The influence of reward associations on conflict processing in the Stroop task

Abstract

Performance in a behavioral task can be facilitated by associating stimulus properties with reward. In contrast, conflicting information is known to impede task performance. Here we investigated how reward associations influence the within-trial processing of conflicting information using a color-naming Stroop task in which a subset of ink colors (task-relevant dimension) was associated with monetary incentives. We found that color-naming performance was enhanced on trials with potential reward versus those without. Moreover, in potential-reward trials, typical conflict-induced performance decrements were attenuated if the incongruent word (task-irrelevant dimension) was unrelated to reward. In contrast, incongruent words that were semantically related to reward-predicting ink colors interfered with performance in potential-reward trials and even more so in no-reward trials, despite the semantic meaning being entirely task-irrelevant. These observations imply that the prospect of reward enhances the processing of task-relevant stimulus information, whereas incongruent reward-related information in a task-irrelevant dimension can impede task performance.

Automaticity and cognitive control in the learned predictiveness effect.

“…For example, Della Libera and Chelazi (2006) provided some initial evidence that the delivery of reward affects the balance of inhibitory control evident in negative priming. In the Stroop task, when the colour of the word and its meaning do not correspond, interference from word meaning is selectively reduced for highly rewarded colours (Krebs, Boehler, & Woldorff, 2010). Similar effects have been reported in flanker and task-switching tasks (Braem, Verguts, Roggeman, & Notebaert, 2012), as well as the Simon task (Sturmer, Nigbur, Schacht, & Sommer, 2011), all classical indexes of cognitive control.…”

Effects of Reward and Punishment on Conflict Processing: Same or Different?

“…Different from Krebs et al (2010), our results indicated a cost of reward in potential-reward trials, as well as a poor performance in incongruent-reward-related trials as evidenced by longer response time found in these two types of conditions. In other words, reward did not facilitate the color naming performance, but oppositely hindered this process.…”

“…It is likely due to the different materials used in the two studies, supporting the notion that reward is not always beneficial for behavioral performance (Padmala & Pessoa, 2010;Pessoa, 2009). Moreover, though Krebs et al (2010) showed the facilitation effect of reward on conflict processing in explicit association, they agreed that reward could concomitantly induce behavioral costs, which was confirmed by their finding of behavioral detriments when the task-irrelevant dimension (i.e., word meaning) implicitly referred to reward-predictive colors. Besides, they argued that the effect of reward on conflict processing was possibly due to that attention was distracted by reward.…”

“…The procedure followed closely to that in Krebs, Boehler, and Woldorff (2010). All participants were tested individually in a dimly lit room.…”

“…Furthermore, though reward and punishment have been found to share the same brain region, namely the cingulate cortex which is critically involved in processing the expectation and occurrence of reward and punishment (Stürmer, Nigbur, Schacht, & Sommer, 2011), they have rarely been studied simultaneously, which may be probably due to their opposite affective value. For example, Krebs, Boehler, and Woldorff (2010) mainly investigated how reward associations influenced the processing of conflicting information with monetary incentives, and they found that color-naming performance in a Stroop task was enhanced on trials with potential-reward versus those without. Recently, neuropsychological evidence demonstrated that brain regions implicated in human cognitive control was also critically involved in reward-based learning (Miller & Cohen, 2001;Ridderinkhof, Ullsperger, Crone, & Nieuwenhuis, 2004;Ridderinkhof, van den Wildenberg, Segalowitz, & Carter, 2004;Ullsperger & von Cramon, 2003), supporting the interaction between reward and conflict processing.…”