Episodic context binding in task switching: Evidence from amnesia

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether amnesic patients show a bivalency effect. The bivalency effect refers to the performance slowing that occurs when switching tasks and bivalent stimuli appear occasionally among univalent stimuli. According to the episodic context binding account, bivalent stimuli create a conflict-loaded context that is re-activated on subsequent trials and thus it is assumed that it depends on memory binding processes. Given the profound memory deficit in amnesia, we hypothesized that the bivalency effect would be largely reduced in amnesic patients. We tested sixteen severely amnesic patients and a control group with a paradigm requiring predictable alternations between three simple cognitive tasks, with bivalent stimuli occasionally occurring on one of these tasks. The results showed the typical bivalency effect for the control group, that is, a generalized slowing for each task. In contrast, for amnesic patients, only a short-lived slowing was present on the task that followed immediately after a bivalent stimulus, indicating that the binding between tasks and context was impaired in amnesic patients.

The bivalency effect represents an interference-triggered adjustment of cognitive control: An ERP study

“…We hypothesized that due to their severe problems in memory binding, amnesic patients would fail to show a normal bivalency effect. The results were in line with this prediction (Meier et al, 2013). Nevertheless, further evaluation of the episodic context account is necessary.…”

How long-lasting is the post-conflict slowing after incongruent trials? Evidence from the Stroop, Simon, and flanker tasks

“…To explain the different kinds of post-conflict slowing, different explanations have been put forward. For example, we accounted for the post-conflict slowing following bivalent and incongruent trials by proposing an episodic context binding explanation Meier et al, 2013;Meier et al, 2009;, 2016. According to this account, responding to a particular trial results in a memory representation that is bound to the proximate context (e.g., the particular task sequence of parity, color, and case decisions in the case of bivalent stimuli).…”

“…The bivalency effect is the performance slowing that occurs on all univalent trials following bivalent stimuli, including those sharing no relevant features with bivalent stimuli (i.e., the parity-decision trials). Critically, the bivalency effect has been found to persist across many subsequent trials (Meier et al, 2015;Meier et al, 2013;Meier et al, 2009;. Moreover, increasing the interval from 1,000 ms to 5,000 ms after each task triplet does not affect its magnitude (Meier et al, 2009).…”

Age affects the adjustment of cognitive control after a conflict: evidence from the bivalency effect

“…Moreover, it is associated with activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, a brain area recruited for the adjustment of cognitive control (Grundy, Benarroch, Woodward, Metzak, Whitman, & Shedden, 2013;Woodward et al, 2008) and it draws on memory resources because amnesic patients fail to show the typical pattern of a long-lasting performance slowing (Meier, Rey-Mermet, Woodward, Müri, & Gutbrod, 2013). …”