Event Abstract Back to Event Influence of task structure on proactive recruitment of cognitive control Rasa Gulbinaite1 and Addie Johnson1 1 University of Groningen, Netherlands Resolving conflicts between responses is one of the key functions of cognitive control. According to dualistic accounts, conflicts can be resolved transiently in a default “reactive” manner, or more “proactively” by anticipating and preventing interference. In a task in which a relevant response dimension overlaps with an irrelevant stimulus location dimension (i.e., the Simon task), trials may be congruent (C; stimulus position on same side as response) or incongruent (I; stimulus position opposite to response). The Simon Effect is that responses are faster and more accurate on C than on I trials. The Simon Effect is often eliminated or reversed when trials are preceded by I rather than C trials, presumably because reactive control is triggered by the incongruent information present in the previous trial. To assess the role of proactive control in this task we manipulated the proportion of congruency repetition trials (i.e., C trials followed by C trials or I trials followed by I trials). Proactive control was expected to be more evident in a 50% than in a 70%-congruency repetition condition because the greater unpredictability inherent in the trial sequence in the former case necessitates greater control. Proactive control is resource demanding. Thus, only individuals with sufficient working memory capacity (WMC) were expected to utilize it. Evidence of proactive control was found for a high- but not for a low-WMC group, as indicated by a significant three-way interaction between congruency repetition condition, previous trial congruency and current trial congruency for the high- and not for the low-WMC group. The current study provides evidence that proactive and reactive cognitive control mechanisms can be dissociated by their sensitivity to implicit task structure. Keywords: cognitive control, Simon effect Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Performance Monitoring and Cognitive Control Citation: Gulbinaite R and Johnson A (2011). Influence of task structure on proactive recruitment of cognitive control. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00276 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 21 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Rasa Gulbinaite Addie Johnson Google Rasa Gulbinaite Addie Johnson Google Scholar Rasa Gulbinaite Addie Johnson PubMed Rasa Gulbinaite Addie Johnson Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.