Response Congruency Effects Research Articles

Investigating the Role of Response Codes in Masked Priming Lexical Decision Tasks: The Case of Repeated Presentations

The masked priming technique is considered a gold standard among experimental psychologists who specialize in the field of visual word recognition. Typically, this method entails a comparison between two or more critical conditions (e.g., the target word MOUSE being preceded by either the identity prime mouse or the unrelated prime fence). It is noteworthy that, unlike other masked priming tasks, prior experiments examining the properties of unrelated primes (e.g., their frequency as words [high or low] or their legality as nonwords [orthographically legal or illegal]) do not have an impact on the processing of the target item. However, two lexical decision studies reported faster responses to target words when the unrelated prime is a word rather than a nonword (i.e., a response congruency effect). One possible explanation for this discrepancy is a difference in methodology, as these two studies are the only ones to have used repeated presentation of stimuli, which could lead to the creation of an episodic memory trace that amplifies response congruency effects. To examine this hypothesis, we used a set of materials that did not show any congruency effect in a previous experiment with unique presentations, except that here we included repeated presentations. Results showed a response congruency effect, with participants responding faster to word targets when they were preceded by an unrelated word prime as opposed to an unrelated nonword prime. These findings suggest that the activation of response codes in masked priming is contingent upon the nature of cognitive resources required for processing the target stimuli.

Stimulus-response congruency effects depend on quality of perceptual evidence: A diffusion model account.

Individuals often need to make quick decisions based on incomplete or "noisy" information. This requires the coordination of attentional, perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral mechanisms. This poses a challenge for isolating the unique effects of each subprocess from behavioral data, which reflect the summation of all subprocesses combined. Sequential sampling models offer a more detailed examination of behavioral data, enabling us to separate decisional and non-decisional processes at play in a task. Participants were required to identify briefly presented shapes while perceptual (duration, size, location) and response features (location-congruent/-incongruent/-neutral) of the task were manipulated. The diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) was used to dissociate decisional and executive processes in the task. In Experiment1, stimuli were presented for either 20 or 80 ms to the left or right of a central fixation while response keys were positioned horizontally. In Experiment2, stimulus size was manipulated rather than duration. In Experiment3, response keys were positioned vertically. Results showed a duration x response mapping interaction. Participants displayed stimulus-response (S-R) congruency biases only on short-duration trials. This effect was observed for both horizontal and vertical response key mappings. Stimulus size affected participant response speed, but did not elicit S-R congruency biases. The present findings show that when perceptual quality of evidence is poor, individuals rely more heavily on spatial-motor mechanisms when making speeded choice decisions. Furthermore, positioning response keys vertically is insufficient to eliminate S-R congruency effects. Diffusion model parameters are presented and implications of the model are discussed.

Selective interference of hand posture with grasping capability estimation.

Previous studies have shown that judgments about how one would perform an action are affected by the current body posture. Hence, judging one's capability to grasp an object between index and thumb is influenced by their aperture at the time of the judgment. This finding can be explained by a modification of the internal representation of one's hand through the effect of sensorimotor input. Alternatively, the influence of grip aperture might be mediated by a response congruency effect, so that a "less" vs. "more" open grip would bias the judgment toward a "less" vs. "more" capable response. To specify the role of sensorimotor input in prospective action judgments, we asked participants to estimate their capability to grasp circles between index and thumb while performing a secondary task that requires them to squeeze a ball with these two fingers (precision grip) or with a different hand configuration (palm grip). Experiment 1 showed that participants underestimated their grasping capability when the squeezing task involved the same grip as the judged action (precision grip) and their estimates were bound to the relative size of objects as revealed by size-contrast illusions (Ebbinghaus). Experiment 2 showed that the grip reduction caused by the squeezing task also interfered with the discrimination of large numbers in magnitude judgments, but this incongruency effect was only observed for the palm grip. The dissociated effects of the two grips in graspability and numerical judgments indicate that sensorimotor input may affect the perceived ability to grasp objects, independently of response congruency, by modifying the representation of the hand in action.

Automatic effects of covert practice.

Automatic behaviour is supposedly underlain by the unintentional retrieval of processing episodes, which are stored during the repeated overt practice of a task or activity. In the present study, we investigated whether covertly practicing a task (e.g., repeatedly imagining responding to a stimulus) also leads to the storage of processing episodes and thus to automatic behaviour. Participants first either responded overtly or covertly to stimuli according to a first categorization task in a practice phase. We then measured the presence of automatic response-congruency effects in a subsequent test phase that involved a different categorization task but the same stimuli and responses. Our results indicate that covert practice can lead to a response-congruency effect. We conclude that covert practice can lead to automatic behaviour and discuss the different components of covert practice, such as motor imagery, visual imagery, and inner speech, that contribute to the formation of processing episodes in memory.

“Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Is Associated with Top-Down Visual Attention

The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test (Eyes Test; Baron-Cohen et al., J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 38, 813–822, (1997), Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 241–251 2001 is one of the most commonly used and extensively validated tests for assessing social cognitive deficits, especially among those related to autism and schizophrenia. Despite its widespread use, the cognitive mechanisms underlying the Eyes Test are still unclear. We propose that top-down visual attention will result in better performance on the Eyes Test. Seventy-four female participants completed the Eyes Test in conjunction with three congruency tasks, including the flanker, number Stroop, and Navon’s global-local tasks. According to the hypothesis, the Eyes Test scores were found to be negatively associated with the response congruency effects—the difference in performance between congruent and incongruent trials. The neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying these associations are further discussed, and the Eyes Test features that may require top-down visual attention will be explored in depth.

Time for a true display of skill: Top players in League of Legends have better executive control

Research into the effects of action video gaming on cognition has largely relied on self-reported action video game experience and extended video game training. Only a few studies have focused on participants' actual gaming skills. However, whether superior players and average players have different executive control is still not fully demonstrated. This study had top-ranking League of Legends players (global top 0.17%; N = 35) and average-ranking League of Legends players (N = 35) perform two cognitive tasks that aimed to measure three aspects of executive functioning: cognitive flexibility, interference control, and impulsive control. We controlled self-reported gaming experience, so that top-ranking players and average-ranking players had similar years of play and hours of play per week. We found that compared to a group of average players, top players showed smaller task-switching costs and smaller response-congruency effects in a Stroop-switching test. In a continuous performance test, top players indicated higher hit rates and lower false alarm rates as compared to average players. These findings suggest that top players have better cognitive flexibility and more accurate control of interference in the context of task-switching. Moreover, top players exhibit better impulsive control. The present study provides evidence that players' gaming skills rather than gaming experience are related to cognitive abilities, which may explain why previous studies on self-reported gaming experience and those assessing supervised training and cognitive performance have shown inconsistent results.

Can response congruency effects be obtained in masked priming lexical decision?

In past decades, researchers have conducted a myriad of masked priming lexical decision experiments aimed at unveiling the early processes underlying lexical access. A relatively overlooked question is whether a masked unrelated wordlike/unwordlike prime influences the processing of the target stimuli. If participants apply to the primes the same instructions as to the targets, one would predict a response congruency effect (e.g., book-TRUE faster than fiok-TRUE). Critically, the Bayesian Reader model predicts that there should be no effects of response congruency in masked priming lexical decision, whereas interactive-activation models offer more flexible predictions. We conducted 3 masked priming lexical decision experiments with 4 unrelated priming conditions differing in lexical status and wordlikeness (high-frequency word, low-frequency word, orthographically legal pseudoword, consonant string). Experiment 1 used wordlike nonwords as foils, Experiment 2 used illegal nonwords as foils, and Experiment 3 used orthographically legal hermit nonwords as foils. When the foils were orthographically legal (Experiments 1 and 3; i.e., a standard lexical decision scenario), lexical decision responses were not affected by the lexical status or wordlikeness of the unrelated primes, as predicted by the Bayesian Reader model and the selective inhibition hypothesis in interactive-activation models. When the foils were illegal (Experiment 2), consonant-string primes produced the slowest responses for word targets and the fastest responses for nonword targets. The Bayesian Reader model can capture this pattern, assuming that participants in Experiment 2 were making an orthographic legality decision (i.e., anything legal must be a word) rather than a lexical decision. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the Limitations of the Shielding Function of Categorization Rules in Task-Switching.

Applying categorization rules narrows attention toward the relevant features of a target and helps participants to ignore the irrelevant features of the target. This is called the shielding function of categorization rules. Here we explored the limitation of the shielding function in two task-switching experiments. In Experiment 1, we assigned each target a single digital numeral as an additional feature in addition to conventional bivalent features as in the previous task-switching experiments with bivalent tasks. In the first two stages of Experiment 1, half of the participants learned the numeral-response associations and the other half used an alternative numeral-categorization rule to infer the response. Without participants applying conventional task-switching rules, the switching costs disappeared. Moreover, when participants performed tasks by numeral-response associations the bivalent features interfered with response retrieval and caused response-congruency effects, whereas when participants applied the numeral-categorization rule, the bivalent features were shielded away and thereby the response-congruency effects disappeared. In the third stage, in which all participants applied task-switching rules by discriminating between bivalent features (i.e., filling and orientations), we found task-switching costs and response-congruency effects. In Experiment 2, new bivalent features produced stronger interference compared to Experiment 1. As a consequence, participants in both the association group and the numeral-categorization rule group showed significant response-congruency effects in the first two stages, where task-switching rules were not introduced. It follows that the shielding function of categorization rules has limits—strong interference from bivalent features can break down the shielding function. In addition, participants in the association group showed task-switching costs without being informed about the task-switching rules. We propose that strong proactive interference can produce task-switching costs even without the use of task-switching rules.

Target-Response Associations Can Produce Response-Congruency Effects Without Task-Switching Costs

In task-switching experiments with bivalent target stimuli, conflicts during response selection give rise to response-congruency effects. Typically, participants respond more slowly and make more errors in trials with incongruent targets that require different responses in the two tasks, compared to trials with congruent targets that are associated with the same response in both tasks. Here we investigate whether participants show response-congruency effects when task rules are not made explicit. In two experiments, we assigned task-irrelevant features to each bivalent target. When participants were instructed to apply the task rules, they showed significant task-switching costs as well as response-congruency effects. Importantly, when the same participants did not know the task rules and responded without applying the task rules, they showed response-congruency effects but no switch costs. The significant congruency effects suggest that associations between bivalent target features and responses can be formed passively, even when participants do not follow the task rules and use task-irrelevant target features to make a response.

Supplemental Material for Can Response Congruency Effects Be Obtained in Masked Priming Lexical Decision?

Supplemental Material for Can Response Congruency Effects Be Obtained in Masked Priming Lexical Decision?

Spatial perspective taking mediated by whole-body motor simulation.

Humans can envision the world from other people's viewpoints. To explore the embodied process of such spatial perspective taking, we examined whether action related to a whole-body movement modulates performance on spatial perspective-taking tasks. Results showed that when participants responded by putting their left/right foot or left/right hand forward, actions congruent with a movement's direction (clockwise/counterclockwise) reduced RTs relative to incongruent actions. In contrast, actions irrelevant to a movement (a left/right hand index-finger response) did not affect performance. Furthermore, we demonstrated that this response congruency effect cannot be explained by either spatial stimulus-response compatibility or sensorimotor interference. These results support the involvement of simulated whole-body movement in spatial perspective taking. Moreover, the findings revealed faster foot responses than hand responses during spatial perspective taking, whereas the opposite result was obtained during a simple orientation judgment task without spatial perspective taking. Overall, our findings highlight the important role of motor simulation in spatial perspective taking. (PsycINFO Database Record

Categorization difficulty modulates the mediated route for response selection in task switching.

Conflict during response selection in task switching is indicated by the response congruency effect: worse performance for incongruent targets (requiring different responses across tasks) than for congruent targets (requiring the same response). The effect can be explained by dual-task processing in a mediated route for response selection, whereby targets are categorized with respect to both tasks. In the present study, the author tested predictions for the modulation of response congruency effects by categorization difficulty derived from a relative-speed-of-processing hypothesis. Categorization difficulty was manipulated for the relevant and irrelevant task dimensions in a novel spatial task-switching paradigm that involved judging the locations of target dots in a grid, without repetition of dot configurations. Response congruency effects were observed and they varied systematically with categorization difficulty (e.g., being larger when irrelevant categorization was easy than when it was hard). These results are consistent with the relative-speed-of-processing hypothesis and suggest that task-switching models that implement variations of the mediated route for response selection need to address the time course of categorization.

The Effect of Aging on Response Congruency in Task Switching: A Meta-Analysis.

Response-congruency effects in task switching are the observed slowing of response times (RTs) for incongruent targets which afford more than one response (depending on task) in comparison to congruent stimuli that afford just one response regardless of the task. These effects are thought to reflect increased ambiguity during response selection for incongruent stimuli. The present study presents a meta-analysis of 27 conditions (from 16 separate studies) whose designs allowed investigation of age-related differences in response-congruency effects on RT. Multilevel modelling of Brinley plots and state-trace plots showed no age-related effect on response congruency beyond that which can be explained by general age-related slowing. The results add to the growing body of evidence of no age-related decline in measures of attention and executive functioning.

Automatic effects of instructions do not require the intention to execute these instructions

ABSTRACTPrior research established that newly instructed stimulus-response mappings, which have never been executed overtly before, can lead to automatic response-congruency effects. Such instruction-based congruency effects have been taken as evidence for the hypothesis that the intention to execute stimulus-response mappings results into functional associations that serve future execution. The present study challenges this hypothesis by demonstrating in a series of four experiments that maintaining instructed stimulus-response mappings for future recognition, rather than for future execution, can also lead to an instruction-based congruency effect. These findings indicate that the instruction-based congruency effect emerges even when it is very unlikely that participants form the intention to execute instructions. Alternative interpretations of the instruction-based congruency effect are discussed.

Congruency effects on the basis of instructed response-effect contingencies

Previous research indicated that stimulus–response congruency effects can be obtained in one task (the diagnostic task) on the basis of the instructed stimulus–response mappings of another task (the inducer task) and this without having executed the instructions of the inducer task once. A common interpretation of such finding is that instructed stimulus–response mappings are implemented into functional associations, which automatically trigger responses when being irrelevant and this without any practice. The present study investigated whether instruction-based congruency effects are also observed for a different type of instructions than instructed S–R mappings, namely instructed response-effect contingencies. In three experiments, instruction-based congruency effects were observed in the diagnostic task when the instructions of the inducer task specified response-effect contingencies. On the one hand, our results indicate that instruction-based congruency effects are not restricted to instructed S–R mappings. On the other hand, our results suggest that the representations that mediate these effects do not specify the nature of the relation between response and effect even though this relation was explicitly specified by the instructions.

Learning a nonmediated route for response selection in task switching.

Two modes of response selection--a mediated route involving categorization and a nonmediated route involving instance-based memory retrieval--have been proposed to explain response congruency effects in task-switching situations. In the present study, we sought a better understanding of the development and characteristics of the nonmediated route. In two experiments involving training and transfer phases, we investigated practice effects at the level of individual target presentations, transfer effects associated with changing category-response mappings, target-specific effects from comparisons of old and new targets during transfer, and the percentages of early responses associated with task-nonspecific response selection (the target preceded the task cue on every trial). The training results suggested that the nonmediated route is quickly learned in the context of target-cue order and becomes increasingly involved in response selection with practice. The transfer results suggested that the target-response instances underlying the nonmediated route involve abstract response labels coding response congruency that can be rapidly remapped to alternative responses, but not rewritten when category-response mappings change after practice. Implications for understanding the nonmediated route and its relationship with the mediated route are discussed.

Isolating a mediated route for response congruency effects in task switching.

Response congruency effects in task switching reflect worse performance for incongruent targets associated with different responses across tasks than for congruent targets associated with the same response. In the present study, the author investigated whether the effects can be produced solely by a mediated route for response selection, whereby targets are categorized with respect to both tasks, as opposed to a nonmediated route, whereby target-response instances from past experience are retrieved directly from long-term memory. The mediated route was isolated in 3 experiments by having subjects perform semantic categorization tasks on targets that were never repeated, thereby making the nonmediated route nonfunctional. Robust response congruency effects were observed for both response time and error rate in all experiments, indicating that the mediated route is sufficient to produce such effects by itself. The results imply that subjects engaged in dual-task processing despite no requirement to do so, raising questions about the modeling of response selection in task-switching situations.

Attentional control of response selection in task switching.

Modulation of cognitive control was investigated by using a proportion congruent manipulation to change response congruency effects in task switching. In an experiment that involved cued switching between semantic categorization tasks, targets were either congruent or incongruent (mapped to the same or different responses across tasks, respectively), and the proportion of congruent targets was manipulated between subjects. Response congruency effects (worse performance for incongruent than for congruent targets) were observed, and they increased with proportion congruent for both response time and error rate. A sequential congruency effect (a smaller response congruency effect following an incongruent than a congruent trial) was observed for error rate, but only for task repetitions. The results suggested top-down control of attention rather than bottom-up control based on item-specific learning, because targets were never repeated during the experiment. Implications for understanding attentional control of response selection in conflict situations are discussed.

Modeling graded response congruency effects in task switching

Compound cue retrieval is a computational model of a mediated route for response selection in task-switching situations. In previous studies, the model has been shown to account for response congruency effects when switching between two tasks, where response congruency reflects the degree of match between relevant and irrelevant task responses associated with a target stimulus. In the present study, the author derived a model prediction of graded response congruency effects in situations involving three tasks. The predicted pattern was observed for both response time and error rate in an experiment in which numerical categorization tasks were performed on single-digit targets. Implications for understanding response congruency effects and for developing models of task-switching performance are discussed.

Masked priming of complex movements: perceptual and motor processes in unconscious action perception.

Fast motor actions in sports often require the ability to discriminate between similar movement patterns (e.g. feint vs. non-feint) at an early stage. Moreover, an athlete might even initiate a motor response without a conscious processing of the relevant movement information. Therefore, the question was raised of whether or not athletes and novices of a particular movement can unconsciously distinguish between similar movement patterns. Using a masked priming experiment (Experiment 1), it is demonstrated that both groups were similarly able to unconsciously distinguish a feint and a non-feint action. To further investigate whether this result is based on perceptual priming effects or on unconscious motor activations, a second masked priming experiment was conducted (Experiment 2). Experiment 2 revealed perceptual priming effects which are not mediated by motor expertise. Moreover, unconscious pictures of feint and non-feint actions from different movement stages are sufficient to activate a motor response in athletes. In novices, a negative congruency effect occurred. For both groups, largest response congruency effects were found for prime pictures participants could consciously perceive as target pictures during the experimental session. The results found here point out that perceptual priming effects are not mediated by motor expertise whereas response priming effects might be.