Effects of repetition priming on electrophysiological and behavioral indices of conflict adaptation and cognitive control

Abstract

We investigated the effects of repetition priming on indices of conflict adaptation. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were obtained while 210 healthy individuals (111 female, 99 male) completed an Eriksen flanker task. Error rates, response times (RTs), and N2 and P3 amplitudes showed significant conflict adaptation (i.e., previous-trial congruencies influenced current-trial measures). After omitting trials with stimulus-response repetitions, RTs did not index conflict adaptation, but did show switching effects; error rates and N2 and P3 amplitudes remained sensitive to conflict adaptation. P3 amplitudes positively correlated with RTs. N2 amplitudes correlated with RTs only on incongruent trials following congruent trials after excluding repetitions. Results indicate that neural indices of conflict monitoring remain reliably associated with conflict adaptation effects in the absence of RT adjustments upon omission of repetition priming effects.