Modularity beyond perception: Evidence from single task interference paradigms

Researchers have recently begun to question the specificity and reliability of conflict adaptation effects, also known as sequential congruency effects (SCEs), a highly cited effect in cognitive psychology. Some have even used the lack of reliability across tasks (e.g., Flanker, and Stroop) to argue against models of cognitive control that have dominated the field for decades. The present study tested the possibility that domain-general processes across tasks might appear on more sensitive mouse-tracking metrics rather than overall reaction times. The relationship between SCE effects on the Stroop and Flanker tasks were examined for the first time using a mouse-tracking paradigm. Three main findings emerged: (1) Robust SCEs were observed for both the Stroop and Flanker tasks at the group level, (2) Within-task split-half reliabilities for the SCE across dependent variables were weak at best and non-existent in many cases, and (3) SCEs for the Flanker and Stroop tasks did not correlate with each other for overall reaction times, but did show significant correlations between tasks on more dynamic measures that captured processes before response execution. These findings contribute to the literature by highlighting how mouse-tracking may be a fruitful avenue by which future studies can examine the specificity and reliability of conflict adaptation and tease apart different theoretical models producing the effects.

In a speeded choice reaction time task, responses to centrally presented letter targets can be altered by the identity of surrounding task-irrelevant letters (flankers). In the standard flanker effect, flankers associated with the same response as the target lead to faster and more accurate responses, whereas flankers associated with a different response lead to slower and more error-prone responses. B. A. Eriksen and C. W. Eriksen (1974, pp. 143-149) have argued that these flanker effects occur through response competition. We present data from a novel version of the Eriksen task, in which some targets and flankers consist of letter forms that are morphed versions of target letters. In this paradigm, flankers induce classic flanker effects on well-formed targets. But flankers induce an opposite effect, termed a negative flanker effect on morphed letter targets. For example, targets that are morphs between the letters "A" and "H" are more likely to be identified as an "A" when flanked by an "H." The interpretation advanced here is that there are two distinct kinds of flanker effects contrast enhancement in perceptual processes and response competition in response selection processes.

PURPOSE: Recent research has reported mental fatigue not only impairs endurance, but also sport-specific technical performance. Therefore we sought to examine the effect of a mentally fatiguing task on a motor-reaction time (M-RT) task. METHODS: A M-RT task was developed with Fitlight-hardware and –software in order to evaluate the effect of mental fatigue on stimuli-type (simple vs. response inhibition) and visual-field position (central vs. peripheral). Eleven untrained healthy subjects (age: 25 ± 4y; 6 female, 5 male) performed two experimental trials in a randomized crossover order. Participants first completed a baseline M-RT task (~6min30sec), followed by a Flanker task. Next they performed either a 90min mentally fatiguing task (Stroop task; MF) or watched a 90min documentary (CON). Immediately thereafter again the Flanker task and the M-RT task were completed. Accuracy (ACC) and reaction time (RT) were followed up in all tasks but the documentary. In addition multiple physiological and psychological measures were assessed during the protocol. RESULTS: ACC on both the Stroop task (p=0.021) and the Flanker task (~3%; p=0.048) dropped over time in MF. Participants got faster over time on the Stroop task in MF (p≤0.004). RT on the Flanker task did not change over time in both MF and CON. Subjectively, higher (p=0.001) mental fatigue was perceived in MF compared to CON. Concerning the M-RT-performance, no effects were observed for the simple stimuli. For the response inhibition-stimuli, only in MF participants became significantly slower in time (~7.5%; p=0.007). CONCLUSION: Mental fatigue negatively affects sport-specific response inhibition-RT. Therefore, besides endurance capacity, also sport-specific cognition appears to be impaired by mental fatigue. The impairment in RT was independent from the visual-field position of the stimulus and was not perceived by the participants.

The sequential congruency effect (SCE) is defined as the decrease in the congruency effect following incongruent trials compared to congruent trials. The effect of context repetition on the SCE was investigated in four experiments. In all the experiments, dynamic visual white noise was used as the contextual feature, and the number of congruent and incongruent trials was equal. In Experiments 1 and 2, by using eight-value Flanker and Stroop tasks, and excluding stimulus- and response-feature repetitions from the analysis, a SCE was observed in both context repetition and alternation conditions. In Experiment 3, using a two-value Flanker task, all trials consisted of stimulus- and response-feature repetitions, and a SCE was only observed in the context repetition condition. In Experiment 4, we used a four-value Flanker task, which enabled half of the trials to be partial/complete repetitions and the other half to be complete alternations. A SCE was observed in both context repetition and alternation conditions irrespective of the stimulus- and response-feature repetitions. This pattern of results suggested that the effects of context repetition on the SCE are subject to a number of factors including stimulus- and response-feature repetitions and contingency biases. When contingency information exists, the presence of stimulus- and response-feature repetitions was no longer effective in yielding effects of context repetition on the SCE. These findings suggest that the usage of information registered in episodic event representations including stimulus-, response- and contextual-features, control parameters and contingency biases results from interactions of a complex pattern of mechanisms, yet to be further explored.

Affective Dysregulation in Children Is Associated With Difficulties in Response Control in Emotional Ambiguous Situations

Electrophysiological and behavioral indices of cognitive conflict processing across adolescence

Recent studies revealed inconsistent evidences of a bilingual advantage in executive processing. One potential source of explanation is the multifaceted experience of the bilinguals in these studies. This study seeks to test whether bilinguals who engage in language selection more frequently would perform better in executive control tasks than those bilinguals who engage in language selection less frequently. We examined the influence of the degree of bilingualism (i.e., language proficiency, frequency of use of two languages, and age of second language acquisition) on executive functioning in bilingual young adults using a comprehensive battery of executive control tasks. Seventy-two 18- to 25-years-old English–Mandarin bilinguals performed four computerized executive function (EF) tasks (Stroop, Eriksen flanker, number–letter switching, and n-back task) that measure the EF components: inhibition, mental-set shifting, and information updating and monitoring. Results from multiple regression analyses, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping supported the positive association between age of second language acquisition and the interference cost in the Stroop task. Most importantly, we found a significant effect of balanced bilingualism (balanced usage of and balanced proficiency in two languages) on the Stroop and number–letter task (mixing cost only), indicating that a more balanced use and a more balanced level of proficiency in two languages resulted in better executive control skills in the adult bilinguals. We did not find any significant effect of bilingualism on flanker or n-back task. These findings provided important insights to the underlying mechanisms of the bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis, demonstrating that regular experience with extensive practice in controlling attention to their two language systems results in better performance in related EFs such as inhibiting prepotent responses and global set-shifting.

The prior exertion of self‐control has previously been shown to negatively affect physical performance, yet the effects on complex sporting skill performance have not been examined. Therefore, this study examined whether prior self‐control exertion influences performance on a field hockey task, alongside measuring plasma cortisol concentration and attention as potential mechanisms to explain any effects.Following familiarization, 13 male hockey players (20 ± 1 years) participated in a randomized, order‐balanced, crossover design. For the manipulation of self‐control, participants completed an incongruent (self‐control exertion trial) or a congruent (control trial) Stroop task. Skill performance was assessed using a field hockey skills task. Capillary blood samples, for the determination of plasma cortisol concentration, were taken at baseline, post‐Stroop task, and post‐field hockey skills task. Cognitive tests of attention (RVIP and Flanker tasks) were completed following the field hockey skills task.Participants made more errors in the latter stages of the field hockey skills task following self‐control exertion (trial*time interaction, p = 0.041). Participants also made more errors on the RVIP task following self‐control exertion (p = 0.035); yet the time taken to complete the hockey skills task, performance on the flanker task, and plasma cortisol concentrations were unaffected (all p > 0.05).Overall, these findings suggest that prior self‐control exertion has detrimental effects on subsequent sporting skill performance (more errors made on the field hockey task), which may be explained by poorer sustained attention (lower accuracy on the RVIP task). This suggests that athletes should aim to avoid self‐control exertion before a competitive match to optimize performance.

Interference created by incongruent stimuli in the classic Stroop task appears to be a complex phenomenon, attributed to multiple sources: task conflict (created by the possibility of engaging both word reading and color naming), semantic conflict (created by incompatibility between the concepts denoted by the word and the color), and response conflict (created when the word and the color are associated with two different possible responses). This composite view has seen little use in other conflict tasks, even though interference might reflect multiple sources of conflict in those tasks as well. The current pre-registered study attempted to decompose interference in the classic flanker task. A sample of 130 participants from two countries identified a centrally presented letter while ignoring flanking stimuli, which could be of ten different types (from least to most expected interference: no flanker, simple dots, patches of random visual noise, meaningless simple shapes, meaningless complex shapes, meaningful pictograms, digits, non-response set letters, and letters belonging to the response set; congruent trials were also included as a reference). The results clearly showed cumulative levels of interference as flankers became processable, meaningful, and identifiable as a possible response, indicating that different types of conflict do contribute to interference in the flanker task. The results broadly map onto the task, semantic, and response types of conflict identified in the Stroop task, with a few nuances. Our findings suggest that the presence of multiple sources of conflict may be a very general phenomenon in conflict tasks, extending well beyond Stroop interference.

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a sleep disorder involving repeated nocturnal desaturation and sleep fragmentation. OSA can result in decreased daytime alertness and neurocognitive dysfunction. Hypercapnia status is also related to neurocognitive dysfunction in patients with pulmonary diseases. We evaluated the effects of hypercapnia on cognitive performance and memory function in a prospective case-controlled study. We enrolled thirty-nine obese patients with OSA and collected their arterial blood samples. All the participants provided arterial blood samples, and completed two questionnaires (the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale) and six cognitive tasks (the psychomotor vigilance task [PVT], the Stroop task, the Eriksen flanker task, processing speed [DSST], and verbal and visual memory [LM&FM]), which were used to evaluate daytime sleepiness, cognitive function, and memory function within one week of a polysomnographic study. When compared to the OSA without diurnal hypoventilation, the patients with stable hypercapnia (OHS) had increased reaction times in the PVT, Stroop task, and flanker task. Hypercapnic obese patients with OSA also had comparatively significantly lower scores in the processing speed and logical memory tests. OHS had increased reaction times in the attention and cognitive function assessments, and deficits in the logical memory, when compared to those with OSA without diurnal hypoventilation.

BackgroundThere is great interest in appropriate phenotypes that serve as indicator of genetically transmitted frontal (dys)function, such as ADHD. Here we investigate the ability to deal with response conflict, and we ask to what extent performance variation on response interference tasks is caused by genetic variation. We tested a large sample of 12-year old monozygotic and dizygotic twins on two well-known and closely related response interference tasks; the color Stroop task and the Eriksen flanker task. Using structural equation modelling we assessed the heritability of several performance indices derived from those tasks.ResultsIn the Stroop task we found high heritabilities of overall reaction time and – more important – Stroop interference (h2 = nearly 50 %). In contrast, we found little evidence of heritability on flanker performance. For both tasks no effects of sex on performance variation were found.ConclusionsThese results suggest that normal variation in Stroop performance is influenced by underlying genetic variation. Given that Stroop performance is often hampered not only in people suffering from frontal dysfunction, but also in their unaffected relatives, we conclude that this variable may constitute a suitable endophenotype for future genetic studies. We discuss several reasons for the absence of genetic effects on the flanker task.

Aging has been assumed to go along with deficient inhibitory processes in cognitive performance. According to this inhibition deficit hypothesis, older adults are less able to suppress or ignore irrelevant thoughts and actions than young adults are. This hypothesis has been investigated in a large number of studies. We conducted a meta-analysis to determine whether there is an inhibition deficit in older age and whether this deficit is general or task-specific. We selected 176 studies in which young and older adults were tested on tasks commonly assumed to measure inhibition (i.e., the color Stroop, flanker, Simon, stop-signal, go/no-go, global-local, positive and negative compatibility tasks, as well as the paradigm assessing n-2 repetition costs in task switching). For most tasks (i.e., the color Stroop, flanker, and local tasks, as well as the n-2 repetition costs), the results speak against an inhibition deficit in older age. Only in a few tasks (i.e., the go/no-go and stop-signal tasks), older adults showed impaired inhibition. Moreover, for four tasks (i.e., the Simon, global, positive and negative compatibility tasks), the results suggest that more studies are necessary to draw a firm conclusion. Together, the present findings call into question the hypothesis of a general inhibition deficit in older age.

<h3>Background</h3> A lot of controversy exists about how fatigue affects injury risk. Within the fatigue spectrum, mental fatigue impairs visuomotor skills, reaction time and decision-making. Recently, adaptability has been put forward as an important driver in understanding injury occurrence and injury prevention. It is hypothesised that mental fatigue decreases an athlete’s adaptability by means of an increased visuomotor reaction time and diminished ability for decision-making and visuomotor skill execution. <h3>Objective</h3> To assess the impact of mental fatigue on functional tests used in injury risk profiling and if mental fatigue decreases an athlete adaptability. <h3>Design</h3> Randomized counterbalanced cross-over design. <h3>Setting</h3> Primary prevention. <h3>Participants</h3> Fourteen healthy participants (age = 22 ± 1 years; height = 176.9 ± 8.4 cm; weight = 69.7 ± 10.4 kg). <h3>Interventions</h3> Mental fatigue was induced by a 90-minute 100% incongruent Stroop color word test, while the control task included watching a 90-minute documentary. <h3>Main Outcome Measurements</h3> Y-balance test (YBT), Reactive balance test (RBT), Single leg hop test (SLH) and countermovement jump (CMJ) performance was evaluated pre-post mental fatigue. Mental fatigue was evaluated using the M-VAS, Stroop and Eriksen-Flanker task performance outcomes. <h3>Results</h3> Mental fatigue was successfully induced at the subjective level with a significant increase in M-VAS (p&lt;0.001), with no decrease in performance on the Stroop and Eriksen-Flanker task. Mental fatigue did not affect YBT, SLH and the CMJ performance. However, RBT accuracy significantly decreased in mental fatigue condition (p=0.024), while the visuomotor reaction time of the RBT remained unaffected. <h3>Conclusions</h3> This is the first experiment to illustrate that mental fatigue affects functional adaptability, as accuracy in response to environmental stimuli decreases. However, traditional functional test perfmance remains unaffected. Therefore, both neurocognitive functional tests and mental fatigue responses should be considered within injury risk profiling strategies. Prospective study designs within the injury prevention domain should include neurocognitive functional tests to investigate the possible relationship of these tests with sports injuries.

Repeating a single-prime stimulus as a target to respond to usually facilitates responses. However, sometimes, prime repetition slows the responses and produces the single-prime negative priming effect. In this study, the distractor set hypothesis was proposed as a mechanism of attentional control that can contribute toward single-prime negative priming. In Experiments 1a-1d, an integrated Stroop task was used. The results showed that the prime produced negative priming only when it matched the form of the competing distractors. A separate Stroop task was used in Experiments 2 and 3 and a flanker task was used in Experiments 4a and 4b. In both tasks, the results suggested that a prime produced negative priming when the location of the prime matched that of the distractors. In Experiment 5, alternative explanations including the effects of the prime-to-distractor similarity and the target set were examined. The results revealed that the distractor set, rather than the target set and the similarity between the prime and distractor, could better account for the negative priming effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Study aim: Aerobic exercise has many benefits including improvements in mood and cognition. Group exercise has been suggested to better improve mood compared to exercise alone, but there is no consensus and few studies attempting to understand exercise and social influences on mood and cognition. This study’s purpose was to begin filling this gap by isolating socialization from exercise to determine how each affect mood and cognitive changes. Materials and methods: Twenty-five adults (24.2 ± 1.69 years) performed four 30-minute sessions including either acute exercise or sedentary, and either social interaction or limited social interaction. Mood was assessed using a Profile of Mood States and a State-trait Anxiety Inventory Questionnaire. Cognitive assessments were performed using computerized Stroop and Eriksen Flanker tasks. Mood and cognition were assessed prior-to and following each session. Differences in mood and cognitive performance were analyzed for main effects of both exercise and social interactions in a two-by-two within subject design. Results: Both exercise and social interactions influenced mood parameters, with fatigue being reduced by exercise and social interaction, total mood disturbance approaching significance for exercise, and hostility being reduced by socialization. Vigor approached significance for exercise and had a significant interaction with socialization. No cognitive improvements were observed, likely due to cognitive tasks lacking sufficient sensitivity for cognitively healthy young adults. Conclusion: Both exercise and social interactions can improve mood parameters, and when performed together there may be an additive effect for some mood parameters. Additional studies are needed to elucidate these acute effects.