Target-Response Associations Can Produce Response-Congruency Effects Without Task-Switching Costs
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: 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.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Authors: Bingxin Li, Xiangqian Li, Xuhong Liu, Martin Lages, Gijsbert Stoet
Institutions: University of Glasgow, Fudan University, University of Essex
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,950
Funder: Erasmus+
OpenAlex ID: W2914965396