Automatic Retrieval of Newly Instructed Cue-Task Associations Seen in Task-Conflict Effects in the First Trial after Cue-Task Instructions
Abstract
Abstract. Novel stimulus-response associations are retrieved automatically even without prior practice. Is this true for novel cue-task associations? The experiment involved miniblocks comprising three phases and task switching. In the INSTRUCTION phase, two new stimuli (or familiar cues) were arbitrarily assigned as cues for up-down/right-left tasks performed on placeholder locations. In the UNIVALENT phase, there was no task cue since placeholder’s location afforded one task but the placeholders were the stimuli that we assigned as task cues for the following BIVALENT phase (involving target locations affording both tasks). Thus, participants held the novel cue-task associations in memory while executing the UNIVALENT phase. Results show poorer performance in the first univalent trial when the placeholder was associated with the opposite task (incompatible) than when it was compatible, an effect that was numerically larger with newly instructed cues than with familiar cues. These results indicate automatic retrieval of newly instructed cue-task associations.
References
2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417–423. doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01538-2
(2014). The hierarchy of task decision and response selection: A task-switching event related potentials study. Brain and Cognition, 88, 35–42. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2014.04.006
(2010). Task conflict effect in task switching. Psychological Research, 74, 568–578. doi: 10.1007/s00426-010-0279-2
(2014). Conflict control in task conflict and response conflict. Psychological Research, 88, 35–42. doi: 10.1007/s00426-014-0565-5
(2007). The representation of instructions in working memory leads to autonomous response activation: Evidence from the first trials in the flanker paradigm. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 1140–1154. doi: 10.1080/17470210600896674
(2009). The representation of instructions operates like a prepared reflex: Flanker compatibility effects found in first trial following S-R instructions. Experimental Psychology, 56, 128–133. doi: 10.1027/1618-3169.56.2.128
(2005). Further evidence for the role of mode-independent short-term associations in spatial Simon effects. Perception & Psychophysics, 67, 659–666. doi: 10.3758/BF03193522
(2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191. doi: 10.3758/BF03193146
(2009). Confidence intervals in repeated measures designs: The number of observations principle. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 124–138. doi: 10.1037/a0014164
(2012). Instruction-based task-rule congruency effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38, 1325–1335. doi: 10.1037/a0028148
(1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95, 492–527. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.95.4.492
(2015). JASP (Version 0.7) [Computer software].
(2014).
(The task cuing paradigm: A user’s guide . In J. A. GrangeG. HoughtonEds., Task switching and cognitive control (pp. 45–73). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.2012). Working memory load but not multitasking eliminates the prepared reflex: Further evidence from the adapted flanker paradigm. Acta Psychologica, 139, 309–313. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.008
(2012). When planning results in loss of control: Intention-based reflexivity and working-memory. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 104. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00104
(2014). Reflexive activation of newly instructed stimulus-response rules: Evidence from lateralized readiness potentials in no-go trials. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 15, 365–373. doi: 10.3758/s13415-014-0321-8
(2015). The power of instructions: Proactive configuration of stimulus-response translation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41, 768–786. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000063
(2009). Design for a working memory. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 51, 45–100.
(2013). Analogous mechanisms of selection and updating in declarative and procedural working memory: Experiments and a computational model. Cognitive Psychology, 66, 157–211. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2012.11.001
(2014). Selective influence of working memory load on exceptionally slow reaction times. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1837–1860. doi: 10.1037/a0037190
(2016). A comparison of methods to combine speed and accuracy measures of performance: A rejoinder on the binning procedure. Behavior Research Methods, Advance online publication. doi: 10.3758/s13428-016-0721-5
(2007). Instruction-induced feature binding. Psychological Research, 71, 92–106. doi: 10.1007/s00426-005-0038-y
(2006). Why are reasoning ability and working memory capacity related to mental speed? An investigation of stimulus-response compatibility in choice reaction time tasks. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 18, 18–50. doi: 10.1080/09541440500215921
(