Stimulus-response Binding Research Articles

A question of perspective: Perspective as a feature in stimulus-response binding

ABSTRACT In action control research, stimulus-response binding and retrieval processes are assumed core mechanisms. Stimulus and response features are integrated into event files when they occur together. This event file is retrieved if any feature is repeated. Partial mismatches between current and retrieved episodes cause conflicts, leading to performance costs, while full matches improve performance (the difference between these conditions is known as binding effects). Such binding effects have been found for different stimulus features like colour, shape, or location, using stimulus material that is often kept very simple. In our study, we manipulated the perspective on a real-world three-dimensional distractor stimulus. We found that perspective was bound to the response, independent of stimulus identity. It seems that perspective is treated as a stimulus feature in action control. This result enhances the way we discuss what a feature actually is and how features are bound in event files.

Guess what? Only correct choices forge immediate stimulus–response bindings in guessing scenarios

A central mechanism of human action control is the prompt binding between actions and the stimuli provoking them. Perceiving the same stimuli again retrieves any bound responses, facilitating their execution. An open question is whether such binding and retrieval only emerges when stimulus–response rules are known upon taking action or also when agents are forced to guess and receive feedback about whether they were successful or not afterward. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that knowing rules before responding would boost binding between stimuli and responses during action-taking relative to guessing situations. Second, we assessed whether the content of the feedback matters for binding in that agents might use feedback to build correct stimulus–response bindings even for wrong guesses. We used a sequential prime-probe design to induce stimulus–response binding for prime responses that were either rule-based or guesses, and to measure retrieval of these bindings in response times and errors in the probe. Results indicate that binding and retrieval emerge for successful but not for wrong guesses. Binding effects for correct guesses were consistently small in effect size, suggesting that pre-established stimulus–response bindings from instructed rules might indeed boost binding when taking action.

Increased beta synchronization underlies perception-action hyperbinding in functional movement disorders.

Functional movement disorders are amongst the most common and disabling neurological conditions, placing a significant burden on the healthcare system. Despite the frequency and importance of functional movement disorders, our understanding of the underlying pathophysiology is limited, hindering the development of causal treatment options. Traditionally, functional movement disorders were considered as a psychiatric condition, associated with involuntary movements triggered by psychological stressors. Recent neurophysiological studies have unveiled cognitive alterations in affected individuals, suggesting that functional movement disorders might be better characterized by overarching neural principles governing cognitive functions. For instance, recent research has shown that the retrieval of stimulus-response bindings is altered in patients with functional movement disorders. Building upon these recent findings, our study delves into whether the initial integration of stimulus and response information is also disrupted in patients with functional movement disorders. To accomplish this, we reanalysed previously collected EEG data using refined analysis methods that provide insights into oscillatory activity and functional neuroanatomy associated with the integration of stimulus-response bindings. Our results demonstrate that post-movement beta synchronization (i) predicts behavioural stimulus-response binding and (ii) is significantly increased in patients with functional movement disorders compared to healthy controls. Utilizing beamformer analysis, we localized the difference effect to a cluster centred around the left supplementary motor area and the correlation effect to the right supplementary motor area. Extending beyond recent research that focused on the retrieval of stimulus-response bindings, our present findings reveal that the integration of stimulus and response information is already impaired in patients with functional movement disorders. These results uncover a phenomenon of hyperbinding between perception and action, which may represent a fundamental mechanism contributing to the movement impairments in patients with functional movement disorders.

Cling together, swing together? Assessing indirect retrieval of stimulus-response bindings for associated stimuli.

When a stimulus is paired with a response, a stimulus-response (SR) binding (or event file) is formed. Subsequent stimulus repetition retrieves the SR binding from memory, which facilitates (impedes) performance when the same (a different) response is required. We aimed to explore whether indirect retrieval of SR bindings by a newly learnt associated stimulus is possible. Participants first went through a learning task to acquire novel stimulus-stimulus associations. The same stimulus pairs were then presented in a prime-probe task to assess direct and indirect retrieval effects. Participants responded by classifying word color in prime and probe trials. Probe words were either identical to prime words (test for direct retrieval) or corresponded to the associated stimulus (test for indirect retrieval) or were unrelated words (baseline). Independently of word relation, response relation (repetition vs. change) across prime and probe trials was manipulated. In two highly powered preregistered studies (total N = 260) using different types of stimulus associations, we obtained evidence for direct retrieval due to identical word repetition in the probe. Crucially, evidence for indirect retrieval upon presentation of an associated probe word was absent. Controlling for memory of each stimulus-stimulus association did not alter the findings. Our results show that indirect retrieval through newly acquired associations does not occur at the level of SR bindings, at least not for recently acquired stimulus-stimulus associations. Our study illustrates the scope of binding principles and highlights boundary conditions for the stimulus properties that can elicit automatic response retrieval.

Context-specific adaptation for head fakes in basketball: a study on player-specific fake-frequency schedules.

In basketball, an attacking player often plays a pass to one side while looking to the other side. This head fake provokes a conflict in the observing opponent, as the processing of the head orientation interferes with the processing of the pass direction. Accordingly, responses to passes with head fakes are slower and result in more errors than responses to passes without head fakes (head-fake effect). The head-fake effect and structurally similar interference effects (e.g., Stroop effect) are modulated by the frequency of conflicting trials. Previous studies mostly applied a block-wise manipulation of proportion congruency. However, in basketball (and also in other team sports), where different individual opponents can be encountered, it might be important to take the individual frequency (e.g., 20% vs. 80%) of these opponents into account. Therefore, the present study investigates the possibility to quickly (i.e., on a trial-by-trial basis) reconfigure the response behavior to different proportions of incongruent trials, which are contingent on different basketball players. Results point out that participants indeed adapted to the fake-frequency of different basketball players, which could be the result of strategic adaptation processes. Multi-level analyses, however, indicate that a substantial portion of the player-specific adaptation to fake frequencies is accounted by episodic retrieval processes, suggesting that item-specific proportion congruency effects can be explained in terms of stimulus-response binding and retrieval: The head orientation (e.g., to the right) of a current stimulus retrieves the last episode with the same head orientation including the response that was part of this last episode. Thus, from a theoretical perspective, an attacking player would provoke the strongest detrimental effect on an opponent if s/he repeats the same head movement but changes the direction of the pass. Whether it is at all possible to strategically apply this recommendation in practice needs still to be answered.

Two roads leading to the same evaluative conditioning effect? Stimulus-response binding versus operant conditioning

ABSTRACT Evaluative Conditioning (EC) refers to changes in our liking or disliking of a stimulus due to its pairing with other positive or negative stimuli. In addition to stimulus-based mechanisms, recent research has shown that action-based mechanisms can also lead to EC effects. Research, based on action control theories, has shown that pairing a positive or negative action with a neutral stimulus results in EC effects (Stimulus-Response binding). Similarly, research studies using Operant Conditioning (OC) approaches have also observed EC effects. The aim of the present study is to directly compare EC effects elicited by two different response-based approaches – S-R bindings and OC. To this end, participants were randomly assigned to an S-R binding procedure and an OC procedure. EC effects were measured in conditions and compared. Implications for EC theory are discussed.

Separated hands further response–response binding effects

Action control is hierarchically organized. Multiple consecutive responses can be integrated into an event representation of higher order and can retrieve each other upon repetition, resulting in so-called response–response binding effects. Previous research indicates that the spatial separation of responses can affect how easily they can be cognitively separated. In this study, we introduced a barrier between the responding hands to investigate whether the spatial separation of two responses also influences response–response binding effects. In line with previous research on stimulus–response binding, we expected an increased separability of responses to result in stronger response–response binding effects when responding hands were separated by a barrier. We indeed found stronger response–response binding effects with separated hands. Results indicate that a more distinct representation of individual actions through increased separability might benefit the control of hierarchical actions.

Nothing else matters: Stimulus-response binding and retrieval is independent of affective consequences.

Stimulus-response binding and retrieval (SRBR) is a fundamental mechanism driving behavior automatization. In five experiments, we investigated the modulatory role of affective consequences (AC) on SRBR effects to test whether binding/retrieval can explain instrumental learning (i.e., the "law of effect"). SRBR effects were assessed in a sequential prime-probe design, with an orthogonal variation of response relation (response repetition vs. change) by distractor relation (word repetition vs. change). Binding/retrieval effects are measured by an interaction of the two factors, with distractor repetitions inducing a retrieval of the prime episode and a tendency to re-enact the previous response, which leads to facilitation in conditions where the response must be repeated, but leads to interference when the required response changes from prime to probe. Positive, neutral, or negative events signaling changes in points that were linked to monetary gains or losses were delivered after every trial to investigate whether AC modulate the binding/retrieval effect. Consistently across all five experiments (total N= 466), robust SRBR effects were obtained, but we did not find any evidence for an affective modulation of these binding/retrieval effects, indicating that these effects are automatic and independent of AC. In particular, Experiment 5 demonstrated a dissociation between instrumental learning via AC (reflected in higher frequencies of rewarded responses) and SRBR, which was not influenced by AC following a response. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Neurophysiological processes reflecting the effects of the immediate past during the dynamic management of actions

In recent years, there has been many efforts to establish a comprehensive theoretical framework explaining the working mechanisms involved in perception-action integration. This framework stresses the importance of the immediate past on mechanisms supporting perception-action integration. The present study investigates the neurophysiological principles of dynamic perception-action bindings, particularly considering the influence of the immediate history on action control mechanisms. For this purpose, we conducted an established stimulus-response binding paradigm during EEG recording. The SR-task measures stimulus-response binding in terms of accuracy and reaction time differences depending on the degree of feature overlap between conditions. Alpha, beta and theta band activity in distinct time domains as well as associated brain regions were investigated applying time-frequency analyses, a beamforming approach as well as correlation analyses. We demonstrate, for the first time, interdependencies of neuronal processes relying on the immediate past. The reconfiguration of an action seems to overwrite immediately preceding processes. The analyses revealed modulations of theta (TBA), alpha (ABA) and beta band activity (BBA) in connection with fronto-temporal structures supporting the theoretical assumptions of the considered conceptual framework. The close interplay of attentional modulation by gating irrelevant information (ABA) and binding and retrieval processes (TBA) is reflected by the correlation of ABA in all pre-probe-intervals with post-probe TBA. Likewise, the role of BBA in maintaining the event file until retrieval is corroborated by BBA preceding the TBA-associated retrieval of perception-action codes. Following action execution, TBA shifted towards visual association cortices probably reflecting preparation for upcoming information, while ABA and BBA continue to reflect processes of attentional control and information selection for goal-directed behavior. The present work provides the first empirical support for concepts about the neurophysiological mechanisms of dynamic management of perception and action.

The relation between learning and stimulus-response binding.

Perception and action rely on integrating or binding different features of stimuli and responses. Such bindings are short-lived, but they can be retrieved for a limited amount of time if any of their features is reactivated. This is particularly true for stimulus-response bindings, allowing for flexible recycling of previous action plans. A relation to learning of stimulus-response associations suggests itself, and previous accounts have proposed binding as an initial step of forging associations in long-term memory. The evidence for this claim is surprisingly mixed, however. Here we propose a framework that explains previous failures to detect meaningful relations of binding and learning by highlighting the joint contribution of three variables: (a) decay, (b) the number of repetitions, and (c) the time elapsing between repetitions. Accounting for the interplay of these variables provides a promising blueprint for innovative experimental designs that bridge the gap between immediate bindings on the one hand and lasting associations in memory on the other hand. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Increased display complexity reveals effects of salience in action control.

In action-control research, typically, stimulus sparse displays are used. This might be one reason why previous theorizing focuses on the (top-down) demands of response selection (e.g., what key to press), while often ignoring (bottom-up) demands of stimulus selection (e.g., what stimulus to attend). However, complex perceptual situations may pose selection demands that make additional, response-unrelated feature dimensions relevant for response selection. The major stimulus characteristic affecting perceptual selection is salience. In research on visual attention, there is a debate about the conditions under which salience becomes effective. We related both debates in two experiments, in which we modulated display set size as well as salience in a stimulus-response binding task. In sum, the data of these experiments (pooled N = 138) demonstrated that salience furthered the integration of stimulus features in displays with many stimuli more than in sparse displays. Our results demonstrate the neglected impact of salience on action-control when going beyond the very simplistic displays common in action-control research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Effect-less? Event-files are not terminated by distal action effects

Event-files that bind features of stimuli, responses, and action effects figure prominently in contemporary views of action control. When a previous feature repeats, a previous event-file is retrieved and can influence current performance. It is unclear, however, what terminates an event-file. A tacit assumption is that registering the distal (e.g., visual or auditory) sensory consequences of an action (i.e., the “action effect”) terminates the event-file, thereby making it available for retrieval. We tested three different action-effect conditions (no distal action effect, visual action effect, or auditory action effect) in the same stimulus-response (S-R) binding task and observed no modulation of S-R binding effects. Instead, there were comparably large binding effects in all conditions. This suggests that proximal (e.g., somatosensory, proprioceptive) action effects terminate event-files independent of distal (e.g., visual, auditory) action effects or that the role event-file termination plays for S-R binding effects needs to be corrected. We conclude that current views of action control require further specification.

Stimulus-response binding is not a gradually learned association between specific stimuli and their responses: Evidence from a teenage bilingual population

Stimulus-response binding is not a gradually learned association between specific stimuli and their responses: Evidence from a teenage bilingual population

Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms of Behavior Therapy for Tics: A Perception-Action Integration Approach.

European clinical guidelines recommend the use of Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) as first-line treatments for tic disorders. Although ongoing efforts in research are being made to understand the mechanisms underlying these behavioral approaches, as of yet, the neurophysiological mechanisms behind behavioral interventions are poorly understood. However, this is essential to tailor interventions to individual patients in order to increase compliance and efficacy. The Theory of Event Coding (TEC) and its derivative BRAC (Binding and Retrieval in Action Control) provide a theoretical framework to investigate cognitive and neural processes in the context of tic disorders. In this context, tics are conceptualized as a phenomenon of enhanced perception-action binding, with premonitory urges constituting the perceptual and the motor or vocal expression constituting the action part of an event file. Based on this, CBIT is assumed to strongly affect stimulus-response binding in the context of response selection, whereas the effects of ERP presumably unfold during stimulus-response binding in the response inhibition context. Further studies are needed to clarify the neurophysiological processes underlying behavioral interventions to enable the individualization and further development of therapeutic approaches for tic disorders.

The influence of event segmentation by context on stimulus-response binding.

A core characteristic of auditory stimuli is that they develop over time. Referring to the event segmentation theory, we assume that the on- and offset of a contextual sound indicates the start and end of an event. As a consequence, stimuli and responses appearing within a common auditory context may be integrated more likely/strongly, forming so-called event files, than those appearing in different auditory contexts. In two experiments, this hypothesis was tested using the negative priming paradigm and the distractor-response binding paradigm. In prime-probe presentations, participants identified target sounds via keypresses while ignoring distractor sounds. Additional sine tones acted as the context in the prime, whereas the probe context was silence. In the common context condition, the context started with the prime sounds and ended with the prime response. In the changing context condition, the context started with the prime sounds but changed to another tone after the offset of the prime sounds. Results from both experiments revealed a larger stimulus-response binding effect in the common than in the changing context condition. We conducted a control experiment to test the alternative account of contextual similarity between the prime and the probe. Together, our results suggest that common context can temporally segment stimuli and responses into event files, providing evidence of common context as a binding principle. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Inhibition of return (IOR) meets stimulus-response (S-R) binding: Manually responding to central arrow targets is driven by S-R binding, not IOR

ABSTRACT Localizing targets repeating or changing their position typically leads to a benefit for location changes, that is, inhibition of return (IOR). Yet, IOR is mostly absent when sequentially responding to arrows pointing to the left or right. Previous research suggested that responding to central arrow targets resembles a discrimination response. For the latter, action control theories expect the modulation of response repetitions and changes by task-irrelevant feature repetitions and changes (e.g., colour), caused by stimulus-response (S-R) binding – a modulation typically absent in localization performance. In the current study, participants gave left and right responses to peripheral targets repeating or changing their position, and to central arrow targets repeating or changing their pointing direction. Targets could repeat or change their colour. For central targets, responses were heavily modulated by colour repetitions and changes, suggesting S-R binding. No S-R binding, but only IOR was found for peripheral targets. Analysis of reaction time percentiles suggested that this pattern was not caused by fast response execution. These results show that S-R binding approaches allow to explain effects typically discussed in the context of attentional orienting, highlighting the similarities of two research strands working in parallel for years without much of exchange.

Emotional arousal does not modulate stimulus-response binding and retrieval effects

ABSTRACT The adaptation-by-binding account and the arousal-biased competition model suggest that emotional arousal increases binding effects for transient links between stimuli and responses. Two highly-powered, pre-registered experiments tested whether transient stimulus-response bindings are stronger for high versus low arousing stimuli. Emotional words were presented in a sequential prime-probe design in which stimulus relation, response relation, and stimulus arousal were orthogonally manipulated. In Experiment 1 (N = 101), words with high and low arousal levels were presented individually in prime and probe displays. In Experiment 2 (N = 170), a high arousing affective word was presented simultaneously with a neutral word during the prime display; in the subsequent probe display, either the arousing or the neutral word repeated or a different high versus low arousal word was shown. Data from both experiments did not demonstrate a modulation of SRBR effects by stimulus arousal and SRBR effects were of equal magnitude for word stimuli of high and low arousal levels. These null results are not in line with binding accounts that hypothesise a modulatory influence of emotional arousal on perception-action binding.

Perception and action as viewed from the Theory of Event Coding: a multi-lab replication and effect size estimation of common experimental designs

The Theory of Event Coding (TEC) has influenced research on action and perception across the past two decades. It integrates several seminal empirical phenomena and it has continued to stimulate novel experimental approaches on the representational foundations of action control and perceptual experience. Yet, many of the most notable results surrounding TEC originate from an era of psychological research that relied on rather small sample sizes as judged by today’s standards. This state hampers future research aiming to build on previous phenomena. We, therefore, provide a multi-lab re-assessment of the following six classical observations: response-effect compatibility, action-induced blindness, response-effect learning, stimulus–response binding, code occupation, and short-term response-effect binding. Our major goal is to provide precise estimates of corresponding effect sizes to facilitate future scientific endeavors. These effect sizes turned out to be considerably smaller than in the original reports, thus allowing for informed decisions on how to address each phenomenon in future work. Of note, the most relevant results of the original observations were consistently obtained in the present experiments as well.

Being in the Know: The Role of Awareness and Retrieval of Transient Stimulus-Response Bindings in Selective Contingency Learning.

Previous studies demonstrated that contingency learning can be both (a) unaware (Schmidt et al., 2007), and (b) explained in terms of an automatic retrieval of stimulus-response bindings from the last episode in which the cue stimulus has been presented (Giesen et al., 2020; Schmidt et al., 2020). We investigated whether learning is selective in a contingency learning paradigm in which pairs of salient and nonsalient cues that were equally predictive of responses to targets (digits) were presented simultaneously. In two pre-registered experiments (total N = 137), we found stronger contingency learning for salient compared to non-salient cues. Transient stimulus-response binding and retrieval processes did not contribute to these selective learning effects in contingency learning, which were instead driven by contingency awareness. Our findings indicate that under conditions of high saliency, contingency learning is mediated by conscious rule detection for which retrieval of transient stimulus-response bindings is irrelevant.

On the Role of Memory Representations in Action Control: Neurophysiological Decoding Reveals the Reactivation of Integrated Stimulus-Response Feature Representations.

Efficient response selection is essential to flexible, goal-directed behavior. Prominent theoretical frameworks such as the Theory of Event Coding and Binding and Retrieval in Action Control have provided insights regarding the dynamics of perception-action integration processes. According to Theory of Event Coding and Binding and Retrieval in Action Control, encoded representations of stimulus-response bindings influence later retrieval processes of these bindings. However, this concept still lacks conclusive empirical evidence. In the current study, we applied representational decoding to EEG data. On the behavioral level, the findings replicated binding effects that have been established in previous studies: The task performance was impaired when an event file had to be reconfigured. The EEG-decoding results showed that retrieval processes of stimulus-response bindings could be decoded using the representational content developed after the initial establishment of these stimulus-response bindings. We showed that stimulus-related properties became immediately reactivated when re-encountering the respective stimulus-response association. These reactivations were temporally stable. In contrast, representations of stimulus-response mappings revealed a transient pattern of activity and could not successfully be decoded directly after stimulus-response binding. Information detailing the bindings between stimuli and responses were also retrieved, but only after having been loaded into a memory system. The current study supports the notion that stimulus-response integration and memory processes are intertwined at multiple levels.