No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Event files: Feature binding in and across perception and action
Abstract
The primate brain codes perceived events in a distributed fashion, which raises the question of how the codes referring to the same event are related to each other. Recent findings suggest that they are integrated into 'object files', episodic bindings of object-related information. However, the problem of integrating distributed codes is not restricted to perception but applies to action planning and sensorimotor processing as well. Here I argue that the brain addresses these problems by creating multi-layered networks of bindings - 'event files' - that temporarily link codes of perceptual events, the current task context, and the actions performed therein. These bindings produce systematic but often surprising and counter-intuitive interactions between, and impairments in, perception and action planning.
... TASK SWITCH COSTS SCALE 3 Additionally, we tested whether the task rules were encoded in separate task representations or under the same task representation by adopting the response switch test on nonconsecutive trials of the same type from Akçay and Hazeltine (2008) with a modification. Specifically, we first conceptualized a task as a holistic representation encompassing all information needed to achieve a given goal (Frings et al., 2020;Hommel, 2004;Schumacher & Hazeltine, 2016). For each task representation, the memory system automatically stores the most recent state (e.g., bindings of the reference arrow and the rule it represents, test arrows and response made), such that a change in response in the next encounter will incur a behavioral cost (e.g., Jiang et al., 2015;Mayr et al., 2003). ...
... However, as the rule changes, the brain must reconstruct the mental procedures specifying how the new rule applies to the input and output features, a process termed proceduralization (Brass et al., 2017;Oberauer, 2010). On the other hand, if each reference arrow is represented in a separate task representation (i.e., each task has a constant rule), the procedural memories of executing each task should be included in their respective task representations to form a conjunctive task representation (Hommel, 2004;Kikumoto & Mayr, 2020;Kikumoto, Mayr, & Badre, 2022;Kikumoto, Sameshima, & Mayr, 2022;Rangel et al., 2022;Schumacher & Hazeltine, 2016). In other words, compared to the compositional task representation view (i.e., one task that includes all reference arrows), the conjunctive task representation view (i.e., one task for each rule) will have better overall performance (as proceduralization is not necessary on each trial) and stronger parametric switch costs (as conjunctive task representation requires reconfiguring the whole task presentation rather than only the rule). ...
... Altmann (2011) used multiple task cues for the same task to show that response switch cost decreases in descending order of cue repeat, cue switch (task repeat), and task switch. This finding supports an episodic account, such that all task information (e.g., stimulus, rule, response mapping, and response) on a trial is bound together to form an episode or event file (Hommel, 2004). Repetition of more features (e.g., cue and task repeat) leads to stronger retrieval of the event file and subsequently greater facilitation if the response repeats and/or stronger interference if the response switches. ...
Cognitive flexibility enables humans to voluntarily switch tasks. Task switching requires replacing the previously active task representation with a new one, an operation that typically results in a switch cost. Thus, understanding cognitive flexibility requires understanding how tasks are represented in the brain. We hypothesize that task representations are cognitive map-like, such that the magnitude of the difference between task representations reflects their conceptual differences: The greater the distinction between the two task representations, the more updating is required. This hypothesis predicts that switch costs should increase with between task dissimilarity. To test this hypothesis, we use an experimental design that parametrically manipulates the similarity between task rules. We observe that response time scales with the dissimilarity between the task rules. The findings shed light on the organizational principles of task representations and extend the conventional binary task-switch effect (task repeat vs. switch) to a theoretical framework with parametric task switches.
... /2024 movement (say hitting a tennis ball with your racquet) while the action execution part is obviously quite different. Our approach here is concerned with paradigms as used in the event-coding and action control literature (Hommel 2004;Frings et al. 2020) that traditionally focus on the planning part of an action. The same holds true for visual search tasks -the search aspect in the laboratory might be actually quite comparable to searching in the real world (for a review, see Wolfe 2021). ...
... However, the interpretation of DRB differs significantly. The DRB paradigm, a well-established task in the field of action control, assumes the integration or binding of all features, including the response, from the previous trial into an event-file (Hommel 2004(Hommel , 2005Frings et al. 2020). When any feature from the previous trial is repeated, the entire previous event-file including response features, is retrieved, influencing the response of the current trial. ...
... However, the interpretation of DRB differs significantly. The DRB paradigm, a well-established task in the field of action control, assumes the integration or binding of all features, including the response, from the previous trial into an event-file (Hommel 2004(Hommel , 2005Frings et al. 2020). When any feature from the previous trial is repeated, the entire previous event-file including response features, is retrieved, influencing the response of the current trial. ...
Intertrial priming effects in visual search and action control suggest the involvement of binding and retrieval processes. However, the role of distractor-response binding (DRB) in visual search has been largely overlooked, and the specific processing stage within the functional architecture of attentional guidance where the DRB occurs remains unclear. To address these gaps, we implemented two search tasks, where participants responded based on a separate feature from the one defining the target. We kept the target dimension consistent across trials while varying the color and shape of the distractor. Moreover, we either repeated or randomized the target position in different sessions. Our results revealed a pronounced response priming, a difference between trials where the response changed vs. repeated: they were stronger when distractor features or the target position were repeated than they varied. Furthermore, the distractor feature priming, a difference between the distractor features repetition and switch, was contingent on the target position, suggesting that DRB likely operates at late stages of target identification and response selection. These insights affirm the presence of DRB during visual search and support the framework of binding and retrieval in action control as a basis for observed intertrial priming effects related to distractor features.
Public significance statement
This study investigated inter-trial effects within visual search tasks and uncovered significant evidence for the role of distractor-response binding. This phenomenon involves linking a response in a given trial to the perceptual features (e.g. color and shape) of non-target items. Crucially, the study revealed that this distractor-response binding effect depends on whether the target location is repeated nearly repeated, suggesting that the retrieval of a previous response occurs at the later stages of target identification or response selection, even though non-target features likely are identified at an earlier stage.
... The question whether participants learn that specific responses correlate with targets' locations can be related to the idea of event files as discussed in the theory of event coding (TEC; Hommel, 2004;Hommel et al., 2001). Event files are thought to be internal representations of integrated stimulus and response features that are built when humans respond to stimuli and are assumed to be terminated by the response or the effect the response produces (Frings et al., 2023). ...
... The current findings can be explained in terms of TEC and BRAC which assume that stimulus and response features are coded into object files or event files (e.g., Frings & Rothermund, 2011;Hommel, 2004;Kahneman & Treisman, 1984). According to these theories, event files are stored in memory and include binary bindings of stimulus and response information in a unitary mental representation (e.g., Moeller et al., 2016). ...
... Therefore, a true hierarchical event file should contain a connection between a location, a shape, and a response, and hence only if a specific shape repeats at a specific location, the location and response become associated. While there have been arguments in favor of hierarchical event files (Moeller & Frings, 2021), that include higher-order bindings, there are also arguments suggesting that there can only be simple binary bindings between features (Hommel, 2004;Moeller et al., 2016). According to this reasoning, a particular location is bound to a particular response, and the shape presented at that location is not part of this binding. ...
Statistical learning, the process of extracting regularities from the environment, is one of the most fundamental abilities playing an essential role in almost all aspects of human cognition. Previous studies have shown that attentional selection is biased toward locations that are likely to contain a target and away from locations that are likely to contain a distractor. The current study investigated whether participants can also learn to extract that a specific motor response is more likely when the target is presented at specific locations within the visual field. To that end, the additional singleton paradigm was adapted such that when the singleton target was presented at one specific location, one response (e.g., right index finger) was more likely than the other (e.g., right middle finger) and the reverse was true for another location. The results show that participants learned to extract that a particular motor response is more likely when the singleton target (which was unrelated to the response) was presented at a specific location within the visual field. The results also suggest that it is the location of the target and not its shape that is associated with the biased response. This learning cannot be considered as being top-down or conscious as participants showed little, if any, awareness of the response biases present. The results are discussed in terms of the event coding theory. The study increases the scope of statistical learning and shows how individuals adapt automatically, without much awareness, to the regularities present in the environment.
... First, it is becoming increasingly recognized that perception and action are closely intertwined (as foreshadowed by discussions by, e.g., Neumann, 1990;Styles & Allport, 1986). In fact, researchers have argued that perception and action are at least partially represented in the same neural circuits (common coding, Prinz, 1997;Hommel, 2004;Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004). Thus, they should not be treated as separate cognitive modules. ...
... BRAC assumes that the different aspects of the stimulus configuration (stimulus, context, and cue), of the response (response goal, decision, and effector), and of the effect (sensory and affective) are integrated into a short-term memory entry that is labeled "event-file" in line with the Theory of Event Coding (TEC; Hommel, 2004). In addition, BRAC assumes that upon repetition of any feature of an event file, the event file containing this feature is retrieved and thereby can modulate current actions (i.e., the building of the current event file). ...
... Different modulators can increase or weaken integration/retrieval strength (each separately), and thereby increase/reduce S-R binding effects. Hommel (2004) had initially suggested that salience can modulate feature integration and that a more salient stimulus should therefore become more strongly integrated with a response. However, this author later developed a different view on integration and binding processes, according to which everything is unconditionally integrated without any effects of bottom-up factors such as salience (Hommel, 2005). ...
What we have attended to in the past, as well as the stimulus context associated with past motor responses, have a strong impact on our current behavior. These influences have been investigated through inter-trial priming effects in visual search and sequence effects in action control, respectively. These two research fields are strongly complementary at the theoretical level and show striking similarities in their experimental-task structure, analyses, and results. Yet, they have developed largely separately. Here, we claim that such fragmentation impedes progress in these two research strands and highlight the potential benefits of intensifying crosstalk between visual search and action control in future research by exploiting the existing structural similarities with regard to sequence effects. We first discuss the main phenomena and theoretical explanations in each field, while emphasizing the similarities and differences between them. Then, we illustrate how the two fields could integrate each other’s insights—namely, how visual-search research could draw on the action-control literature to clarify the role of retrieval in selection and how action-control research could draw on the visual-search literature to explain response-related processes in more complex environments. We argue that combining the two research traditions is necessary for a coherent account of search-for-action behavior.
... repetition or alternation) on the accuracy data showed no significant main effect of feature If an alternation of the response was required, reaction times were higher in case of full (M = 517 ms, SD = 102 ms) compared to the no feature overlap condition (M = 462 ms, SD = 73 ms, t(50) = 9.056, p < .001). The behavioral results indicate that binding processes have taken place as binding is typically indicated by interaction effects (Hommel, 2004(Hommel, , 2009. Response repetition leads to lower accuracy rates and higher reaction times if the stimulus properties of S2 differ from those of S1. ...
... The behavioral data obtained is in line with previous studies using this task (Colzato et al., 2006) documenting an interaction of stimulus and response features that indicates a binding of these aspects (Hommel, 2004(Hommel, , 2009); i.e., an integration of stimulus and response features in a common representational format (the event file). The neurophysiological data analysis in the different frequency bands revealed event Fig. 5. Clusters of activity as identified by the DBSCAN algorithm. ...
... At present, the conceptual framework Frings et al., 2020) does not distinguish between response repetition and alternation as regards the underlying neural processes. The event file can be conceived as building the connections/associations between stimulus features and motor features (Hommel, 2004) and it has been assumed that event file dynamics are the same in response repetition and alternation trials depending on Fig. 7. Correlations between the occipital/cuneus TBA cluster (always on the x-axis) and the pre-probe clusters. Only correlation matrices with significant areas are shown. ...
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.
... In full repetition trials, all information can be retrieved, which leads to benefits in responding (e.g., Singh et al., 2016; see also Frings et al., 2020;Pashler & Baylis, 1991). However, only partially repeating information causes interference , also known as partial repetition costs (Hommel, 1998(Hommel, , 2004. In contrast, a full change from prime to probe does not affect performance because nothing is retrieved. ...
... Action control processes as S-R binding are thought to underlie all simple actions, that is, bodily movements with an intention or anticipated goal in mind Hommel, 2004;Prinz, 1998). However, when participants signal the detection 1 (e.g., Kwak & Egeth, 1992; or location Schöpper & Frings, 2022;Schöpper et al., 2022a) of a visual stimulus repeating or changing its location while orthogonally repeating or changing a nonspatial feature inherent to it (e.g., color or shape), usually no modulation of performance by nonspatial feature repetitions and changes is observed. ...
... When combining the action control perspective Hommel, 2004;Hommel et al., 2001) with ideas of the dimension weighting account (Found & Müller, 1996;Müller et al., 1995), the results could be explained by the cognitive system (preattentively) allocating attention to a certain feature dimension (cf. Liesefeld et al., 2019), to which it previously had responded to. ...
According to action control theories, responding to a stimulus leads to the integration of response and stimulus features (e.g., color, shape, etc.) into event files. Upon feature repetition, the event file is retrieved, affecting performance. However, the resulting so-called binding effects are typically absent when participants localize targets in a sequence. Here, only a location change benefit emerges, known as inhibition of return (IOR), unmodulated by feature repetitions and changes. This has often been replicated in attentional orienting research. However, in these experimental designs only the individual stimulus feature is systematically varied to repeat or change. Based on the dimension weighting account from visual search, we hypothesized that the lack of binding effects in localization performance is due to a lack of systematically varying feature dimensions. In three experiments, participants localized targets in the left or right hemifield. The target appeared at multiple possible locations with gray distractors (Experiment 1), at multiple possible locations without distractors (Experiment 2), and at two possible locations without distractors (Experiment 3). Crucially, the nonspatial identity of the target repeated its dimension with or without the individual feature, or it changed its dimension. Whereas a binding effect between response and feature was absent, we found a binding pattern between response and feature dimension. IOR was always present. The results fit well with theories of different research strands—action control, attentional orienting, and visual search—suggesting that these gain impact by incorporating each other’s ideas, leading to an all-encompassing understanding of selection and action.
... Influential accounts of action control have incorporated such complex representations by proposing that response selection involves the formation of an episode-or "event-file"-in which features of the goal, stimulus, response, and outcome are bound together Hommel, 2004;Schmidt et al., 2016). There are multiple implementations of this idea, but a core concept is that once these features are "bound" in a previous trial, presenting one of them in the current trial triggers the retrieval of the corresponding event-file. ...
... Evidence for the binding idea comes from multiple sources (for reviews, see Frings et al., 2020;Hommel, 2004). In reaction time (RT) tasks, it typically takes the form of an interaction between (a) a factor indicating whether a stimulus feature repeats or changes and (b) a factor indicating whether a response feature repeats or changes. ...
... Why do PRCs index binding? In some accounts, partial overlap between retrieved and current features leads to a time-consuming process of "unbinding" the previously bound features so that they can be "rebound" to current features (Hommel, 2004; but see Mocke et al., 2023). In other accounts (e.g., Frings et al., 2020;Schmidt et al., 2016), partial overlap between retrieved and current features leads to processing conflicts that impair performance. ...
Responses are slower in two-choice tasks when either a previous stimulus feature or the previous response repeats than when all features repeat or all features change. Current views of action control posit that such partial repetition costs (PRCs) index the time to update a prior “binding” between a stimulus feature and the response or to resolve processing conflicts between retrieved and current features. However, violating a heuristic that stimulus feature repetitions and changes “signal” repetitions or changes of the previous response, respectively, may also contribute to such costs. To determine whether such relational codes affect performance, we compared PRCs in two- and four-choice tasks. While a stimulus feature repetition signals a response repetition in both tasks, a stimulus feature change signals a specific alternative response only in a two-choice task. Consistent with the signaling hypothesis, we observed similar complete repetition benefits in the two- and four-choice tasks but smaller complete change benefits in the four-choice task. We also investigated whether the smaller complete change benefit in the four-choice task—that is, the signaling effect—varies with the validity of the signal in the previous trial. In all four experiments, we observed a larger signaling effect after trials in which stimulus changes or repetitions corresponded to response changes or repetitions, respectively, than after trials in which stimulus changes did not correspond with response changes. We conclude that signaling contributes to PRCs, which indicates that bindings include relational codes.
... First, the congruency effect has been found to be reduced, or even eliminated, following incongruent trials, a phenomenon known as the congruency sequence effect (CSE) or Gratton effect (Gratton et al., 1992; for a recent review, see Egner, 2017). The conflict monitoring theory of cognitive control (Botvinick et al., 2001) explains the CSE by positing that conflict detection triggers an upregulation of attentional control toward the task-relevant feature, thus reducing conflict in the subsequent trial (but see Hommel, 2004;Mayr et al., 2003, for alternative accounts of the CSE; see Frings et al., 2020, for a recent review). Performance in post-congruent trials will thus largely depend on the on-line ability to direct attention away from the task-irrelevant feature and selectively suppress the prepotent task-irrelevant response. ...
... The second factor influencing response conflict is the time elapsed from stimulus onset. A vast literature has characterized the time course of the congruency effect as a function of response speed using delta plots (De Jong et al., 1994;Pratte et al., 2010;Ridderinkhof 2002;2004;Hübner & Töbel, 2019;van den Wildenberg et al., 2010), which plot the effect on the y-axis and RT quantiles on the x-axis (Balota & Yap, 2011;Ridderinkhof, 2004). Most of this literature assumes that response activation from the task-relevant and irrelevant features follows two distinct routes (controlled and automatic, respectively) that compete for selection. ...
... Finally, response repetitions were as likely to occur as response switches. This feature and the 3-choice variant of the spatial Stroop were chosen to allow an assessment of episodic memory contributions to the observed effects (Braem et al., 2019;Hommel et al., 2004), as better detailed in S3 of the Supplementary Materials (see also the statistical analyses section). ...
In conflict tasks, congruency effects are thought to reflect attentional control mechanisms needed to counteract response conflict elicited by incongruent stimuli. Although congruency effects are well-replicable experimentally, recent studies have evidenced low correlations between congruency effects measured across different paradigms, leading to a heated debate over whether these low correlations indicate a lack of construct validity or are rather attributable to high measurement error, as indicated by the poor reliability typically displayed by congruency effects. In the present study, we investigated whether the poor reliabilities of congruency effects are due to their poor theoretical specification. Specifically, we tested whether the psychometric properties of congruency effects can be improved by focusing exclusively on those trials in which response conflict is theoretically expected to be highest. We considered two factors modulating the degree of response conflict: previous trial congruency, with higher conflict following congruent trials, and the time elapsed since stimulus onset, with higher conflict in fast responses. Data from 195 participants completing a Simon and a spatial Stroop paradigm showed that generally poor split-half reliabilities for the full set of trials improved greatly when excluding post-incongruent and slow trials. Importantly, between-task correlations also increased substantially when controlling for these factors, suggesting that, with increased reliability, these tasks capture a common attentional control ability. Our results suggest that individual differences in conflict tasks can provide valid and reliable measures of attentional control when focusing on the trials with the theoretically highest response conflict.
... The former assumes the adaptive topdown allocation of attentional resources and examples of this category include the original proposition by Gratton et al. (1992) as well as the well-known conflict-monitoring theory (Botvinick et al., 2001). The learning and memory account assumes the effect arises because associations of different task features are learned and stored into memory and comprises theories such as feature integration (Hommel, 2004) and contingency learning (Schmidt & DeHouwer, 2011). While the different theoretical accounts disagree on the determinant factors and processes involved in the occurrence of a CSE, they offer a rich ground for research into the different mechanisms underlying conflict processing. ...
... On the contrary, in the case of partial but not complete overlap between two contexts, interference will hinder co-activation of the two contexts, allowing for only one context to be available therefore inhibiting transfer effects between contexts. This framework is also in line with other conflict adaptation models and memory theories namely, theory of event codes (Hommel, 2004), task set level control theory (Hazeltine et al., 2011) and adaptation by binding theory (Verguts & Notebaert, 2009). The design of the current study was inspired by the U-shaped function proposed by Braem et al. (2014); we aimed to systematically manipulate the similarity of two tasks that were to be processed in alternation and examine to what extent conflict adaptation across tasks occurred. ...
... To assess performance adjustments in response to and following conflict, the presence of the CSE was assessed in the context of single tasks and across different tasks. Based on previous evidence (Hommel, 2004;Kerns et al., 2004;Notebaert et al., 2006;Wühr, 2005) we expected to observe withintask CSEs in all three experiments. Following up on Braem et al.'s (2014) proposed U-shaped function describing the relationship between context similarity and across-task CSEs, we expected to observe across-task CSEs in MT only in the case of very high (Experiment 1) and very low (Experiment 3) context similarity between tasks. ...
Exerting cognitive control to remain on-task and reach our goals is a crucial skill, as is the ability to flexibly adapt our responding in rapidly changing environments. The dynamics of cognitive control are typically studied by examining how participants process stimuli that contain competing relevant and irrelevant information in so-called conflict tasks. Adjustments in performance following the experience of conflict, also termed conflict adaptation, suggests a certain degree of flexibility in the deployment of cognitive control. The present study investigated to what extent conflict adaptation effects transfer across trials of the same and different tasks in three online mouse-tracking experiments. Adaptations of the Simon and Stroop tasks were combined to create different levels of context similarity between the paired tasks. Based on a previous review (Braem et al., Frontiers in Psychology 5:1–13, 2014), across-task conflict adaptation was expected only in the most and least similar contexts. In contrast to our hypothesis, conflict adaptation effects were observed in at least one measure in all three experiments. To our surprise, task order also seemed to impact the size of across-task conflict adaptation effects. The heterogeneity in the current results highlight the importance of using sensitive measurement tools to evaluate conflict adaptation and suggest that the occurrence of across-task conflict adaptation may be conditional on more than just shared relevant and irrelevant dimensions.
... Several theories have been developed to investigate how the cognitive system accomplishes such actions. The theory of event coding (Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2001) and the binding and retrieval in action control framework (Beste, Münchau, & Frings, 2023;Frings et al., 2020) assume that, when executing an action, all components involved in it are written into a short episodic memory trace, that is, an event file (Hommel, 2004). Upon repetition of any of its components, this event file is retrieved, affecting performance. ...
... The resulting so-called stimulus-response (S-R) binding effects can be investigated in prime-probe sequences: Here, a participant responds to two sequentially presented targets, of which response-relevant and response-irrelevant features are orthogonally varied. Fully repeating information facilitates responding, whereas partial repetitions lead to partial repetition costs as evidenced by declines in behavioral performance (Hommel, 1998(Hommel, , 2004. ...
... Yet, despite this ubiquity, S-R binding effects are typically completely absent in visual detection (Schöpper, Hilchey, Lappe, & Frings, 2020; and localization Hilchey, Rajsic, Huffman, Klein, & Pratt, 2018;Huffman et al., 2018) performance. From an action control perspective Hommel, 2004;Hommel et al., 2001), this absence of binding and retrieval cannot be satisfactorily explained as it is incongruent with the assumption of both processes affecting all actions. It has been argued that this absence in detection and localization procedures is because of a lack of postselective processing (e.g., Schöpper, Lappe, & Frings, 2022;Schöpper et al., 2020;cf. ...
According to action control theories, responding to a stimulus leads to the binding of response and stimulus features into a common representation, that is, an event file. Repeating any component of an event file retrieves all previously bound information, leading to performance costs for partial repetitions measured in so-called binding effects. Although otherwise robust and stable, binding effects are typically completely absent in localization tasks, in which participants localize targets with spatially compatible responses. Yet, it is possible to observe binding effects in such when location features have to be translated into response features. We hypothesized that this modulation of binding effects is reflected in task-involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Participants localized targets with either direct (i.e., spatially compatible key) or translated (i.e., diagonally opposite to the spatially compatible key) responses. We measured dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity with functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). On the behavioral level, we observed binding effects in the translated response condition, but not in the direct response condition. Importantly, prefrontal activity was also higher in the translated mapping condition. Additionally, we found some evidence for the strength of the difference in binding effects in behavioral data being correlated with the corresponding effects in prefrontal activity. This suggests that activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reflects the amount of executive control needed for translating location features into responses. More generally, binding effects seem to emerge only when the task at hand involves DLPFC recruitment.
... Critically, previous findings showed how aspects of event file processing are temporally coded in distinct neurophysiological signals during reactive inhibition processes (Eggert et al., 2023), but did not investigate the strength and temporal stability of event file representations and their spatial distribution in distinct multiple cortical regions. This remains a critical issue considering that event file dynamics have been conceptualized as network dynamics with concomitant processing in multiple cortical regions (Hommel, 2004), a notion which has been supported by neurophysiological evidence Takacs, Zink, et al., 2020). In particular, it has been shown that event file coding involves specific (spatially independent) aspects of neural activity associated with distinct fronto-parietal cortex regions Gholamipourbarogh et al., 2023;Prochnow et al., 2022). ...
... The processes also suggest that multiple independent spatial activity profiles underlie event file reconfiguration Gholamipourbarogh et al., 2023) and the same has been found for response selection . Crucially, the event file concept assumes distributed processing of perceptual and motor aspects during goal-directed action control (Hommel, 2004 IC-pair 1 shows a significant binary classification performance between 85 and 245 ms after stimulus presentation, with limited offdiagonal decoding (i.e., temporal generalization) (King & Dehaene, 2014). For this IC-pair, source localization results revealed greater activation in the congruent than incongruent stop condition in the precuneus (BA 7). ...
Coping with distracting inputs during goal-directed behavior is a common challenge, especially when stopping ongoing responses. The neural basis for this remains debated. Our study explores this using a conflict-modulation Stop Signal task, integrating group independent-component analysis (Group-ICA), multi-variate pattern analysis (MVPA), and EEG source localization analysis. Consistent with previous findings, we show that stopping performance is better in congruent (non-conflicting) trials than in incongruent (conflicting) trials. Conflict effects in incongruent trials compromise stopping more due to the need for the reconfiguration of stimulus-response (S-R) mappings. These cognitive dynamics are reflected by four independent neural activity patterns (ICA analysis), each coding representational content (MVPA). It is shown that each component was equally important in predicting behavioral outcomes. The data support an emerging idea that perception-action integration in action-stopping involves multiple independent neural activity patterns. One pattern relates to the precuneus (BA 7) and is involved in attention and early stimulus-response processes. Of note, three other independent neural activity patterns were associated with the insular cortex (BA13) in distinct time windows. These patterns reflect a role in early attentional selection but also show the reiterated processing of representational content relevant for stopping in different S-R mapping contexts. Moreover, the insular cortex´s role in automatic vs. complex response selection in relation to stopping processes is shown. Overall, the insular cortex is depicted as a brain hub, crucial for response selection and cancellation across both straightforward (automatic) and complex (conditional) S-R mappings, providing a neural basis for general cognitive accounts on action control.
... Therefore, aspects of any perceptual consequence or effect of movements/MD can become integrated with the motor activity producing this movement. Influential conceptualizations of these processes-rooted in cognitive science-have delineated that such associative processes establish a pattern of interconnected perceptual and motor elements 41,42,45 that is essential for coherent perception, action, and the integration of perceptual and motor processes. This is also often referred to as the "neural binding problem" 46,47 describing how processes that are encoded by distinct brain circuits can be combined for perception and action (including basic motor processes). ...
... Event files describe the close association between perceptual and motor processes. 45 As outlined later, functional principles of "event files" also underlie MD. Before we detail the consequences and repercussions this may have, we review that there is ample evidence supporting an ideomotor principles perspective on MD. ...
At present, clinical practice and research in movement disorders focus on the “normalization” of altered movements. In this review, rather than concentrating on problems and burdens people with MDs undoubtedly have, we highlight their hidden potentials. Starting with current definitions of Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, chorea, and tics, we outline that solely conceiving these phenomena as signs of dysfunction falls short of their complex nature comprising both problems and potentials. Such potentials can be traced and understood in light of well-established cognitive neuroscience frameworks, particularly ideomotor principles, and their influential modern derivatives. Using these frameworks, the wealth of data on altered perception-action integration in the different movement disorders can be explained and systematized using the mechanism-oriented concept of perception-action binding. According to this concept, movement disorders can be understood as phenomena requiring and fostering flexible modifications of perception-action associations. Consequently, although conceived as being caught in a (trough) state of deficits, given their high flexibility, people with movement disorders also have high potential to switch to (adaptive) peak activity that can be conceptualized as hidden potentials. Currently, clinical practice and research in movement disorders are concerned with deficits and thus the “deep and wide troughs”, whereas “scattered narrow peaks” reflecting hidden potentials are neglected. To better delineate and utilize the latter to alleviate the burden of affected people, and destigmatize their conditions, we suggest some measures, including computational modelling combined with neurophysiological methods and tailored treatment.
... Several theories have been developed to describe how such actions are accomplished. According to the theory of event coding (Hommel et al., 2001), responding to a stimulus (like a light switch or a key press in a laboratory setting) leads to the integration of stimulus information and the response into a so-called event file (Hommel, 2004). If now any component of the event file repeats, the previous information is retrieved: This causes benefits for full repetitions, but interference if information does not fully match-partial repetition costs arise (Hommel, 1998). ...
... S-R binding effects or more general binding and retrieval are tacitly assumed to underlie all actions (e.g., Frings et al., 2020;Hommel, 2004). However, recently, important boundaries of binding effects have been proposed. ...
According to action control theories, responding to a stimulus leads to the binding of the response and stimulus features into an event file. Repeating any component of the latter retrieves previous information, affecting ongoing performance. Based on years of attentional orienting research, recent boundaries of such binding theories have been proposed as binding effects are fully absent in visual detection (e.g., Schöpper et al., 2020, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82 (4), 2085–2097) and localization (e.g., Schöpper & Frings, 2022; Visual Cognition, 30 (10), 641–658) performance. While this can be attributed to specific task demands, the possibility remains that retrieval of previous event files is hampered in such tasks due to overall fast responding. In the current study we instructed participants to signal the detection (Experiment 1) and location (Experiment 2) of dots orthogonally repeating or changing their nonspatial identity and location. Crucially, the dots were either hard or easy to perceive. As expected, making targets hard to perceive drastically slowed down detection and localization response speed. Importantly, binding effects were absent irrespective of perceptibility. In contrast, discriminating the nonspatial identity of targets (Experiment 3) showed strong binding effects. These results highlight the impact of task-dependence for binding approaches in action control.
... The other camp suggests that sequential modulations rest on memory traces of previous trial episodes (cf. Frings et al., 2020;Hommel, 2004;Schmidt, 2019;. The basic idea is that the repetition of a certain stimulus feature retrieves certain aspects of the previous trial episode to which this feature is still linked, such as the previous response modality. ...
... Even though the discussed parameter shifts of the cognitive system can evidently increase performance for subsequent incompatible trials (even if it is at the cost of compatible trials following incompatible trials), conflict adaptation theory would not ascribe the cognitive system the flexibility to instantiate parameters that favor the processing of conflicting episodes. While conflict adaptation is thought to operate on a relatively high level, more low-level cognitive mechanisms may help to explain this result, namely episodic binding (Frings et al., 2020;Hommel, 2004). ...
Modality-compatible stimulus–response mappings (e.g., responding vocally to an auditory stimulus and manually to a visual stimulus) are often easier to perform than modality-incompatible sets (reversed modality mappings). Here, we investigate sequential, trial-to-trial, modulations of modality compatibility effects. By reanalyzing a previous experiment and conducting two specifically tailored, new experiments, we demonstrate robust within-task sequential modulations. Furthermore, we test for between-task adaptations by intermixing the modality switching task with a Simon task. Results show reliable sequential adaptations within the modality switching task, but no transfer of adaptation between tasks in either direction. We discuss how a combination of prominent theoretical accounts such as conflict adaptation and episodic binding can serve as the cognitive underpinnings of the observed sequential adaptations.
... One of these mechanisms is the binding or integration of stimulus (S) and response (R) features. The S-R binding hypothesis assumes that when we respond to a stimulus, response features (e.g., the effector used or the direction of a response) and features of task-relevant and -irrelevant stimuli (e.g., stimulus shape or color) are integrated into a short-lived episodic memory trace, called event-file (Hommel, 2004). The theory of event coding (TEC; Hommel et al., 2001) assumes that S-R integration occurs due to a common representational format for action and perceptual features (common coding assumption; Prinz, 1997). ...
... That is, stronger S-R binding effects should emerge for stimuli with larger feature weights. On the other hand, it has been repeatedly claimed that (especially) the integration process is rather broad and automatic (e.g., Hommel, 1998Hommel, , 2004Hommel, , 2019Hommel et al., 2001). That is, all stimuli (or rather their features) are integrated into an event-file-independent of, for example, attentional resources diverted to a stimulus (Hommel, 1998(Hommel, , 2005. ...
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.
... Event coding theory states that memory binds together features of ongoing experience into 'event files' and subsequent encounters with some or all of those features lead to the retrieval of similar event files, which can serve as a shortcut for perceptual inference and response selection 99,100 . Accordingly, the binding of object features with actions performed in response to those features facilitates repeat performance but impairs performance when a different action is required in the presence of those stimulus features 102,103 . By adding the assumption that internal states such as the current task set 104 and level of focus 76,105 of an individual are also part of this episodic feature integration process, one can naturally account for item-specific and other context-specific control effects. ...
... One key issue to resolve is the degree to which the binding phenomena investigated in the event coding literature correspond to episodic memories 100 . The former effects are usually assessed by averaging over many trial pairs with a prime-probe structure, in which stimulus and response features either repeat or change across successive trials 102,103 . By contrast, episodic memories are typically assessed in the form of recall or recognition memory tests following a single exposure and much longer encoding-retrieval delays. ...
... Motor working memory that does include timing might be identified with "kinetic working memory" (Shen et al., 2014) and with "working memory for observed actions" (Wood, 2007). This type of working memory may be related to the notion of an event file (Hommel, 2004) because it integrates elements of perception and action. This memory has been studied using a change-detection task in which participants observed whether a second action stimulus is changed relative to the first stimulus. ...
A fundamental limitation in the type of information that can be retained in working memory is identified in this theoretical / review article. The analysis is based on studies of skilled motor performance that were not initially conceived in terms of working memory. Findings from a long history of experimentation involving reaction time (RT) prior to making a brief motor response indicate that although the parameters representing the goal to be achieved by the response can be retained in working memory, the control code that implements timing of action components cannot. This lack of working memory requires that the “timing code” must be compiled immediately prior to the moment that it is to be utilized; it is not possible to be fully ready to respond earlier. This compiling process increases RT and may also underlie both the psychological refractory period effect and the difficulty of generating concurrent motor actions with independent timing. These conclusions extend, but do not conflict with, other models of working memory.
... Another limitation is that the visual cues differed between the three groups, with the prospect group receiving visual cues prior to half of trials, the reception group receiving visual cues after some trials, and the control group receiving no additional cues. Thus, we cannot rule out the possibility that our effects are driven by alerting effects (Posner & Petersen, 1990) or action-effect binding (Eitam et al., 2013;Hommel, 2004). Experiment 2 addressed these limitations. ...
Performance-contingent rewards can enhance cognitive effort and improve performance. However, it is unclear which reward components drive these effects, and how they impact performance when rewards are unavailable. In two studies we directly contrast the effects of two performance-contingent reward components: reward prospect (opportunity to earn a reward) and reward reception (knowledge of earning a reward). Participants completed a Simon task, receiving different types of reward information on each trial: Participants of the Prospect group were informed about reward opportunities, but received no trial-level feedback; participants of the reception group received no information about reward opportunities, but did receive feedback when they earned a reward. In Experiment 1, the prospect group responded faster on trials with reward opportunity, but slower on trials following rewarded trials. Participants in the reception group did not show this trial-by-trial modulation of response time. Experiment 2 replicated these effects and showed that they are accompanied by changes in pupil dilation, suggesting involvement of cognitive effort. These findings show that information about prospect of performance-contingent rewards enhances performance when rewards are available, but in contrast undermines it right after earning a reward whereas reward reception information does not lead to any trial-to-trial adjustments but results in more stable task performance.
... The episodic retrieval account can explain the ISPC effect (Brosowsky & Crump, 2018;Bugg & Crump, 2012;Crump & Milliken, 2009). According to this account, as participants experience MC and MI items during the task, they encode stimulus, response (e.g., color), and contextual features, akin to the types of features encoded in event files (Hommel, 2004). In addition to these features, the episodes also critically include the internal states (e.g., attentional procedures or control settings) that were active when responding to the stimuli, and these states thereby become associated with the other features (see Bugg & Crump, 2012, for idea of stimulus-attention associations; see also Dignath et al., 2019;Egner, 2014). ...
Learning-guided control refers to adjustments of cognitive control settings based on learned associations between predictive cues and the likelihood of conflict. In three preregistered experiments, we examined transfer of item-specific control settings beyond conditions under which they were learned. In Experiment 1, an item-specific proportion congruence (ISPC) manipulation was applied in a training phase in which target color in a Flanker task was biased (mostly congruent or mostly incongruent). In a subsequent transfer phase, participants performed a color-word Stroop task in which the same target colors were unbiased (50% congruent). The same design was implemented in Experiment 2, but training and transfer tasks were intermixed within blocks. Between-task transfer was evidenced in both experiments, suggesting learned control settings associated with the predictive cues were retrieved when encountering unbiased transfer items. In Experiment 3, we investigated a farther version of between-task transfer by using training (color-word Stroop) and transfer (picture-word Stroop) tasks that did not share the relevant (to-be-named) dimension or response sets. Despite the stronger, between-task boundary, we observed an ISPC effect for the transfer items, but it did not emerge until the second half of the experiment. The results provided converging evidence for the flexibility and automaticity of item-specific control.
... From a psychological point of view and according to Hommel (2004), the brain records experienced events in a distributed fashion depending on past and current sensory interactions between an individual and his environment. Eating breakfast every morning, one gradually creates a multimodal representation of one's cup of tea. ...
Ideomotor theories admit that anticipated action-effects are the basis of the action selection and initiation, but there is no common understanding of the role of anticipated affective outcomes in motor organization. This study provides substantial information that shows that anticipated affective action-effects (positive/negative) combined with the direction in which a movement is performed (rightward/leftward) significantly impact its organization. Sixty-four right-handed subjects performed right and left pointing movements on a graphic tablet to trigger the appearance of a positive or negative visual outcome. Results indicate a compatibility effect between the direction of the movement and the valence of the action-effect that facilitates cognitive processes involved in movement organization. Pointing movements were faster triggered and executed when the movement was directed to the right combined with a positive outcome and when the movement was directed to the left with a negative one. Such findings are consistent with Casasanto’s body-specificity hypothesis, which stipulates an association of the dominant hand side with positive features, and with ideomotor theory where perception and action share a common representation. This experiment confirms that voluntary movements’ organization is built through an action representation, including affective predictions.
... It has been known for a long time that the brain binds together concurrently processed information, such as different features of an object (e.g., Kahneman et al., 1992;Treisman & Gelade, 1980), as well as actions performed in relation to that object (e.g., Hommel, 1998). Such stimulus-response ensembles have been conceptualized as mnemonic "event files" (Hommel, 2004;Hommel et al., 2001), whereby subsequent encounters with some or all of the event features lead to the retrieval of the (most similar) previously encoded event file, which can serve as a shortcut for perceptual inference and response selection. Several more recent findings have suggested that event files also appear to incorporate internal mental states (reviewed in Abrahamse et al., 2016;Egner, 2014;Frings et al., 2020). ...
The capacity for goal-directed behavior relies on the generation and implementation of task sets. While task sets are traditionally defined as mnemonic ensembles linking task goals to stimulus–response mappings, we here asked the question whether they may also entail information about task difficulty: does the level of focus required for performing a task become incorporated within the task set? We addressed this question by employing a cued task-switching protocol, wherein participants engaged in two intermixed tasks with trial-unique stimuli. Both tasks were equally challenging during a baseline and a transfer phase, while their difficulty was manipulated during an intermediate learning phase by varying the proportion of trials with congruent versus incongruent response mappings between the two tasks. Comparing congruency effects between the baseline and transfer phases, Experiment 1 showed that the task with a low (high) proportion of congruent trials in the learning phase displayed reduced (increased) cross-task interference effects in the transfer phase, indicating that the level of task focus required in the learning phase had become associated with each task set. Experiment 2 indicated that strengthening of task focus level in the task with a low proportion of congruent trials was the primary driver of this effect. Experiment 3 ruled out the possibility of cue–control associations mediating this effect. Taken together, our results show that task sets can become associated with the focus level required to successfully implement them, thus significantly expanding our concept of the type of information that makes up a task set.
... It should be noted that, in the Simon task described above, the response button (i.e., the key "E" or "P") was the same as the Simon stimulus (i.e., the letter "E" or "P"), which might produce additional overlaps between the stimulus and response sets (e.g., Hommel, 1998Hommel, , 2004Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2001). To exclude the potential contribution of the additional overlaps to the observed effects and replicate the effect of voluntary choice on the Simon effect, we conducted a new experiment, Experiment 3b (preregistered at https://osf.io/cvjqp) in which a shape (i.e., a circle or a diamond) was included as the Simon stimulus and the association between shapes and response buttons was counterbalanced across participants. ...
... According to current action control theories, when planning and conducting an action, stimulus, response, and effect features belonging to that action are bound into a short-term memory trace called an event file (Hommel, 2004). Repeating any of the bound features can then start retrieval of the other features later on, which affects further performance (Frings et al., 2020;Hommel, 1998;Logan, 1988;Schmidt et al., 2016). ...
In the past few decades, binding and retrieval mechanisms have gained increased interest in research on human action control. Recent studies show that these mechanisms also play a role in the control of multiple independent actions. Here, two or more successively executed responses seem to be bound to each other so that repeating one of them can retrieve the other, affecting performance in this second response and resulting in so-called response–response binding effects. Binding effects are typically found in the response time data and, somewhat less reliably, also in the error rates. Whether binding effects show in the response times, the error rates, or both, is likely influenced by the current speed–accuracy settings of the participants, with binding effects more likely showing in error rates under a speed setting, while more likely showing in RTs under an accuracy setting. Alternatively, different speed–accuracy settings might also entail changes in executive control, affecting the size of observed binding effects. In this study, we tested these assumptions by comparing binding effects under different speed–accuracy settings that were induced via instructions focusing on speed, accuracy, or both (ambivalent). Binding effects were observed in response times independent of instructions, while in error rates, they only showed under speed or ambivalent instructions. These findings indicate that binding effects can be affected by instructions regarding speed and accuracy.
... In this research, we adopted the perspective of the Conflict Monitoring Theory and interpreted CSEs to reflect changes in cognitive control. This interpretation has been challenged by observations that attribute CSEs to stimulus-response memory (Hommel, 2004) stimulus priming (Mayr et al., 2003), and contingency learning (Schmidt, 2013). For instance, although all current experiments controlled for contingency learning (e.g., due to an equal amount of congruent and incongruent face-word distractors) and stimulus priming (e.g., Experiments 2-3b, target face repetitions and distractor repetitions in across-domain transitions were excluded by design), only Experiment 1 also eliminated stimulus-response retrieval (e.g., by employing separate stimulus-response sets across domains) and can be considered as a confound-minimized design (see Braem et al., 2019). ...
People can learn to control their thoughts and emotions. The scientific study of control has been conducted mostly independently for cognitive and emotional conflicts. However, recent theoretical proposals suggest a close link between emotional and cognitive control processes. Indeed, mounting evidence from clinical sciences, social and personality psychology, and developmental neuroscience suggests that the ability to control thoughts and behavior goes hand in hand with the ability to control emotions. Yet, the precise interface between control over cognition and emotions remains controversial. The present study investigates the question whether control is a general-purpose mechanism or rather a set of domain-specific mechanisms. Following previous research, we tested participants’ control in a cognitive and an emotional Stroop task and assessed the congruency sequence effect (CSE) which has been taken as a marker of cognitive or (implicit) emotional control, respectively. Going beyond previous research, we asked how control in one domain (e.g., cognitive) interacts with control in the other domain (e.g., emotional) on a trial-by-trial basis. In four experiments (N = 259) presented participants with a task-switching design that intermixed cognitive and emotional conflicts. This procedure produced significant CSEs across cognitive-emotional domains, suggesting that control can interact across domains. However, effect sizes of within-domain CSEs were twice as large, indicating that control is also domain-specific. These results neither support the general-purpose account nor the domain-specificity hypothesis of control. Rather, a hybrid account fits the data best, which also reconciles previous behavioral and neurophysiological findings, suggesting domain-general and specific processes.
... Modern elaborations of this idea refined assumptions about the episodic representation and research showed that automatization could occur even after single exposures to an event. According to Hommel (2004), features of perceived stimuli, the task context, and the responses afforded by the task become integrated in cognitive structures called event files through binding processes that link information about relevant stimulus and response aspects of the experienced episode. Event files are temporarily stored in episodic memory and the episode is automatically retrieved from memory if the stimulus or the response is used again. ...
Appetitive and aversive stimuli are typically distinguished by their capacities to trigger approach- and avoidance-related action tendencies. The present study investigated whether approaching and avoiding stimuli creates episodic memory traces that are automatically retrieved when the stimulus is encountered again. Using a sequential distractor-to-distractor repetition paradigm, we hypothesized that distractor repetition from prime to probe trials will facilitate approach–avoidance to the probe target if the response is also repeated from prime to probe but will impede responding to the probe target if the response has changed. Results of four experiments (total N = 403) were in line with the hypothesized episodic binding and retrieval effect. A stimulus-cued retrieval of the previous approach and avoidance response was even obtained with different response sets and with perceptually different approach- and avoidance-related action effects in prime and probe trials. It is concluded that approach and avoidance action goals become linked to stimuli in an episodic memory trace and are automatically retrieved from memory when the stimulus is encountered again, which makes these stimuli appetitive and aversive.
... Another explanation of the effect has to do with learning and memory processes, which are confounded with sequence congruency. The Feature integration Model (Hommel, 2004) proposes that the performance adjustments are the result of complete repetitions or changes of stimuli. The contingency learning account views the sequence congruency effect as a result of the strengthened association between a distracter and the congruent response (Schmidt & De Houwer, 2011). ...
The aim of this study was to examine performance in the Simon task regarding individual differences in creative behavior measured by The Inventory of Creative Activities and Achievements (ICAA; Diedrich et al., 2018). The study included 105 students and 57 younger working-age individuals (from 19 to 36 years of age). Three-way analyses of variance were carried out on the reaction time in the Simon task given the congruence of the previous and current trials and below/above average results on creative activities and achievements scales. The reaction time in the Simon task was on average shorter in congruent than in incongruent trials (the Simon effect), as well as in the trials preceded by congruent than in those preceded by incongruent trials. The Simon effect was only present in trials preceded by a congruent trial, while reaction times in the trials preceded by incongruent trials were shorter in incongruent than in congruent trials (the Gratton effect). However, neither the Simon nor the Gratton effect were more pronounced within more or less creative participants, but the participants with an above average result on the scale of creative activities reacted on average more slowly than individuals with below the average score. The correlations between the scores on the creativity measures and the different reaction times and indices of the Simon and Gratton effect were not significant. The expected effects related to the Simon task have been obtained in this study, but further research is needed to try to replicate the findings regarding the flexibility of inhibitory control measured by performance in the Simon task and creative behavior.
... According to the visuospatial coding literature, the abrupt onset of an object automatically activates spatial codes representing its location and affects subsequent processing (Funes et al., 2007;Hommel, 2004;Lu & Proctor, 1995;Nicoletti et al., 1982). One way to examine this issue is to explore spatial congruency effects. ...
Directional judgments of the arrow became slower when the direction and location were incongruent in the spatial Stroop task (i.e., a spatial Stroop effect). In contrast, gaze judgments were slower when they were congruent (i.e., a reversed congruency effect). The present study examined the reaction time (RT) distribution of interference effects in the spatial Stroop task to clarify the temporal characteristics of the spatial Stroop effect, which is known to be reversed for social targets, such as gaze direction. Participants responded to the laterally presented target (i.e., arrow, gaze, fish-only, and fish with mosaic) while ignoring its location. The arrow’s spatial Stroop effect decreased as the overall RT increased, reflecting the temporal decay of automatically activated task-irrelevant codes (i.e., location). Critically, the gaze’s reversed congruency effect increased as the overall RT increased. This result supports the dual-stage hypothesis (Tanaka et al., 2023) and reflects the late-arriving selective inhibition of task-irrelevant codes. Similar results were replicated in Experiment 2, which manipulated the complexity of the backgrounds of non-social targets and in the reanalysis of existing data. These findings imply that the interplay between task-irrelevant activation and subsequent inhibition is modulated by specific stimulus characteristics, influencing spatial response selection.
... Interestingly, according to some of these Structuralist integration accounts, most notably so-called feature binding accounts 41,42 , partial repetitions of features (here, on a conceptually somewhat higher level, referred to as task demands) should not yield performance benefits, but rather partial mismatch costs: As any partial repetition necessarily also implies some degree of change (in stimuli, context, or particular response requirements), this change (via the retrieval of an unwarranted type of task/action representation) can eventually make it harder to retrieve the appropriate action (see 41 , for empirical examples). Note, however, that this logic cannot be easily transferred to our study that involved switches between single and multiple actions, and we clearly did not find any substantial evidence for consistent performance costs associated with switching from dual to single actions (or vice versa) in our data. ...
The question of how behavior is represented in the mind lies at the core of psychology as the science of mind and behavior. While a long-standing research tradition has established two opposing fundamental views of perceptual representation, Structuralism and Gestalt psychology, we test both accounts with respect to action representation: Are multiple actions (characterizing human behavior in general) represented as the sum of their component actions (Structuralist view) or holistically (Gestalt view)? Using a single-/dual-response switch paradigm, we analyzed switches between dual ([A + B]) and single ([A], [B]) responses across different effector systems and revealed comparable performance in partial repetitions and full switches of behavioral requirements (e.g., in [ A + B] → [ A ] vs. [B] → [ A ], or [ A ] → [ A + B] vs. [B] → [ A + B]), but only when the presence of dimensional overlap between responses allows for Gestalt formation. This evidence for a Gestalt view of behavior in our paradigm challenges some fundamental assumptions in current (tacitly Structuralist) action control theories (in particular the idea that all actions are represented compositionally with reference to their components), provides a novel explanatory angle for understanding complex, highly synchronized human behavior (e.g., dance), and delimitates the degree to which complex behavior can be analyzed in terms of its basic components.
... Such actions, which cause the student to be involved in drawing an organized form, have created many clues in the mind of the learner, and in the future, any of the clues will be active. [7,[11][12][13][14][15][16] In the mind map, the main subject is placed in the center and the keywords are branched from it by branches, and if possible, it is completed by placing images; however, new and unrelated ideas can also be added to it because its use is unlimited. [1,13] Due to the advantages and high application of mind maps, many softwares were created (Xmind, IMindMap, and FreeMind). ...
BACKGROUND
Human memory represents the ability to recall and retrieve information. Learning methods have a great impact on remembering and retrieving material. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of the mind map learning method on the amount of recall and retrieval of the core contents of anesthesia technology students.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this quasi-experimental study, 55 undergraduate students of anesthesia technology were included in the study by census method. In both groups, teaching was done in the same way (lecture method) by a single professor. The intervention group was randomly divided into six groups. After training to work with a mind map in this group, the teaching of lessons started with the lecture method, and then the mind map was drawn by the group members. In the control group, the students followed the lecture method and note-taking. Finally, three tests were taken. Test 1 (before the start of the training), test 2 (immediately after the training (scheduled test)), and test 3 (after 2 weeks (surprise test)).
RESULTS
The data obtained from the test scores were analyzed by paired t -test, independent t -test, and analysis of covariance. The analysis showed that the mind map method significantly improved the short-term ( P < 0.001) and long-term memory of anesthesia technology students ( P < 0.001) compared to the traditional method. Examining the effect of gender on long-term memory showed that in the intervention group, female samples had an average score of 1 more than male samples ( P = 0.044).
DISCUSSION
It seems that mind mapping improves short-term and long-term memory in anesthesia technology students who play a critical role in saving the lives of patients and this issue improves the quality of services in the field of health.
... In addition, increased RTs and error rates in switchversus repetition-order trials can result from violations of expectations for task sequences (Muhle-Karbe et al., 2018) or higher-order binding effects (Frings et al., 2020). Given the example of higher-order binding effects, features of the stimulus environment, the order of these stimuli, responses, and response orders in that environment, as well as subsequent response effects, might be integrated into event files (Hommel, 2004). The repetition of a specific order of stimulus modalities improves the retrieval of an episode, including this order, improving performance in repetition-order trials. ...
When two tasks are presented simultaneously or in close succession such as in the overlapping task paradigm of the psychological refractory period, dual-task performance on those tasks is usually impaired compared to separate single-task performance. Numerous theories explain these emerging dual-task costs in terms of the existence of capacity limitations in the constituent component tasks. The current paper proposes active dual-task coordination processes that work on the scheduling of these capacity-limited processes. Further, there are recent findings that point to a meta-cognitive control level in addition to these active coordination processes. This additional level’s responsibility is to adjust the dual-task coordination of capacity-limited stages (i.e., coordination adjustment). I review evidence focusing on the existence of dual-task coordination processes and processes of coordination adjustment. The remainder of the paper elaborates on preliminary findings and points to the separability of these sets of processes, which is a key assumption of the framework of dual-task coordination adjustment.
... Two possible explanations have been proposed for this dissociable mechanism in resolving conf lict caused by arrows and gaze: (i) incongruent gaze trials cause less conf lict because the location of the stimulus is not considered relevant for the task, and therefore, only one spatial location is prioritized (the location the gaze is directed at ;Hommel 2004Hommel , 2019. It is important to note that some conf lict was detected, as the right supramarginal and angular gyrus were more strongly connected with occipitotemporal regions for incongruent than congruent trials for both arrows and gaze. ...
Social and nonsocial directional stimuli (such as gaze and arrows, respectively) share their ability to trigger attentional processes, although the issue of whether social stimuli generate other additional (and unique) attentional effects is still under debate. In this study, we used the spatial interference paradigm to explore, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, shared and dissociable brain activations produced by gaze and arrows. Results showed a common set of regions (right parieto-temporo-occipital) similarly involved in conflict resolution for gaze and arrows stimuli, which showed stronger co-activation for incongruent than congruent trials. The frontal eye field showed stronger functional connectivity with occipital regions for congruent as compared with incongruent trials, and this effect was enhanced for gaze as compared with arrow stimuli in the right hemisphere. Moreover, spatial interference produced by incongruent (as compared with congruent) arrows was associated with increased functional coupling between the right frontal eye field and a set of regions in the left hemisphere. This result was not observed for incongruent (as compared with congruent) gaze stimuli. The right frontal eye field also showed greater coupling with left temporo-occipital regions for those conditions in which larger conflict was observed (arrow incongruent vs. gaze incongruent trials, and gaze congruent vs. arrow congruent trials). These findings support the view that social and nonsocial stimuli share some attentional mechanisms, while at the same time highlighting other differential effects. Highlights Attentional orienting triggered by social (gaze) and nonsocial (arrow) cues is comparable. When social and nonsocial stimuli are used as targets, qualitatively different behavioral effects are observed. This study explores the neural bases of shared and dissociable neural mechanisms for social and nonsocial stimuli. Shared mechanisms were found in the functional coupling between right parieto-temporo-occipital regions. Dissociable mechanisms were found in the functional coupling between right frontal eye field and ipsilateral and contralateral occipito-temporal regions.
... While there is good evidence to support this idea (see e.g., Schacter & Addis, 2020 for review), it remains unclear what mechanisms allow such flexible recombination of episodic elements in the service of episodic simulation. These processes are most commonly thought of in terms of associative inference (Addis, 2020;Carpenter & Schacter, 2017;Horner & Burgess, 2013) even thoughas QPM point out -LoT-style representations like scene-grammars (Võ, 2021), object files (Zimmer & Ecker, 2009), and event files (Hommel, 2004) play a role in structuring the information encoded into long-term memory. Similarly, these representations might play a role in structuring what content is retrieved and how it is composed. ...
We propose that episodic thought (i.e., episodic memory and imagination) is a domain where the language-of-thought hypothesis (LoTH) could be fruitfully applied. On the one hand, LoTH could explain the structure of what is encoded into and retrieved from long-term memory. On the other, LoTH can help make sense of how episodic contents come to play such a large variety of different cognitive roles after they have been retrieved.
Le laboratoire Mémoire Cerveau et Cognition est spécialisé dans l’étude neurocognitive de la mémoire humaine et les distorsions mnésiques aux différents âges de la vie avec des approches combinées de psychologie expérimentale, de neuropsychologie et de neurosciences cognitives. La mémoire épisodique dans ses formes multiples, rétrospectives et prospectives, est au cœur des recherches actuellement réalisées et tout particulièrement la mémoire autobiographique qui fonde notre sentiment d’identité personnelle, de continuité temporelle et la conscience de soi. Les membres du laboratoire développent une approche écologique novatrice qui utilise les technologies de la réalité virtuelle pour évaluer la mémoire dans une approche plus incarnée et proposer de nouvelles méthodes de prises en charge et d’optimisation. Cet article illustre brièvement l’évolution de nos travaux dans le domaine de la mémoire épisodique et autobiographique et les approches innovantes mises en place au sein du laboratoire.
Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) at resting state has been associated to cognitive functions dependent on cognitive control, such as memory. However, little is known about the phasic interaction between cognitive and autonomic control. In a pre‐registered within‐between‐subject designed experiment, the potential of vmHRV biofeedback to simultaneously stimulate vmHRV during memory processing and cognitive control over long‐term memory was tested, along with investigating psychophysiological association. 71 young healthy adults completed (twice) a false memory task in virtual reality. Immediately before memory encoding and retrieval, participants practiced either vmHRV biofeedback or a control breathing exercise. Cognitive control over long‐term memory was assessed as the confidence toward false memories and the capability to discriminate them from true memories. Resting‐state vmHRV before each test and phasic vmHRV during memory encoding and retrieval were measured as the root mean square differences (RMSSD) in the heart period. vmHRV biofeedback had neither an immediate effect on measures of cognitive control over long‐term memory nor on phasic RMSSD. Moreover, neither resting‐state nor phasic vmHRV correlated to the cognitive scores. Consequently, the utility of HRV biofeedback as a psychophysiological stimulation tool and a link between vmHRV and cognitive control over long‐term memory could not be verified. Exploratory analyses revealed that baseline shift in parasympathetic activity confounded the psychophysiological association. Future directions are provided that could shed light on the relationship between cognition and vmHRV.
The attentional boost effect (ABE) and action-induced memory enhancement (AIME) suggest that memory performance for target-paired items is superior to that for distractor-paired items when participants performed a target detection task and a memory encoding task simultaneously. Though the memory enhancement has been well established, the temporal dynamics of how the target detection task influenced memory encoding remains unclear. To investigate this, we manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between detection stimuli and the words to be memorized using a remember/know study-test paradigm, and we focused primarily on memory performance for the words that appeared after the detection response. The results showed that target-paired memory enhancement was robust from SOA = 0 s to SOA = 0.75 s, but was not significant when examined by itself in Experiment 1A or weakened in Experiment 2 and the conjoint analysis when SOA = 1 s, which were only observed in R responses. The post-response memory enhancement still existed when there was no temporal overlap between the word and target, similar to the magnitude of memory enhancement observed with temporal overlap. These results supported the view that target-paired memory enhancement (recollection rather than familiarity) occurred irrespective of whether the items appeared simultaneously with the targets or within a short period after the response, and the temporal overlap of the word and target was not necessary for post-response memory enhancement.
The claim that cognitive control is constrained by a general stability–flexibility tradeoff dimension has inspired research, ranging from modeling of basic control phenomena to cognitive implications for psychiatric conditions. Yet, the results with variants of the task-switching paradigm show (1) evidence of ‘anti-tradeoff’ patterns (co-occurrence of stability and flexibility), (2) that when tradeoffs do exist, they are often directly tied to highly specific memory representations, and (3) that there is little conclusive evidence of tradeoffs for naturally occurring variability within or between individuals. Instead of a general tradeoff dimension, we suggest conceptualizing cognitive task control in terms of navigating a cognitive map that represents competing states (tasks) with varying degrees of resolution (depending on top-down control), and where high-resolution encoding supports both stability and flexibility.
Investigating frontal EEG asymmetry as a possible biomarker of cognitive control abilities is especially important in ecological contexts such as school and work. We used a novel approach combining judgment performance and hemispheric frontal event-related potential (ERP) P300 asymmetry (fP3As) to evaluate aspects of cognitive control (i.e., repetition and switching) in adolescent females over a two-week ordinary school period. While undergoing electroencephalographic recording, students performed a word-colour “Stroop-like” congruence judgment task during morning and afternoon sessions, on Mondays and Wednesdays. Proportion of incongruence and congruence trials was 75% and 25%, respectively. ERP analysis revealed larger “novelty” right hemispheric fP3As amplitude for infrequent congruence but equivalent or significantly smaller than left hemispheric fP3As amplitude for frequent incongruence. RTs increased with extent of right fP3As shift. Behaviorally, repeat trial pairs (i.e., congruent followed by congruent, incongruent followed by incongruent) generally did not differ by time or day and were associated with near-ceiling accuracy. In contrast, switch trial pairs (i.e., congruent followed by incongruent, incongruent followed by congruent) in the afternoon were slower and associated with lower accuracy at the expected 75% criterion rate (i.e., judging incongruence by default), dropping significantly below 75% in the mornings. Crucially, compared to afternoon, morning fP3As patterns did not change adaptively with switch trial pairs. Although retroactive switching during congruence judgment was affected at all testing times, we conclude it was most impaired in the mornings of both early and mid school weeks, supporting misalignment between adolescent circadian cycle and school start time. We discuss some implications for optimal learning of adolescents at school.
The prime-probe version of the Stroop task has been predominantly used to demonstrate the context-specific proportion congruency (CSPC) effect. In this version, the location of the color is not known until its presentation, creating a spatial uncertainty for the color dimension. We propose that spatial uncertainty plays an important role in observing the CSPC effect. In this study, we investigated the role of spatial uncertainty with two experiments. In Experiment 1 (N = 53), we used a spatially separated version of the Stroop task having spatial uncertainty on the color dimension, and observed a significant CSPC effect. For Experiment 2, we conducted a preregistered prime-probe CSPC experiment with a considerably large sample (N = 128), eliminating the uncertainty of only the color dimension in one condition and both the color and the word dimensions in the other. Results showed that the CSPC effect was not observed in the first condition, while it was very small yet significant in the second condition. The Bayesian approach confirmed frequentist analyses of Experiment 1 and the first condition of Experiment 2. However, in the second condition of Experiment 2, there was no evidence regarding the existence of the CSPC effect. These findings support our claim that the spatial uncertainty of the color dimension, inherent in the prime-probe version Stroop task, contributed to the CSPC effect.
Attention can be covertly shifted to peripheral stimuli to improve their processing. However, attention is also then inhibited against returning to the previously attended location; thus, both detection and discrimination of a stimulus presented at that location decrease (the inhibition of return [IOR] effect). The after-effect of the covert orienting hypothesis postulates a close link between attention shifting, IOR, and oculomotor control. The fixation offset, which improves the generation of saccades, decreases IOR in detection tasks, suggesting a close link between IOR and oculomotor control. However, according to some alternative views (e.g., the input-based IOR hypothesis and the object files segregation/integration hypothesis), IOR may be related to some sensory rather than motor processes. Some studies support that view and show that IOR may occur differently in detection and discrimination tasks and that oculomotor processes do not affect IOR in tasks where manual responses are required and eye movements are suppressed. Two experiments presented in this article show that removing the fixation point decreases manual IOR in detection and discrimination tasks. The results are discussed in terms of various theoretical approaches.
Previous work shows that automatic attention biases toward recently selected target features transfer across action and perception and even across different effectors such as the eyes and hands on a trial-by-trial basis. Although these findings suggest a common neural representation of selection history across effectors, the extent to which information about recently selected target features is encoded in overlapping versus distinct brain regions is unknown. Using fMRI and a priming of pop-out task where participants selected unpredictable, uniquely colored targets among homogeneous distractors via reach or saccade, we show that color priming is driven by shared, effector-independent underlying representations of recent selection history. Consistent with previous work, we found that the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) was commonly activated on trials where target colors were switched relative to those where the colors were repeated; however, the dorsal anterior insula exhibited effector-specific activation related to color priming. Via multivoxel cross-classification analyses, we further demonstrate that fine-grained patterns of activity in both IPS and the medial temporal lobe encode information about selection history in an effector-independent manner, such that ROI-specific models trained on activity patterns during reach selection could predict whether a color was repeated or switched on the current trial during saccade selection and vice versa. Remarkably, model generalization performance in IPS and medial temporal lobe also tracked individual differences in behavioral priming sensitivity across both types of action. These results represent a first step to clarify the neural substrates of experience-driven selection biases in contexts that require the coordination of multiple actions.
This chapter argues that weak narrativity exists in low-level cognition. Specifically, weak narrativity helps explain the phenomenology of event experiences. The chapter considers research on the phenomenology of time (Bergson, Montemayor, Wittmann), on event segmentation (Shipley, Zacks, Tversky, Bauer, Hommel, Schacter and Addis, Davachi and Dubrow), and on episodic memory (Conway, Moulin, Spreng, Mar, Kim). Narrative processing involves synthesizing key features of temporality and event segmentation: selection, concatenation, boundary marking, and dynamic valuation of agents. This synthesis activity is core to ordinary experience. It describes the ongoing tracking of value dynamics within the continuous flow of experience, and how an ongoing, Ricouerian grasping together of temporally extended value dynamics accretes into meaning-laden phenomena. The chapter concludes by situating this argument within philosophical perspectives that argue for the importance of narrative in cognition (Butler, Menary), specifically by connecting the hermeneutical tradition with recent insight into episodic memory.
Developmental science is increasingly interested in investigating the early ontogeny of the so called implicit self. It is supposed to be a non-conceptual form of self including the experiences of agency and bodily ownership. Several theories have been proposed to account for the development of an implicit self and have inspired lines of empirical investigations. However, comparing these theories is difficult because the extent to which they rely on similar concepts is unclear, which in turn prevents systematic evaluation. This paper aims to provide an overview of
currently influential theories on the development of the implicit self. It advances the debate by classifying the theories as either positing a unified implicit self, multiple implicit selves, or no self
at all. The core assumptions of each theory are derived based on a comprehensive set of criteria, and evaluated using current empirical research. This overview proposes research directions that would enable further theoretical understanding of the ontogeny of the implicit self.
Although the electrophysiological event-related potential in face processing (e.g. N170) is widely accepted as a face-sensitivity biomarker that is deficient in children with autism spectrum disorders, the time-varying brain networks during face recognition are still awaiting further investigation. To explore the social deficits in autism spectrum disorder, especially the time-varying brain networks during face recognition, the current study analyzed the N170, cortical activity, and time-varying networks under 3 tasks (face-upright, face-inverted, and house-upright) in autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children. The results revealed a smaller N170 amplitude in autism spectrum disorder compared with typically developing, along with decreased cortical activity mainly in occipitotemporal areas. Concerning the time-varying networks, the atypically stronger information flow and brain network connections across frontal, parietal, and temporal regions in autism spectrum disorder were reported, which reveals greater effort was exerted by autism spectrum disorder to obtain comparable performance to the typically developing children, although the amplitude of N170 was still smaller than that of the typically developing children. Different brain activation states and interaction patterns of brain regions during face processing were discovered between autism spectrum disorder and typically developing. These findings shed light on the face-processing mechanisms in children with autism spectrum disorder and provide new insight for understanding the social dysfunction of autism spectrum disorder.
Action control theories assume that upon responding to a stimulus response and stimulus features are integrated into a short episodic memory trace; repeating any component spurs on retrieval, affecting subsequent performance. The resulting so-called “binding effects” are reliably observed in discrimination tasks. In contrast, in localization performance, these effects are absent and only inhibition of return (IOR) emerges – a location change benefit. Affective information has been found to modulate binding effects; yet a modulation of IOR has led to mixed results, with many finding no influence at all. In the current study, participants discriminated letters (Experiment 1) or localized dots (Experiment 2) on a touchpad in prime-probe sequences. During the prime display two images – one with fruits and one with a spider – appeared, one of which spatially congruent with the to-be-touched area. In the discrimination task, previously touching a spider compared to a fruit slowed down response repetitions. In contrast, the localization task only showed IOR. This suggests that task-irrelevant valence is integrated with the response and affects subsequent responses due to retrieval. However, this is not ubiquitous but depends on task type. The results shed further light on the impact of affective information on actions.
A theory is proposed that views emotional feelings as pivotal for action control. Feelings of emotions are valued interoceptive signals from the body that become multimodally integrated with perceptual contents from registered and mentally simulated events. During the simulation of a perceptual change from one event to the next, a conative feeling signal is created that codes for the wanting of a specific perceptual change. A wanted perceptual change is weighted more strongly than alternatives, increasing its activation level on the cognitive level and that of associated motor structures that produced this perceptual change in the past. As a consequence, a tendency for action is generated that is directed at the production of the wanted perception.
Le laboratoire Mémoire Cerveau et Cognition est spécialisé dans l’étude neurocognitive de la mémoire humaine et les distorsions mnésiques aux différents âges de la vie avec des approches combinées de psychologie expérimentale, de neuropsychologie et de neurosciences cognitives. La mémoire épisodique dans ses formes multiples, rétrospectives et prospectives, est au cœur des recherches actuellement réalisées et tout particulièrement la mémoire autobiographique qui fonde notre sentiment d’identité personnelle, de continuité temporelle et la conscience de soi. Les membres du laboratoire développent une approche écologique novatrice qui utilise les technologies de la réalité virtuelle pour évaluer la mémoire dans une approche plus incarnée et proposer de nouvelles méthodes de prises en charge et d’optimisation. Cet article illustre brièvement l’évolution de nos travaux dans le domaine de la mémoire épisodique et autobiographique et les approches innovantes mises en place au sein du laboratoire.
In 4 Simon experiments the authors examined control over 2 routes of sensorimotor processing: response priming in the unconditional route and response selection via the conditional route. The Simon effect diminished as the frequency of noncorresponding trials increased. Location-based response priming was observed only when the stimulus followed a corresponding event but not after a noncorresponding trial. Therefore, the unconditional route appears to be suppressed whenever the task context indicates priming as potentially disadvantageous. Moreover, the task-irrelevant stimulus location was used for response selection as a function of correspondence probability. Although exact repetitions of stimulus - response sequences caused a marked speed-up of responses, this 3rd mechanism is independent of unconditional route suppression and frequency-based adjustments in the conditional route.
Dynamic visual identification was investigated in 4 experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, 2 perceptual objects (2 frames, each containing a letter or 1 containing a letter and the other a plus sign) were previewed in the periphery. A saccade brought these objects to central vision. During the saccade the display was changed so that 1 frame contained a letter and the other a plus sign, and the subject identified the letter by naming it aloud as rapidly as possible. In Experiment 3, the retinal events of Experiments 1 and 2 were simulated. In Experiment 4, both the preview and the target were presented centrally within a single fixation. In all experiments both object-specific and nonspecific preview benefits were observed. These results support a theory in which the preview benefits observed during visual identification arise from 2 processes, object file review and type priming.
Ignoring a distractor on a prime trial generally impairs responses to that object on a subsequent probe trial. This negative-priming (NP) effect supports the notion that distracting objects are actively inhibited during target selection (Tipper, 1985). Alternatively, NP may be caused either by amismatch between the features of items across prime and probe trials (Park & Kanwisher, 1994) or by the episodic retrieval of information from the prime trial which conflicts with the current, correct response (Neill & Valdes, 1992). These alternative accounts are called theselective inhibition,feature mismatching, andepisodic retrieval hypotheses, respectively. The present paper reviews the NP literature and considers the evidence for each of the three accounts. Feature mismatching does produce NP in a limited number of cases, but it is not a necessary condition for NP. In other cases, NP must be due to either selective inhibition or episodic retrieval of previously ignored distractors. Though results from critical tests designed to discriminate among these hypotheses have not yet been reported, such results are crucial for both theoretical and practical reasons.
Two experiments studied the emergence of bindings between stimulus features (object files) and between stimulus and response features (event files) over time. Choice responses (R2) were signalled by the shape of a stimulus (S2) that followed another stimulus (S1) of the same or different shape, location, and colour. S1 did not require a response (Experiment 1) or trigger a precued simple response (R1) that was or was not repeated by R2 (Experiment 2). Results demonstrate that the mere cooccurrence of stimulus features, and of stimuli and responses, is sufficient to bind their codes. Bindings emerge quickly and remain intact for at least four seconds. Which features are considered depends on their task‐relevance; hence, integration reflects the current attentional set. There was no consistent trend toward higher order interactions as a function of time or of the amount of attention devoted to S1, suggesting that features are not integrated into a single, global superstructure, but enter independent local bindings presumably subserving different functions.
Recent experimental results in the visual cortex of cats and monkeys have suggested an important role for synchronization of neuronal activity on a millisecond time scale. Synchronization has been found to occur selectively between neuronal responses to related image components. This suggests that not only the firing rates of neurons but also the relative timing of their action potentials is used as a coding dimension. Thus, a powerful relational code would be available, in addition to the rate code, for the representation of perceptual objects. This could alleviate difficulties in the simultaneous representation of multiple objects. In this article we present a set of theoretical arguments and predictions concerning the mechanisms that could group neurons responding to related image components into coherently active aggregates. Synchrony is likely to be mediated by synchronizing connections; we introduce the concept of an interaction skeleton to refer to the subset of synchronizing connections that are rendered effective by a particular stimulus configuration. If the image is segmented into objects, these objects can typically be segmented further into their constituent parts. The synchronization behavior of neurons that represent the various image components may accurately reflect this hierarchical clustering. We propose that the range of synchronizing interactions is a dynamic parameter of the cortical network, so that the grain of the resultant grouping process may be adapted to the actual behavioral requirements.It can be argued that different aspects of purposeful behavior rely on separable processes by which sensory input is transformed into adjustments of motor activity. Indeed, neurophysiological evidence has suggested separate processing streams originating in the primary visual cortex for object identification and sensorimotor coordination. However, such a separation calls for a mechanism that avoids interference effects in the presence of multiple objects, or when multiple motor programs are simultaneously prepared. In this article we suggest that synchronization between responses of neurons in both the visual cortex and in areas that are involved in response selection and execution might allow for a selective routing of sensory information to the appropriate motor program.
One of the main functions that visual attention serves in perception and action is feature binding; that is, integrating all information that belongs to an object. The outcome of this integration has been called "object file", a hypothetical memory structure coding episodic combinations of stimulus features. Action-oriented approaches to attention, however, suggest that such a purely perceptual or perceptually derived structure may be incomplete: If attention subserves action control, object files may include action-related Information as well. That is, feature binding may not be restricted to stimulus features but also include features of the responses made to the respective stimulus. In three experiments, subjects performed simple, already prepared left-or right-key responses (R1) to the mere presence of "Go" signals (S1) that varied randomly in farm, colour and location. Shortly after the prepared response, a binary choice reaction (R2) to the form or colour of a second stimulus (S2) was made. The results show that benefits due to stimulus-feature repetitions (S1-S2) interact: Form repetition only facilitates performance if colour is also repeated, and repeating the relevant stimulus feature (form or colour) only facilitates performance if stimulus location is repeated. This can be taken as evidence for object-file formation. But there was also evidence for bindings between stimulus and response features: Repetition benefits associated with both the relevant stimulus feature and stimulus location depended on response repetition. This suggests that object files represent only one component of more complex "event files" that link information about stimulus and response aspects of an experienced episode.
Subjects identified target letters flanked by incompatible distractor letters (e.g.,
ABA). Distractor onset was randomly simultaneous with target onset or was delayed by 400 ms. In Experiment 1, one third of probe-trial targets were identical to the preceding prime-trial distractor. Responses were slower to repeated letters than to unrepeated letters (
negative priming) only when prime and probe trials shared the same distractor-onset conditions. In Experiment 2, one third of probe-trial targets were identical to the preceding prime-trial target. Significant facilitation (
repetition priming) occurred for repeated targets in all conditions but was again greater when prime and probe trials shared the same distractor-onset conditions. The results strongly support episodic retrieval theories of both negative priming and repetition priming and suggest that a common mechanism underlies both phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors hypothesized that action planning leads to the temporal binding of response codes, which then are less available for the planning of other actions. Four experiments showed evidence for this code occupation hypothesis. In Experiment 1, participants prepared a left or right finger movement (A), performed another left-right choice reaction (B), and then executed Action A. In case of a partial feature overlap between A and B, reaction time for B increased. The same was true in Experiment 2, in which B was performed with the left or right foot. Experiment 3 showed that response-feature binding occurred only when there was sufficient time to form a plan. When A was precued but not intentionally prepared, feature overlap produced a decrease in reaction time. Experiment 4 revealed that A benefited from feature overlap with B at short delays but not at longer delays between B and A. This finding was presumably due to leftover activation in feature codes after plan execution, whereas overlap costs in B were unaffected by delay. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In an investigation of task-set reconfiguration, participants switched between 2 tasks on every 2nd trial in 5 experiments and on every 4th trial in a final experiment. The tasks were to classify either the digit member of a pair of characters as even/odd or the letter member as consonant/vowel. As the response–stimulus interval increased up to 0.6 s, the substantial cost to performance of this predictable task-switch fell: Participants could partially reconfigure in advance of the stimulus. However, even with 1.2 s available for preparation, a large asymptotic reaction time (RT) cost remained, but only on the 1st trial of the new task. This is attributed to a component of reconfiguration triggered exogenously, i.e., only by a task-relevant stimulus. That stimuli evoke associated task-sets also explains why RT and switch costs increased when the stimulus included a character associated with the currently irrelevant task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Six experiments were conducted to investigate the nature of the contents of object files, temporary representations that store
information about objects. Experiment 1 used a lexical priming paradigm with a lexical decision task, in which the prime and
target could appear in either the same or different locations. The results indicated a greater priming effect when the prime
and target appeared in the same location than when they appeared in different locations (object- or location-specific priming).
Experiment 2 replicated these findings for objects that changed position during the display. Experiment 3 demonstrated that
these findings reflected the inclusion of abstract identity information, rather than physical form, in object files. Three
additional experiments tested for the presence of three types of semantic information (related concepts, semantic features,
and category membership) in object files. No object-specific priming effects were found. Taken together, these experiments
suggest that an object file includes identity information, but not semantic information. Implications of the results for object
file theory are discussed.
Previous work indicates that action-control processes influence perceptual processes: The identification probability of a
left- or right-pointing arrow is reduced when it appears during the execution of a compatible left-right-key press (Müsseler
& Hommel, in press). The present study addresses the question of whether this effect would also be observed in a detection
task—that is, with judgments that do not require discriminating between left- and right-pointing arrows. Indeed, we found
comparable effects in both the identification task and the detection task. This outcome is interpreted within a commoncoding
framework, which holds that stimulus processing and action control operate on the same codes.
Ability to integrate diverse forms of information in current thought, or working memory, is essential for human reasoning and problem solving. We used functional imaging to identify brain regions preferentially involved in maintaining integrated versus unintegrated information in working memory. For equal amounts of verbal and spatial information, activation of prefrontal cortex was greater for maintaining integrated rather than unintegrated representations. Posterior brain regions showed the opposite pattern. These results demonstrate frontal-lobe specialization in maintaining working-memory representations that integrate verbal and spatial information. The role of prefrontal cortex in integrating multiple forms of information in working memory may underlie its unique contribution to high-level cognition that demands flexible mental representations.
According to the authors' 2-phase model of action control, people first incidentally acquire bidirectional associations between motor patterns and movement-contingent events and then intentionally use these associations for goal-directed action. The authors tested the model in 4 experiments, each comprising an acquisition phase, in which participants experienced co-occurrences between left and right keypresses and low- and high-pitched tones, and a test phase, in which the tones preceded the responses in forced- and free-choice designs. Both reaction time and response frequency in the test phase depended on the learned associations, indicating that presenting a tone activated the associated response. Results are interpreted as evidence for automatic action–outcome integration and automatic response priming through learned action effects. These processes may be basic for the control of voluntary action by the anticipation of action goals.
We have used a novel task to study relationships between perception and action. Four experiments studied stimulus-response (S-R) relationships under conditions in which stimuli and responses were functionally -unrelated (i.e., not assigned to each other by instruction) and merely overlapped in time. On each trial, participants carried out movements on a graphic tablet while observing motions displayed on a computer screen. The movement on trial n was specified by the motion observed on the previous trial n - 1, whereas the motion observed on trial n specified the movement to be performed on trial n + 1. Results showed that stimulus motion had a contrast-like impact on response movement. Watching a small motion while performing a medium-sized movement increased movement size, whereas watching a large motion led to a decrease (Experiment 1). Further experiments showed that the contrast pattern was not affected by the mode of motion presentation (Experiment 2), or by the interval between motion and movement execution (Experiment 3). Contrast was also observed in the reverse direction, i.e., from action to perception (Experiment 4). We propose that the contrast effect is due to a mechanism for selective code modification. This mechanism acts to increase the distinctiveness of simultaneously activated perception and action codes in a common representational domain.
Attention and Performance
Recent studies indicate that subjects may respond to visual information during either an early parallel phase or a later focused phase and that the selection of the relevant phase is data driven. Using the noise-compatibility paradigm, we tested the hypothesis that this selection may also be strategic and context driven. At least part of the interference effect observed in this paradigm is due to response activation during the parallel-processing phase. We manipulated subjects’ expectancies for compatible and incompatible noise in 4 experiments and effectively modulated the interference effect. The results suggest that expectancies about the relative utility of the information extracted during the parallel and focused phases determine which phase is used to activate responses.
Classical theories of sensory processing view the brain as a passive, stimulus-driven device. By contrast, more recent approaches emphasize the constructive nature of perception, viewing it as an active and highly selective process. Indeed, there is ample evidence that the processing of stimuli is controlled by top-down influences that strongly shape the intrinsic dynamics of thalamocortical networks and constantly create predictions about forthcoming sensory events. We discuss recent experiments indicating that such predictions might be embodied in the temporal structure of both stimulus-evoked and ongoing activity, and that synchronous oscillations are particularly important in this process. Coherence among subthreshold membrane potential fluctuations could be exploited to express selective functional relationships during states of expectancy or attention, and these dynamic patterns could allow the grouping and selection of distributed neuronal responses for further processing.
2 experiments are reported which attempted to determine the basis of the "repetition effect," i.e., the observed shorter reaction time (RT) for repeated events than for nonrepeated events. The 1st experiment was designed to determine whether the effect was due primarily to peripheral response facilitation, or primarily to more central coding effects. By employing a condensing task in which the same response was made to 2 different stimuli, it was concluded that the effect was not due to peripheral response facilitation, but appeared to be more central in origin. The 2nd experiment tested the hypothesis that the repetition effect resulted from short-term activation of the S-R memory trace. Some support was found for this prediction. It was found that the repetition effect declind with increasing intertrial interval (ITI) over a range in which decline in short-term memory (STM) is typically reported, and that RT for both repeated and nonrepeated events increased with increased ITI, indicating that increased fading of the memory trace occurred in both conditions.
The aim of the present study was to investigate how spatial attention influences directional manual and saccadic reaction times. Two experiments were carried out. In experiment 1 subjects were instructed to perform pointing responses toward targets that were located either in the same or the opposite hemifield with respect to the hemifield in which an imperative stimulus was presented. In experiment 2, they were instructed to make saccadic or pointing responses. The direction of the responses was indicated by the shape of the imperative stimulus. Reaction time (RT), movement time, and, in experiment 2, saccadic trajectory were measured. The imperative stimulus location was either cued (endogenous attention) or uncued. In the latter case the imperative stimulus presentation attracted attention (exogenous attention). The main results of the experiments were the following: First, exogenous attention markedly decreased the RTs when the required movement was directed toward the imperative stimulus location. This directional effect was much stronger for pointing than for ocular responses. Second, endogenously allocated attention did not influence differentially RTs of pointing responses directed toward or away the attended hemifield. In contrast, endogenous attention markedly favored the saccadic responses when made away from the cued hemifield. Third, regardless of cueing, the direction of movement affected both pointing and saccadic reaction times. Saccadic reaction times were faster when the required movement was directed upward, while manual reaction times were faster when the movement was directed downward. Fourth, lateralized spatial attention deviated the trajectory of the saccades contralateral to the attention location. This pattern of results supports the notion that spatial attention depends on the activation of the same sensorimotor circuits that program actions in space.
This contribution is devoted to the question of whether action-control processes may be demonstrated to influence perception. This influence is predicted from a framework in which stimulus processing and action control are assumed to share common codes, thus possibly interfering with each other. In 5 experiments, a paradigm was used that required a motor action during the presentation of a stimulus. The participants were presented with masked right- or left-pointing arrows shortly before executing an already prepared left or right keypress response. We found that the identification probability of the arrow was reduced when the to-be-executed reaction was compatible with the presented arrow. For example, the perception of a right-pointing arrow was impaired when presented during the execution of a right response as compared with that of a left response. The theoretical implications of this finding as well as its relation to other, seemingly similar phenomena (repetition blindness, inhibition of return, psychological refractory period) are discussed.
In bottleneck models of overlapping-task performance, stimulus-response translation for secondary tasks is postponed until the primary response is selected. If this is so, then compatibility between the secondary and primary responses, or between the secondary response and the primary stimulus, should not affect primary-task performance. Yet such effects were demonstrated in 5 dual-task experiments combining primary manual and secondary vocal tasks: Pronounced effects of compatibility between the secondary and primary response and between the secondary response and primary stimulus were found on primary-task performance. The latter effect was also found with the lowest level of an extensive stimulus onset asynchrony variation, when the secondary task was not speeded, and even when the 2 tasks were performed on different trials. Findings suggest that secondary responses were activated before primary response selection was completed and thus support an automatic-translation hypothesis holding that, although eventual response selection may be serial, stimulus-response translation is performed in parallel.
Visual processing in cortex is classically modeled as a hierarchy of increasingly sophisticated representations, naturally extending the model of simple to complex cells of Hubel and Wiesel. Surprisingly, little quantitative modeling has been done to explore the biological feasibility of this class of models to explain aspects of higher-level visual processing such as object recognition. We describe a new hierarchical model consistent with physiological data from inferotemporal cortex that accounts for this complex visual task and makes testable predictions. The model is based on a MAX-like operation applied to inputs to certain cortical neurons that may have a general role in cortical function.
The prefrontal cortex has long been suspected to play an important role in cognitive control, in the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals. Its neural basis, however, has remained a mystery. Here, we propose that cognitive control stems from the active maintenance of patterns of activity in the prefrontal cortex that represent goals and the means to achieve them. They provide bias signals to other brain structures whose net effect is to guide the flow of activity along neural pathways that establish the proper mappings between inputs, internal states, and outputs needed to perform a given task. We review neurophysiological, neurobiological, neuroimaging, and computational studies that support this theory and discuss its implications as well as further issues to be addressed
Traditional approaches to human information processing tend to deal with perception and action planning in isolation, so that an adequate account of the perception-action interface is still missing. On the perceptual side, the dominant cognitive view largely underestimates, and thus fails to account for, the impact of action-related processes on both the processing of perceptual information and on perceptual learning. On the action side, most approaches conceive of action planning as a mere continuation of stimulus processing, thus failing to account for the goal-directedness of even the simplest reaction in an experimental task. We propose a new framework for a more adequate theoretical treatment of perception and action planning, in which perceptual contents and action plans are coded in a common representational medium by feature codes with distal reference. Perceived events (perceptions) and to-be-produced events (actions) are equally represented by integrated, task-tuned networks of feature codes--cognitive structures we call event codes. We give an overview of evidence from a wide variety of empirical domains, such as spatial stimulus-response compatibility, sensorimotor synchronization, and ideomotor action, showing that our main assumptions are well supported by the data.
In 4 Simon experiments the authors examined control over 2 routes of sensorimotor processing: response priming in the unconditional route and response selection via the conditional route. The Simon effect diminished as the frequency of noncorresponding trials increased. Location-based response priming was observed only when the stimulus followed a corresponding event but not after a noncorresponding trial. Therefore, the unconditional route appears to be suppressed whenever the task context indicates priming as potentially disadvantageous. Moreover, the task-irrelevant stimulus location was used for response selection as a function of correspondence probability. Although exact repetitions of stimulus-response sequences caused a marked speed-up of responses, this 3rd mechanism is independent of unconditional route suppression and frequency-based adjustments in the conditional route.
According to the 'conflict-monitoring' model, a leading theory of cognitive control1, 2, 3, ⁴, information-processing conflict registered in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) triggers the prefrontal cortex to reduce conflict susceptibility. Here we show that the existing empirical support for an online modulation of susceptibility to conflict through immediately preceding conflict, the 'conflict-adaptation effect'1, ⁵, needs to be reevaluated. In a human cognitive control task, we found that it was not the stimulus-independent level of conflict that was responsible for the conflict-adaptation effect but rather an episodic memory phenomenon: stimulus-specific priming⁶.
The perceptual elicitation of actions takes place even for visual inputs that are not the intended target of subsequent overt behavior. According to our proposed model, this automatic analysis can activate competing population codes that represent different actions. Because these codes can overlap, inhibitory mechanisms are necessary to select one population to guide overt behavior. Selection should result in changes to the population vector that can produce deviations of the movement trajectory either toward or away from the stimulus to be ignored. Such trajectory deviations are observed in both manual reaches and saccades. The polarity and extent of the deviation are determined by the potency of the distractor.
Three experiments are reported on the role of phonetic features in motor programs for speech production. Each experiment involved a type of response-priming procedure. The procedure required subjects to prepare a specified primary vocal response that contained one or two vowel-consonant syllables (e.g., “up,” “ub,” “ut,” and “ud”). After the preparation interval, the subjects either produced the primary response upon command or else switched to produce another specified secondary response instead. Response latency and accuracy were measured as a function of the relationship between the phonetic features of the primary and secondary responses. Longer latencies and more errors occurred when the secondary response had place-of-articulation or voicing features identical to those of the primary response. The results may be interpreted in terms of an interactive-activation model. It appears that phonetic features play a significant role during the compilation of articulatory motor programs, and that preparation to produce an utterance inhibits the programming of other utterances with similar features. This outcome complements and extends conclusions derived from analyzing naturalistic slips of the tongue and coarticulation phenomena. The interactive-activation model of speech production provides a link with theoretical accounts of speech perception, word recognition, and manual movement.
This article describes a series of experiments which show that motor performance suffers when responses in a repeated sequence have variable rather than fixed parameter mappings. In speech production, repeated recitation of the beginning of the alphabet is slowed dramatically if the same letters have different stress levels on successive cycles; the same effect holds for vowel-consonant relationships. In keyboard performance, repetitions of fingertapping sequences suffer if the number of consecutive taps by the same finger changes from cycle to cycle; we call these difficult sequences finger fumblers. Finally, similar effects are obtained with violin playing. The model we develop to account for these results says that parameter values mapped to the subprogram for a response item persist after the subprogram has been executed, and that extra processing is required if a new parameter value must be mapped to the subprogram the next time it is called for. This account is consistent with the view that motor programs for forthcoming actions are prepared by editing motor programs for actions that have just been completed. Because our results are similar to interference effects in traditional memory studies, we also suggest that similar mechanisms underlie storage and retrieval of motor responses and symbolic materials.
The study of object cognition over the past 25 years has proceeded in two largely non-interacting camps. One camp has studied object-based visual attention in adults, while the other has studied the object concept in infants. We briefly review both sets of literature and distill from the adult research a theoretical model that we apply to findings from the infant studies. The key notion in our model of object representation is the `sticky' index, a mechanism of selective attention that points at a physical object in a location. An object index does not represent any of the properties of the entity at which it points. However, once an index is pointing to an object, the properties of that object can be examined and featural information can be associated with, or `bound' to, its index. The distinction between indexing and feature binding underwrites the distinction between object individuation and object identification, a distinction that turns out to be crucial in both the adult attention and the infant object-concept literature. By developing the indexing model, we draw together two disparate sets of literature and suggest new ways to study object-based attention in infancy.
A new class of visuomotor neuron has been recently discovered in the monkey's premotor cortex: mirror neurons. These neurons respond both when a particular action is performed by the recorded monkey and when the same action, performed by another individual, is observed. Mirror neurons appear to form a cortical system matching observation and execution of goal-related motor actions. Experimental evidence suggests that a similar matching system also exists in humans. What might be the functional role of this matching system? One possible function is to enable an organism to detect certain mental states of observed conspecifics. This function might be part of, or a precursor to, a more general mind-reading ability. Two different accounts of mind-reading have been suggested. According to `theory theory', mental states are represented as inferred posits of a naive theory. According to `simulation theory', other people's mental states are represented by adopting their perspective: by tracking or matching their states with resonant states of one's own. The activity of mirror neurons, and the fact that observers undergo motor facilitation in the same muscular groups as those utilized by target agents, are findings that accord well with simulation theory but would not be predicted by theory theory.
Recent studies indicate that subjects may respond to visual information during either an early parallel phase or a later focused phase and that the selection of the relevant phase is data driven. Using the noise-compatibility paradigm, we tested the hypothesis that this selection may also be strategic and context driven. At least part of the interference effect observed in this paradigm is due to response activation during the parallel-processing phase. We manipulated subjects' expectancies for compatible and incompatible noise in 4 experiments and effectively modulated the interference effect. The results suggest that expectancies about the relative utility of the information extracted during the parallel and focused phases determine which phase is used to activate responses.
A series of experiments explored a form of object-specific priming. In all experiments a preview field containing two or more letters is followed by a target letter that is to be named. The displays are designed to produce a perceptual interpretation of the target as a new state of an object that previously contained one of the primes. The link is produced in different experiments by a shared location, by a shared relative position in a moving pattern, or by successive appearance in the same moving frame. An object-specific advantage is consistently observed: naming is facilitated by a preview of the target, if (and in some cases only if) the two appearances are linked to the same object. The amount and the object specificity of the preview benefit are not affected by extending the preview duration to 1 s, or by extending the temporal gap between fields to 590 ms. The results are interpreted in terms of a reviewing process, which is triggered by the appearance of the target and retrieves just one of the previewed items. In the absence of an object link, the reviewing item is selected at random. We develop the concept of an object file as a temporary episodic representation, within which successive states of an object are linked and integrated.
Responding to a visual cue requires processing throughout many areas in the brain. The anatomical pathways connecting these diffuse areas are numerous. One way to study the cognitive processing associated with volitional movement is to identify common physiological properties in each area. Recently, the discovery that neuronal activity is broadly tuned in many of these cortical areas has led to new insights into the physiological structure of the process underlying cognition in this distributed system.
Dynamic visual identification was investigated in 4 experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, 2 perceptual objects (2 frames, each containing a letter or 1 containing a letter and the other a plus sign) were previewed in the periphery. A saccade brought these objects to central vision. During the saccade the display was changed so that 1 frame contained a letter and the other a plus sign, and the subject identified the letter by naming it aloud as rapidly as possible. In Experiment 3, the retinal events of Experiments 1 and 2 were simulated. In Experiment 4, both the preview and the target were presented centrally within a single fixation. In all experiments both object-specific and nonspecific preview benefits were observed. These results support a theory in which the preview benefits observed during visual identification arise from 2 processes, object file review and type priming.
Perceptual representations depend on distributed neural codes for relaying the parts and properties of objects. Some mechanism is needed to 'bind' the information relating to each object and to distinguish it from others. Possible candidates include cells tuned to conjunctions of features, spatial attention, and synchronized firing across separate but interconnected areas of the brain. Deficits in neurological patients suggest a role for the parietal cortex in the binding process. Several current models combine these ideas.
Six experiments were conducted to investigate the nature of the contents of object files, temporary representations that store information about objects. Experiment 1 used a lexical priming paradigm with a lexical decision task, in which the prime and target could appear in either the same or different locations. The results indicated a greater priming effect when the prime and target appeared in the same location than when they appeared in different locations (object-or location-specific priming). Experiment 2 replicated these findings for objects that changed position during the display. Experiment 3 demonstrated that these findings reflected the inclusion of abstract identity information, rather than physical form, in object files. Three additional experiments tested for the presence of three types of semantic information (related concepts, semantic features, and category membership) in object files. No object-specific priming effects were found. Taken together, these experiments suggest that an object file includes identity information, but not semantic information. Implications of the results for object file theory are discussed.
Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in what has been called 'situated cognition', which has included claims that certain forms of representation are inadequate for modeling active organisms or agents such as humans and robots. In this article, I suggest that a weakness in classical theories of visual representation is the way in which representations connect with the real world, which may account for many of the concerns expressed by the situated cognition community. Specifically, I claim that what current theories lack is any provision for a certain form of direct, preconceptual connection between objects in the visual world (visual objects or proto-objects) and their representations in the visual system. This type of connection is akin to what philosophers and semanticists have referred to as an 'indexical' or 'demonstrative' reference and what some cognitive scientists have referred to as 'deictic pointers'. I explain why such a mechanism is needed and suggest that many workers have, in fact, been studying precisely this under the term 'visual index'. The visual index hypothesis is illustrated with the results of some relevant experiments, including multiple object tracking, visual routines and subset-selected visual searches. Indexing theory provides a synthesis that has profound implications for explaining a wide range of psychophysical findings, certain results in infant cognitive development and also some ancient problems in the philosophy of mind.
In 1974, Baddeley and Hitch proposed a three-component model of working memory. Over the years, this has been successful in giving an integrated account not only of data from normal adults, but also neuropsychological, developmental and neuroimaging data. There are, however, a number of phenomena that are not readily captured by the original model. These are outlined here and a fourth component to the model, the episodic buffer, is proposed. It comprises a limited capacity system that provides temporary storage of information held in a multimodal code, which is capable of binding information from the subsidiary systems, and from long-term memory, into a unitary episodic representation. Conscious awareness is assumed to be the principal mode of retrieval from the buffer. The revised model differs from the old principally in focussing attention on the processes of integrating information, rather than on the isolation of the subsystems. In doing so, it provides a better basis for tackling the more complex aspects of executive control in working memory.
The prefrontal cortex has a vital role in effective, organized behaviour. Both functional neuroimaging in humans and electrophysiology in awake monkeys indicate that a fundamental principle of prefrontal function might be adaptive neural coding — in large regions of the prefrontal cortex, neurons adapt their properties to carry specifically information that is relevant to current concerns, producing a dense, distributed representation of related inputs, actions, rewards and other information. A model based on such adaptive coding integrates the role of the prefrontal cortex in working memory, attention and control. Adaptive coding points to new perspectives on several basic questions, including mapping of cognitive to neurophysiological functions, the influences of task content and difficulty, and the nature of frontal lobe specializations.
Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to slowed reaction times when a target repeats in the same location as a preceding stimulus. In four experiments, the participants were presented with two successive stimuli, S1 and S2. In Experiments 1 and 2, the participants made a speeded discrimination of the identity or orientation of both S1 and S2 (Experiment 1) or of S2 only (Experiment 2). An IOR effect occurred for the repetition of stimulus location, but a facilitatory effect occurred if the stimulus remained unchanged or if an overt response was repeated. In Experiments 3 and 4, the participants localized S1 and S2 (Experiment 3) or S2 only (Experiment 4) to the left or right of center. In this case, repeating the same stimulus had no effect: IOR occurred any time stimulus location repeated. These results demonstrate that the expression of IOR is modulated by the repetition of a target object, but only when the task requires the discrimination of that object; when no discrimination is required, IOR is unaffected.
Recent data show that the ventral premotor cortex in both humans and monkeys has motor and cognitive functions. The cognitive functions include space perception, action understanding and imitation. The data also show a clear functional homology between monkey area F5 and human area 44. Preliminary evidence suggests that the ventral part of the lateral premotor cortex in humans may correspond to monkey area F4. A tentative map of the human lateral premotor areas founded on the reviewed evidence is presented.
Two experiments were performed to determine whether categorization of the pitch of a probe tone is influenced by the pitch of, and response made to, a preceding prime tone. The prime and the probe could be drawn either from a pool of low-frequency sounds or from a pool of high-frequency sounds. The results of both experiments indicated that the performance obtained was best when the prime and the probe were the same pitch (and therefore required the same response), intermediate when the two sounds differed in pitch and required different responses, and slowest when the prime and the probe differed in pitch but required the same response (i.e., they were drawn from the same frequency pool). The results of Experiment 2 revealed in addition that when a repeated response was required, performance declined as the magnitude of the frequency change increased and that responses were made more quickly and accurately if the direction of the frequency change was away from the alternative category than if it was toward the alternative category. The results demonstrate that categorization of sounds by pitch is accomplished with reference to a previous processing episode.
When subjects switch between two tasks, performance is slower after a task switch than after a task repetition. We report five experiments showing that a large part of these "task-shift-costs" cannot be attributed to a control operation, needed to configure the cognitive system for the upcoming task (e.g., ). In all experiments subjects switched between picture-naming and word-reading. We presented different stimuli either in just one of the two tasks, or in both of them. Shift-costs were larger for stimuli presented in both tasks than for those presented in only one task, even after more than 100 intervening trials between prime and probe events. We suggest (as proposed by ) that stimuli acquire associations with the tasks in which they occur. When the current task activation is weak, as on a switch of tasks, stimuli can trigger retrieval of the associated, competing task, provoking larger time costs.