Spoiler alert: Reliable distractor response cues benefit response selection.

The congruency sequence effect (CSE), or Gratton effect, describes diminished congruency effects (i.e., faster responses for <<<<< vs. <<><< stimuli in a flanker task) on trials following an incongruent trial compared to those following a congruent trial. Traditionally, the CSE is regarded as an index of conflict adaptation. Accounts of the CSE have typically emphasized either top-down (cognitive control) or bottom-up (associative) processes. To disentangle top-down and bottom-up contributions to the CSE, we compared performance on versions of Simon and flanker tasks that control for memory and learning effects present in the standard versions of these tasks with the standard tasks. We analyzed the data using a recently developed model that explains conflict effects in terms of attention-shifting dynamics, the revised diffusion model for conflict tasks. Our modeling analyses suggest the CSEs in both Simon tasks are mainly driven by across-trial changes in the way attention is loaded onto distractor information, consistent with top-down control. In contrast, for both flanker tasks, our model-based analysis does not provide clear evidence favoring either top-down or bottom-up contributions to the CSEs overall. Furthermore, we fit the standard version of these tasks while separately analyzing trials based on whether the response was repeated or alternated across successive trials. Model fits suggest a combination of both influences, with different patterns for congruent and incongruent trials. Performance benefits on congruent trials are driven by adjusting how attention is loaded onto distractor information based on the previous congruency types (i.e., top-down influence). However, on incongruent trials, asymmetrical repetition benefits are mainly due to faster memory retrieval (i.e., bottom-up influence) and reactive attentional control. Our findings highlight that a more nuanced and integrated theoretical framework is necessary to capture the interplay between top-down and bottom-up processes in explaining control mechanisms when analyzing different response sequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Differentiation of executive functions during adolescence: Converging evidence from behavioral, genetic and neural data.

The current study investigated the influence of acute psychological stress on selective attention processes. After an acute stressor or a control condition, 20 participants performed an arrow-based version of the Eriksen flanker task, while ERPs (N1, N2, P3), reaction times, accuracy, subjective stress, and electrocardiogram signal were measured. Results showed elevated self-report stress, negative affect, state anxiety, heart rate, and reduced high-frequency heart rate variability in the stress block than in the control block, indicating that the flanker task was performed in a stressful situation. In the flanker task, faster response and larger flanker effect of accuracy were observed for the stress block relative to the control block, indicating increased arousal level and improved conflict detection under stress. Event-related potentials locked to target stimuli in the flanker task revealed that (a) frontal N1 was amplified in the stress block than in the control block, indicating elevated vigilance level under stress; (b) frontal N2 was increased in the stress block than in the control block for both congruent and incongruent trials, indicating more intensive attention control under stress; and (c) Increased P3 in the stress block than in the control block may reflect more allocation of neural resources as a consequence of improved attentional control under stress. These findings suggest that acute psychological stress increases general alertness and promotes attentional control in selective attention processes.

As they approach a traffic light, drivers and pedestrians monitor the color (instructed stimulus feature) and/or the position of the signal (covarying stimulus feature) for response selection. Many studies have pointed out that instructions can effectively determine the stimulus features used for response selection in a task. This leaves open whether and how practice with a correlating alternative stimulus feature can lead to a strategy change from an instructed to a learned variant of performing the task. To address this question, we instructed participants to respond to the position of a stimulus within a reference frame, at the same time, during task performance, an unmentioned second stimulus feature, the color, covaried with stimulus position and allowed the use of an alternative response strategy. To assess the impact of the non-instructed stimulus feature of color on response selection throughout practice, the spatial position of the stimulus was ambiguous on some trials. Group average increases in color usage were based on a mixture of (1) participants who, despite extended practice on the covariation, exclusively relied on the instructed stimulus feature and (2) those who abruptly started to rely heavily on stimulus color to select responses in ambiguous trials. When the instructed and uninstructed feature predicted different actions, choices were still biased by the uninstructed color feature, albeit more weakly. A second experiment showed that the influence of color generalized across frequently and infrequently presented combinations of position and color. Strategy changes were accompanied by awareness in both experiments. The results suggest that incidental covariation learning can trigger spontaneous voluntary strategy change involving a re-configuration of the instructed task set.

The limit of processing capacity and the effectiveness of top-down control are 2 mechanisms that underlie distractor interference in a flanker task. The current study investigates how the interblock selection history shaped by the target number and the predictability of distractor location may modulate the effects of these 2 mechanisms on flanker interference. Experiment 1 showed that the distractor compatibility effect was eliminated when the task array contained 4 or 5 identical targets, which reflected the capacity limit. The target number and distractor location's predictability (Experiment 2) or location predictability and target-distractor proximity (Experiment 3) were manipulated across blocks, while compatibility varied within blocks, with control efficacy underlying the effects of distractor location (predictability and proximity). The interblock selection history was induced by task order, beginning with 2 or 4 targets in Experiment 2 and with a distractor at a fixed or an unpredictable location in Experiment 3. Effects of interblock selection history were found when the intertrial context did not promote an incentive for altering the processing mode. When the incentive for enacting top-down control is high, intertrial contextual factors influence flanker interference. Contextual factors related to the target number and distractor location modulate flanker interference at multiple levels.

Modularity beyond perception: Evidence from single task interference paradigms

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Bilingualism is known to impact both language processing and cognitive abilities. The effects on cognitive abilities have been found to be generally positive suggesting that bilinguals have better cognitive control relative to monolinguals. The present study evaluated the time course of attentional control, specifically, conflict resolution in bilinguals and monolinguals. Bilinguals and English monolingual controls performed a Flanker task, while their behavioral (response times, accuracy rates) and electrophysiological responses were recorded on each trial. Participants exhibited the standard behavioral effect on the Flanker task: slower and less accurate responses to incongruent than congruent trials. The electrophysiological data showed that participants also exhibited larger N2 and P3 mean amplitudes to incongruent relative to congruent trials. No group differences were detected in behavioral performance. The electrophysiological data revealed that while both groups exhibited a larger N2 response to incongruent trials, the P3 response extended over a longer time window for monolinguals than bilinguals. The results are interpreted as suggesting that bilinguals may be more efficient in resolving conflict than monolinguals. Since this difference in performance is masked in behavioral data, the study also suggests that the elusive bilingual advantage may be best captured by fine-grained measures of processing rather than button-press behavioral measures.

BackgroundPrevious research has demonstrated the efficacy of cognitive engagement in reducing concurrent pain. However, little is known about the role of individual differences in inhibitory control abilities and negative pain‐related cognitions in modulating the magnitude of this type of distraction from pain.MethodsIn a pain distraction paradigm, 41 participants completed a working memory task with both a demanding high load condition (2‐back) and an easy low load condition (0‐back), while receiving warm or painful thermal stimuli to their left forearm. To control for individual differences in sensitivity to pain and perceived task difficulty, nociceptive stimulus intensity and task speed were individually calibrated. Additionally, participants completed a set of cognitive inhibition tasks (flanker, go/nogo, Stroop) and questionnaires about negative pain‐related cognitions (fear of pain, pain catastrophizing) prior to the distraction paradigm.ResultsAs expected, engaging in the high load condition significantly reduced perceived intensity and unpleasantness of nociceptive stimuli, compared to the low load condition. The size of the distraction effect correlated significantly with better cognitive inhibition and selective attention abilities, as measured by the flanker task. A moderation analysis revealed a significant interaction between pain catastrophizing and performance in the flanker task in predicting the distraction effect size: Participants who performed well on the flanker task showed more pain reduction, but only when they were average to high pain catastrophizers.ConclusionsSelective attention abilities and pain catastrophizing seem to be important factors in explaining individual differences in the size of the analgesic response to a distractive task.SignificanceUnderstanding which factors influence the effectiveness of cognitive engagement in distracting from pain could help to optimize its therapeutic application in patient care. This study shows that a complex interplay of cognitive inhibition abilities, specifically selective attention, and negative pain‐related cognitions, such as pain catastrophizing, modulate the magnitude of the distraction effect.

The flanker task is a widely used measure of cognitive control abilities. Drift-diffusion modeling of flanker task behavior can yield separable parameters of cognitive control-related subprocesses, but the parameters' psychometrics are not well-established. We examined the reliability and validity of four behavioral measures: (1) raw accuracy, (2) reaction time (RT) interference, (3) NIH Toolbox flanker score, and (4) two drift-diffusion model (DDM) parameters-drift rate and boundary separation-capturing evidence accumulation efficiency and speed-accuracy trade-off, respectively. Participants from two independent studies - one cross-sectional (N = 381) and one with three timepoints (N = 83) - completed the flanker task while electroencephalography data were collected. Across both studies, drift rate and boundary separation demonstrated comparable split-half and test-retest reliability to accuracy, RT interference, and NIH Toolbox flanker score, but better incremental convergent validity with psychophysiological measures (i.e., the error-related negativity; ERN) and neuropsychological measures of cognitive control than the other behavioral indices. Greater drift rate (i.e., faster and more accurate responses) to congruent and incongruent stimuli, and smaller boundary separation to incongruent stimuli were related to 1) larger ERN amplitudes (in both studies) and 2) faster and more accurate inhibition and set-shifting over and above raw accuracy, reaction time, and NIH Toolbox flanker scores (in Study 1). Computational models, such as DDM, can parse behavioral performance into subprocesses that exhibit comparable reliability to other scoring approaches, but more meaningful relationships with other measures of cognitive control. The application of these computational models may be applied to existing data and enhance the identification of cognitive control deficits in psychiatric disorders.

Attention is often imperfect; cognitive control is needed to counteract the tendency to attend to distractors that are incompatible with current goals. Cognitive psychologists have long explored cognitive control by examining Stroop interference—the slowed naming of colors on incongruent trials (e.g., “RED” displayed in blue ink), as compared to congruent trials (e.g., “RED” displayed in red ink), in the color-word Stroop task. The magnitude of interference reflects the effectiveness of cognitive control, but it does not reveal the precise processes used to minimize attention to the distracting word. The need for experimental approaches that accomplish this objective is underscored by the existence of qualitatively different cognitive control processes. Prior accounts stressed the use of top-down filtering processes at a task- or list-wide level to avoid word reading, but recent findings have shown that control of word reading is sometimes stimulus-driven—that is, triggered by the processing of stimuli or stimulus features. In this article, I highlight the critical findings that dissociate top-down and stimulus-driven control in the Stroop task, dissociations that are central to the view that cognitive control operates at multiple levels.

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.

Retired athletes reporting multiple sport-related concussions evidence increased rates and severity of neurodegenerative diseases. Yet, younger athletes with multiple sport-related concussions perform normally on standard clinical assessments of cognitive functioning. More sensitive measures of cognitive functioning may clarify the foundation for performance differences between these two groups. PURPOSE: This investigation sought to evaluate the effect of multiple concussions on neuroelectric and task performance indices of the cognitive control of action monitoring. METHODS: Sixty-three athletes (19 female; 19.6 ± 1.2 yrs) with variable concussion histories completed a clinical neurocognitive assessment and a modified flanker task. The Error-related Negativity (ERN) of the response-locked event-related brain potential was recorded during performance of the flanker task. Participants were divided into groups according to the self-report number of physician-diagnosed concussions (0, 1+). RESULTS: Analyses revealed no significant differences between groups on the clinical neurocognitive assessment. However, increased ERN amplitude and a more diffuse topography were observed in individuals reporting one or more concussions, relative to those without a history of concussion. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that those individuals with a history of concussion have an inefficient action monitoring system as indexed by ERN amplitude, which reflects the evaluation of conflict and signals for alterations in topdown cognitive control. Further, increased diffusion of the ERN signal may indicate the recruitment of compensatory processes due to decrements in areas of the brain that mediate the evaluation of conflict. Given that the neuroelectric differences exist in the absence of disparities in standard clinical assessment, the findings indicate that measures of the neuroelectric system may be more sensitive to signs of chronic cognitive dysfunction due to concussion. Supported by the Mary Jane Neer Research Fund:

Background: Language performance in aphasia can vary depending on several variables such as stimulus characteristics and task demands. This study focuses on the degree of verbal working memory (WM) load inherent in the language task and how this variable affects language performance by individuals with aphasia. Aims: The first aim was to identify the effects of increased verbal WM load on the performance of judgements of semantic similarity (synonymy) and phonological similarity (rhyming). The second aim was to determine if any of the following abilities could modulate the verbal WM load effect: semantic or phonological access, semantic or phonological short-term memory (STM), and any of the following executive processing abilities: inhibition, verbal WM updating, and set shifting. Method & Procedures: A total of 31 individuals with aphasia and 11 controls participated in this study. They were administered a synonymy judgement task and a rhyming judgement task under high and low verbal WM load conditions that were compared to each other. In a second set of analyses multiple regression was used to identify which factors (as noted above) modulated the verbal WM load effect. Outcomes & Results: For participants with aphasia, increased verbal WM load significantly reduced accuracy of performance on synonymy and rhyming judgements. Better performance in the low verbal WM load conditions was evident even after correcting for chance. The synonymy task included concrete and abstract word triplets. When these were examined separately the verbal WM load effect was significant for the abstract words, but not the concrete words. The same pattern was observed in the performance of the control participants. Additionally, the second set of analyses revealed that semantic STM and one executive function, inhibition ability, emerged as the strongest predictors of the verbal WM load effect in these judgement tasks for individuals with aphasia. Conclusions: The results of this study have important implications for diagnosis and treatment of aphasia. As the roles of verbal STM capacity, executive functions and verbal WM load in language processing are better understood, measurements of these variables can be incorporated into our diagnostic protocols. Moreover, if cognitive abilities such as STM and executive functions support language processing and their impairment adversely affects language function, treating them directly in the context of language tasks should translate into improved language function.

Attention is inherently drawn to distractors with salient physical features, yet it can also be proactively suppressed through top-down control, preventing attentional capture. However, this proactive suppression mechanism can fail under certain conditions. To explore the boundaries of proactive suppression, four experiments were conducted in the present study using the additional singleton paradigm, examining both top-down control and bottom-up factors. In Experiment 1, the singleton-search and feature-search modes were manipulated within subjects. The results revealed a singleton-presence cost in the singleton-search mode but no singleton-presence benefit in the feature-search mode, suggesting that proactive suppression becomes ineffective when search modes are inconsistent. Experiment 2 introduced trial-by-trial variation in targets and singleton distractors, demonstrating that proactive suppression remained effective, indicating its flexibility and rapid deployment. In Experiments 3 and 4, varying levels of singleton distractor salience were examined. The results revealed that proactive suppression was effective for highly salient distractors but failed for low-salience or dynamic distractors. This suggests that proactive suppression requires a certain level of salience and does not extend to dynamic distractors. In conclusion, this study validated the robustness of the proactive suppression mechanism while identifying the conditions under which it fails, shedding light on its operational boundaries. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Most food web theory assumes that natural enemies have significant impacts on prey populations, i.e., natural enemies exert «top-down control». The alternative, that natural enemies have minimal effects on prey, has received much less attention, largely due to the supposition that such «donor controlled» systems are relatively rare. In this paper I argue that the conditions for donor control are actually widespread in parasitoid-host systems, and that donor control may be more common than top-down control in rood webs that contain half or the world's multicellular species