On‐line executive control: An electromyographic study

Abstract

In a choice reaction time (RT) task, electromyographic (EMG) recordings allowed us to fractionate RT into two subcomponents, namely premotor time and motor time. This has been done for correct trials and errors. The analysis of the EMG burst and motor time (between EMG onset and overt response) showed that the EMG burst amplitude was reduced and the motor time was longer for errors than for correct responses. In the same way as posterror slowing on the RT was interpreted as revealing between-trials changes in executive control, the present data provide direct evidence for an on-line, within-trial, executive control.

Response selection involves executive control: Evidence from the selective interference paradigm

“…First of all, although a few studies have already reported neuroimagery (Rowe et al, 2000) and electromyographic (Allain et al, 2004) findings suggesting that executive control is involved in response selection, the present study is the first to present converging evidence from a behavioral paradigm. In this sense, it supports the idea that executive control occurs at much more fundamental levels of human cognition than those initially proposed by means of higher level concepts, such as planning or problem solving.…”

“…In recent years, a number of studies in which various paradigms from cognitive psychology have been employed have suggested that executive control might be involved in response selection (Bunge, Hazeltine, Scanlon, Rosen, & Gabrieli, 2002;Hegarty, Shah, & Miyake, 2000;Klauer & Stegmaier, 1997;Rowe, Toni, Josephs, Frackowiak, & Passingham, 2000;Smyth & Scholey, 1994) or in a response selection task (i.e., a choice reaction time [RT] task; Allain, Carbonnell, Burle, Hasbroucq, & Vidal, 2004). Nevertheless, the idea that response selection is executively controlled remains somewhat controversial.…”

The role of response selection and input monitoring in solving simple arithmetical products

“…An analysis of the errors in the present experiments also showed that most errors were common table-related intrusions. Also, studies from totally different fields have suggested that when a response needs to be selected from a range of automatically activated responses, the incorrect responses need to be inhibited (e.g., Allain, Carbonnell, Burle, Hasbroucq, & Vidal, 2004;Conway & Engle, 1994;Kane & Engle, 2003). Therefore, in the future, it would be interesting to investigate whether such an interference control component is involved when the retrieval strategy is used to come to the correct solution of an arithmetic problem.…”

Sequential adjustments before and after partial errors

“…When this process fails to inhibit the incorrect activation, an overt erroneous response is emitted; a trace of the inhibitory process still persists at the peripheral level as a reduction of the EMG burst (Allain, Carbonnell, Burle, Hasbroucq, & Vidal, 2004). Therefore, whether the outcome is an overt or partial error, executive control adjustments will occur (Burle et al, 2002;Laming, 1979b;Rabbitt, 1966).…”