Additive Effects of Item-Specific and Congruency Sequence Effects in the Vocal Stroop Task

Abstract

There is a growing interest in assessing how cognitive processes fluidly adjust across trials within a task. Dynamic adjustments of control are typically measured using the congruency sequence effect (CSE), which refers to the reduction in interference following an incongruent trial, relative to a congruent trial. However, it is unclear if this effect stems from a general control mechanism or a distinct process tied to cross-trial reengagement of the task set. We examine the relationship of the CSE with another measure of control referred to as the item-specific proportion congruency effect (ISPC), the finding that frequently occurring congruent items exhibit greater interference than items that are often incongruent. If the two effects reflect the same control mechanism, one should find interactive effects of CSE and ISPC. We report results from three experiments utilizing a vocal Stroop task that manipulated these two effects while controlling for variables that are often confounded in the literature. Across three experiments, we observed large CSE and ISPC effects. Importantly, these effects were robustly additive with one another (Bayes Factor for the null approaching 9). This finding indicates that the CSE and ISPC arise from independent mechanisms and suggests the CSE in Stroop may reflect a more general response adjustment process that is not directly tied to trial-by-trial changes in attentional control.

Cognition in Motion: Evidence for Intact Action Control With Healthy Aging

“…As both the CSE and ISPC effect are thought to rely on reactive, transient (as compared to proactive, sustained) adaptations in attentional settings ( Bugg, 2014 ; Funes et al, 2010 ; Torres-Quesada et al, 2013 ), it could be argued that our present observation of absent age effects on adaptation may be conflict type-specific. At the same time, there are recent indications that these conflict adaptation indices may arise from independent mechanisms ( Aschenbrenner & Balota, 2019 ), opening up the possibility that aging may be associated with changes in some adaptation mechanisms but not others. Future studies should systematically manipulate conflict type and behavioral index using within-subject approaches to investigate the respective role of each factor in the relationship between aging and action control.…”

“…We calculated our main outcome measures using both raw RTs and subject-based z -scores to control for known age-related changes in processing speed that affect RT performance (cf. Aschenbrenner & Balota, 2017 , 2019 ). To evaluate whether PRC and IPSC effects were present in our entire sample, we ran repeated-measures ANOVAs for each task.…”

On the automaticity of reactive item-specific control as evidenced by its efficiency under load.

“…In Experiments 3 and 4 of the present study, we found that the ISPC effect was evident under 0-back task load and under concurrent 2-back task load (we did not test a 1-back task load as that would have greatly reduced observations in the other conditions). According to the dual mechanisms of control account (Braver et al, 2007), both congruency sequence effects and ISPC effects are indices of reactive control and therefore these contrasting patterns raise the question of whether different types of reactive control may have differing operating characteristics (see also Aschenbrenner & Balota, 2019, for evidence that the two effects are additive suggesting they represent independent processes), including the degree to which they operate automatically (i.e., efficiently under a concurrent load).…”

A Cautionary Note Against Selective Applications of the Bayes Factor

“…A significant interaction would indicate that the two factors influence the same stage. For demonstrating that factors selectively influence different stages, one would want to find a non-significant interaction, and it may be particularly tempting to selectively apply Bayes factors in this case (e.g., Aschenbrenner & Balota, 2019). The same theoretical interest to demonstrate the absence of an interaction applies to many other situations such that, for example, a factor impacting response times in a psychological refractory period paradigm does so at all possible intervals between tasks (e.g., Janczyk et al, 2019).…”