scholarly journals Contextual within-trial adaption of cognitive control: Evidence from the combination of conflict tasks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alodie Rey-Mermet ◽  
Miriam Gade
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Traffic Light ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Stimulus Set ◽  
Key Press

It is assumed that we recruit cognitive control (i.e., attentional adjustment and/or inhibition) to resolve two conflicts at a time, such as driving towards a red traffic light and taking care of a near-by ambulance car. A few studies have addressed this issue by combining a Simon task (which required responding with left or right key-press to a stimulus presented on the left or right side of the screen) with either a Stroop task (which required identifying the color of color words) or a Flanker task (which required identifying the target character among flankers). In most studies, the results revealed no interaction between the conflict tasks. However, these studies include a small stimulus set, and participants might have learned the stimulus-response mappings for each stimulus. Thus, it is possible that participants have more relied on episodic memory than on cognitive control to perform the task. In five experiments, we combined the three tasks pairwise, and we increased the stimulus set size to circumvent episodic memory contributions. The results revealed an interaction between the conflict tasks: Irrespective of task combination, the congruency effect of one task was smaller when the stimulus was incongruent for the other task. This suggests that when two conflicts are presented concurrently, the control processes induced by one conflict source can affect the control processes induced by the other conflict source.

A Bird in the Hand Isn’t Good for Long

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Scherbaum ◽  
Simon Frisch ◽  
Maja Dshemuchadse
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Folk Wisdom ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract. Folk wisdom tells us that additional time to make a decision helps us to refrain from the first impulse to take the bird in the hand. However, the question why the time to decide plays an important role is still unanswered. Here we distinguish two explanations, one based on a bias in value accumulation that has to be overcome with time, the other based on cognitive control processes that need time to set in. In an intertemporal decision task, we use mouse tracking to study participants’ responses to options’ values and delays which were presented sequentially. We find that the information about options’ delays does indeed lead to an immediate bias that is controlled afterwards, matching the prediction of control processes needed to counter initial impulses. Hence, by using a dynamic measure, we provide insight into the processes underlying short-term oriented choices in intertemporal decision making.

scholarly journals Relationship Between Language Dominance and Stimulus-Stimulus or Stimulus-Response Inhibition in Uyghur-Chinese Bilinguals with an Investigation of Speed-Accuracy Trade-Offs

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wu ◽  
Struys ◽  
Lochtman
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Monitoring Process ◽  
Response Task ◽  
Speed Accuracy

The effect of bilingualism on inhibition control is increasingly under ongoing exploration. The present study primarily investigated the effect of within bilingual factors (i.e., dominance types of Uyghur-Chinese bilinguals) on a Stimulus-Stimulus task (Flanker) and a Stimulus-Response task (Simon). We also compared the bilinguals' performance on each type of cognitive control task in respect to a possible trade-off between speed and accuracy. The findings showed no explicit differences on performance in response time or accuracy among balanced, L1-dominant and L2-dominant bilinguals but balanced bilinguals demonstrated a significant speed-accuracy trade-off in the overall context switching between non-conflict and conflict trials in both cognitive control tasks where monitoring process is highly demanded. Additionally, all bilinguals across all language dominance types showed a trade-off strategy in inhibition during a Stimulus-Stimulus conflict (flanker task). This evidence indicates that the differences of within bilinguals in cognitive control could lie in the monitoring process, while for all bilinguals, inhibition during a Stimulus-Stimulus conflict could be a major component in the mechanism of bilingual language processing.

List-level control in the flanker task

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 1444-1459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M Bugg ◽  
Corentin Gonthier
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Design Experiment ◽  
Potential Solution ◽  
Level Control ◽  
Established Method ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
First Time

Current theories posit multiple levels of cognitive control for resolving conflict, including list-level control: the global or proactive biasing of attention across a list of trials. However, to date, evidence for pure list-level control has largely been confined to the Stroop task. Our goals were twofold: (a) test the generality of theoretical accounts by seeking evidence for list-level control in the letter flanker task, using an established method involving diagnostic items, and investigating the conditions under which list-level control may and may not be observed and (b) develop and test a potential solution to the challenge of isolating list-level control in tasks with a relatively limited set of stimuli and responses such as arrow flanker. Our key findings were that list-level control was observed for the first time in a letter flanker task on diagnostic items (Experiment 1), and it was not observed when the design was altered to encourage learning and use of simple stimulus–response associations (Experiment 2). These findings support the generalisability of current theoretical accounts positing dual-mechanisms or multiple levels of control, and the associations as antagonists to control account positing that list-level control may be a last resort, to conflict tasks besides Stroop. List-level control was also observed in the arrow flanker task using a modified design (Experiment 3), which could be extended to other conflict tasks with limited sets of stimuli (four or fewer), although this solution is not entirely free of confounds.

Further Evidence for the Binding and Retrieval of Control-States From the Flanker Task

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Dignath ◽  
Andrea Kiesel
Keyword(s):  
Effortful Control ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Stimulus Information ◽  
Target Task ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Prime Target

Abstract. In response-interference tasks, congruency effects are reduced in trials that follow an incongruent trial. This congruence sequence effect (CSE) has been taken to reflect top-down cognitive control processes that monitor for and intervene in case of conflict. In contrast, episodic-memory accounts explain CSEs with bottom-up retrieval of stimulus-response links. Reconciling these opposing views, an emerging perspective holds that memory stores instances of control – abstract control-states – creating a shortcut for effortful control processes. Support comes from a study that assessed CSEs in a prime-target task. Here, repeating an irrelevant context feature boosted CSEs, possibly by retrieving previously stored control-states. We present a conceptual replication using the Eriksen flanker task because previous research found that CSEs in the flanker task reflect different control mechanisms than CSEs in the prime-target task. We measured CSEs while controlling for stimulus–response memory effects and manipulated contextual information (vertical spatial location) independently from the stimulus information, which introduced the conflict (horizontal spatial location). Results replicate previous findings – CSEs increased for context-repetition compared to context-changes. This study shows that retrieval of control-states is not limited to a specific task or context feature and therefore generalizes the notion that abstract control parameters are stored into trial-specific event files.

Fine-Grain Episodic Memory Processes in Cognitive Control

2013 ◽  
Vol 221 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik M. Altmann
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Proactive Interference ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
The Other ◽  
Memory Processes ◽  
Fine Grain ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
High Level

Previous task-switching research raises a question concerning the role of episodic memory processes in cognitive control. The question is framed by the contrast between two procedures, explicit cuing and randomized runs, one of which presents a task cue perceptually on every trial and the other of which involves uncued trials. The present study compares performance across these procedures. Performance errors sensitive to errors in focusing on the correct task were higher under explicit-cuing conditions than under randomized-runs conditions, consistent with a high level of proactive interference from old task information. The results support an account in which control codes stored in episodic memory play an integral role in cognitive control, even under conditions in which all information needed for performance is perceptually available.

scholarly journals Investigating the link between linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive control in bilinguals using Laplacian-transformed event related potentials

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-60
Author(s):  
M. N Mendoza ◽  
H. K Blumenfeld ◽  
R. T Knight ◽  
S. K Riès
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Current Source ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
English Word ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Unrelated Control ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Partial Overlap

Abstract Bilinguals’ need to suppress the activation of their other language while speaking has been proposed to result in enhanced cognitive control abilities outside of language. Several studies therefore suggest shared cognitive control processes across linguistic and non-linguistic tasks. Here we investigate this potential overlap using scalp electroencephalographic recordings and the Laplacian transformation, providing an estimation of the current source density and allowing to separate EEG components in space. Fourteen Spanish-English bilinguals performed a pictureword matching task contrasting incongruent trials using cross-linguistic false cognates (e.g., a picture- foot, overlaid with distractor text: English word- PIE, i.e. the false cognate for the Spanish “pie” meaning “foot”) with congruent trials (matching English picture names and words, i.e., picture-foot, overlaid text: English word FOOT), and an unrelated control condition. In addition, participants performed an arrow-version of the Eriksen flanker task. Worse behavioral performance was observed in incongruent compared to congruent trials in both tasks. In the non-linguistic task, we replicated the previously observed congruency effect on a medialfrontal ERP peaking around 50 ms before EMG onset. A similar ERP was present in the linguistic task, was sensitive to congruency, and peaked earlier, around 150ms before EMG onset. In addition, another component was found in the linguistic task at a left lateralized anterior frontal site peaking around 200 ms before EMG onset, but was absent in the non-linguistic task. Our results suggest a partial overlap between linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive control processes and that linguistic conflict resolution may engage additional left anterior frontal control processes.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness and the Flexible Modulation of Cognitive Control in Preadolescent Children

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1332-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew B. Pontifex ◽  
Lauren B. Raine ◽  
Christopher R. Johnson ◽  
Laura Chaddock ◽  
Michelle W. Voss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cardiorespiratory Fitness ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Response Accuracy ◽  
Response Condition ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Preadolescent Children ◽  
P3 Amplitude

The influence of cardiorespiratory fitness on the modulation of cognitive control was assessed in preadolescent children separated into higher- and lower-fit groups. Participants completed compatible and incompatible stimulus–response conditions of a modified flanker task, consisting of congruent and incongruent arrays, while ERPs and task performance were concurrently measured. Findings revealed decreased response accuracy for lower- relative to higher-fit participants with a selectively larger deficit in response to the incompatible stimulus–response condition, requiring the greatest amount of cognitive control. In contrast, higher-fit participants maintained response accuracy across stimulus–response compatibility conditions. Neuroelectric measures indicated that higher-fit, relative to lower-fit, participants exhibited global increases in P3 amplitude and shorter P3 latency, as well as greater modulation of P3 amplitude between the compatible and incompatible stimulus–response conditions. Similarly, higher-fit participants exhibited smaller error-related negativity (ERN) amplitudes in the compatible condition, and greater modulation of the ERN between the compatible and incompatible conditions, relative to lower-fit participants who exhibited large ERN amplitudes across both conditions. These findings suggest that lower-fit children may have more difficulty than higher-fit children in the flexible modulation of cognitive control processes to meet task demands.

scholarly journals Multiplicative priming of the correct response can explain the interaction between Simon and flanker congruency

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0248172
Author(s):  
Alodie Rey-Mermet ◽  
Miriam Gade ◽  
Marco Steinhauser
Keyword(s):  
Correct Response ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Central Character ◽  
Stimulus Color ◽  
Spatial Overlap ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Spatial Features ◽  
Key Press

In the Simon task, participants perform a decision on non-spatial features (e.g., stimulus color) by responding with a left or right key-press to a stimulus presented on the left or right side of the screen. In the flanker task, they classify the central character while ignoring the flanking characters. In each task, there is a conflict between the response-relevant features and the response-irrelevant features (i.e., the location on the screen for the Simon task, and the flankers for the flanker task). Thus, in both tasks, resolving conflict requires to inhibit irrelevant features and to focus on relevant features. When both tasks were combined within the same trial (e.g., when the row of characters was presented on the left or right side of the screen), most previous research has shown an interaction. In the present study, we investigated whether this interaction is affected by a multiplicative priming of the correct response occurring when both Simon and flanker irrelevant features co-activate the correct response (Exp. 1), a spatial overlap between Simon and flanker features (Exp. 2), and the learning of stimulus-response pairings (Exp. 3). The results only show an impact of multiplicative priming.

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