not decay over time (https://osf.io/zsp6w). To have a direct experimental comparison of the temporal stability of the CSE in confounded and confound-minimized designs we decided to run a second experiment in which all participants worked on both task types. Literature: Duthoo, W., Abrahamse, E. L., Braem, S., & Notebaert, W. (2014). Going, going, gone? Proactive control prevents the congruency sequence effect from rapid decay. Psychological Research, 78(4), 483-493. Egner, T., Ely, S., & Grinband, J. (2010). Going, going, gone: characterizing the time-course of congruency sequence effects. Frontiers in psychology, 1, 154. Hommel, B. (2004). Event files: Feature binding in and across perception and action. Trends in cognitive sciences, 8(11), 494-500. Hommel, B., & Frings, C. (2020). The disintegration of event files over time: Decay or interference?. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-7.

The temporal stability of cognitive control states was already a topic of interest in cognitive psychology. Cognitive control is usually measured as the congruency sequence effect (CSE) in alternative forced choice tasks, in which distracting task features conflict with task relevant features (e. g. the Strop task). The CSE is defined as a reduction in the congruency effect, i. e. the performance difference between high and low conflict trials, after high compared to low conflict trials. Egner, Ely and Grinband (2010) could show that in a Stroop task in which the inter trial interval (ITI) was manipulated trialwise the CSE decays with longer ITIs. Duthoo, Abrahamse, Braem and Notebaert (2014) extended this scientific finding showing that the CSE is temporally stable if it is possible for the participants to have an expectancy about the duration of the ITI. However, both studies used feature binding confounded designs (Hommel, 2004). Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish between effects of stimulus-response binding and effects of adaptive attentional control. Research shows that stimulus-response bindings are affected by a temporal decay that progresses linearly (Hommel & Frings, 2020). To rule out stimulus-response binding as a driving factor in the decay of the CSE, a replication of reported results with a confound-free design is needed. For this purpose we designed an experiment using a confound-free distractor-target task and trialwise ITI manipulations. Literature: Duthoo, W., Abrahamse, E. L., Braem, S., & Notebaert, W. (2014). Going, going, gone? Proactive control prevents the congruency sequence effect from rapid decay. Psychological Research, 78(4), 483-493. Egner, T., Ely, S., & Grinband, J. (2010). Going, going, gone: characterizing the time-course of congruency sequence effects. Frontiers in psychology, 1, 154. Hommel, B. (2004). Event files: Feature binding in and across perception and action. Trends in cognitive sciences, 8(11), 494-500. Hommel, B., & Frings, C. (2020). The disintegration of event files over time: Decay or interference?. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-7.

A commonly found effect in conflict tasks is the congruency sequence effect (CSE; Egner, 2008). This effect is defined by the reduction of congruency effects in post-conflict trials. Two theoretical approaches compete for the explanation of this phenomenon: Control accounts describe the CSE as the result of adaption processes, which regulate the attentional focus to the task-relevant dimension and/or result in the inhibition of task-irrelevant information. In contrast, binding accounts attribute the CSE to the learning of stimulus-response (S-R) combinations. This type of short term associative learning is referred to as binding. In subsequent trials the partial retrieval of such bound S-R combinations leads to impaired performance in comparison to the complete retrieval of an S-R combination or no retrieval at all. Recent theories tried to integrate both approaches. So, it is hypothesized that not only S-R combinations can be bound and retrieved, but also the current cognitive state, which would also include the degree of cognitive control currently implemented. There is first evidence indicating that the binding and retrieval of such control states impact on the CSE (Dignath, Johannsen, Hommel, & Kiesel, 2019). Previously, we conducted 4 studies indicating that there is no decay of bound control states. In this study, we will try to boost the binding effect to test by decreasing the amount of repeated contextual features in context switch trials. This should increase the operating space for a possible interaction with ITI duration

Stage 1 IPA at PCI RR

Binding and retrieval of stimulus features, response features, and their attentional weighting tune cognitive processing to situational demands. The two mechanisms promote successful actions, especially in situations in which such actions depend on controlled processing. Here we explored binding and retrieval of attentional control states that follow from erroneous actions. By definition, such errors are characterized by insufficient cognitive control but at the same time, error detection has been shown to trigger corresponding adjustments to prevent future failures. We reanalyzed existing datasets and conducted a novel experiment to investigate whether error-induced control states become bound to task-relevant stimuli. Results point towards a binding and retrieval of error-induced control states; however, the effect appears to be less reliable than for binding and retrieval of specific stimulus and response features. We discuss potential implications and alternative interpretations in terms of a mediating impact of error-induced control.

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.

The goal of this study is to investigate whether we can selectively reinforce conflict processing in a task switching paradigm by selectively rewarding incongruent (congruent) more than congruent (incongruent) trials using a between-subjects design. In the task switching context, congruency effects refer to the slowing of responses when irrelevant task representations (i.e., stimulus-response mappings of task B) interfere with the task relevant ones (stimulus-response mappings of task A). Method: Participants will perform two different categorization tasks, in which they will classify words either by their animacy (living/non-living) or size (smaller/bigger than a basketball). They will be cued on which task to perform on a trial by trial basis, indicated by the font color (blue or green). Reward manipulation: One group of participants will receive higher rewards after correct responding to incongruent trials (in which the target word would require a distinct response in the currently irrelevant task), whereas the other group will receive higher rewards on congruent trials (in which the target word would require the same response in the currently irrelevant task).

The goal of this study is to investigate whether we can selectively reinforce conflict processing in a task switching paradigm by selectively rewarding incongruent (congruent) more than congruent (incongruent) trials using a between-subjects design. In the task switching context, congruency effects refer to the slowing of responses when irrelevant task representations (i.e., stimulus-response mappings of task B) interfere with the task relevant ones (stimulus-response mappings of task A).

When performing multiple tasks in succession, self-organization of task order might be superior compared to external-controlled task schedules, because self-organization allows optimizing processing modes and thus reduces switch costs, and it increases commitment to task goals. However, self-organization is an additional executive control process that is not required if task order is externally specified and as such it is considered as time-consuming and effortful. To compare self-organized and externally controlled task scheduling, we suggest assessing global subjective and objectives measures of effort in addition to local performance measures. In our new experimental approach, we combined characteristics of dual tasking settings and task switching settings and compared local and global measures of effort in a condition with free choice of task sequence and a condition with cued task sequence. In a multi-tasking environment, participants chose the task order while the task requirement of the not-yet-performed task remained the same. This task preview allowed participants to work on the previously non-chosen items in parallel and resulted in faster responses and fewer errors in task switch trials than in task repetition trials. The free-choice group profited more from this task preview than the cued group when considering local performance measures. Nevertheless, the free-choice group invested more effort than the cued group when considering global measures. Thus, self-organization in task scheduling seems to be effortful even in conditions in which it is beneficiary for task processing. In a second experiment, we reduced the possibility of task preview for the not-yet-performed tasks in order to hinder efficient self-organization. Here neither local nor global measures revealed substantial differences between the free-choice and a cued task sequence condition. Based on the results of both experiments, we suggest that global assessment of effort in addition to local performance measures might be a useful tool for multitasking research.

What we intend to achieve with our actions affects the way we move our body. This has been repeatedly shown for both, movement-related intentions such as grasping and turning an object, and relatively high-level intentions such as the intention to collaborate or to compete with a social partner. The impact of an intermediate level of intentions - referring to action-contingent changes in the physical environment - is far less clear, however. We present three experiments that aim at scrutinizing this level of analysis by showing how such anticipated consequences affect movement trajectories. Participants steered a virtual avatar toward portals that displaced the avatar to a different but predictable location. Even though this displacement occurred only after the movement was completed, hand movements were clearly torn toward the anticipated final location of the avatar. These results show that properties of anticipated action consequences leave a fingerprint on movement trajectories and provide an opportunity to unite previous accounts on the relation of intentions and movements with general frameworks of action planning.