Neural time course of conflict adaptation effects on the Stroop task
Section snippets
Alternatives to conflict adaptation
Several alternatives to the conflict adaptation explanation of repetition effects should also be considered and addressed. Mayr, Awh, and Laurey (2003) suggest that the repetition of the exact stimulus or stimulus attributes (e.g., the color of the word in the Stroop color-naming condition) accounts for the conflict adaptation effect following iI trials relative to cI trials. That is, the conflict adaptation effect may be accounted for by bottom-up associative priming (i.e., feature repetition)
Current study
Given the paucity of information on the neural time course of behavioral adjustments in cognitive control and the relative ambiguity of the role of the conflict SP in conflict processing/response selection, the current study was designed to: (1) replicate previous findings of conflict adaptation effects on RTs (i.e., an interaction between previous and current trial congruency) and determine the role of associative priming in these effects; (2) examine the role of previous-trial context in
Participants
Participants were recruited from undergraduate psychology courses as well as via flyer and advertisement from the local community. Study enrollment included 36 right-handed individuals (20 female) with a mean age of 24.3 years (S.D. = 7.9, range 18–49 years). All participants were screened for potential psychiatric disorders using the Mental Health Screening Form-III (Carroll and McGinley, 2000, Carroll and McGinley, 2001). Pre-screening also excluded participants if they endorsed a history of
Behavioral performance
Data for RTs and error rates as a function of previous-trial congruency and current-trial congruency are presented in Table 1. Analyses of correct-trial RTs, excluding post-error trials, revealed the expected main effect of current-trial congruency reflecting Stroop RT interference (i.e., longer RTs to incongruent than congruent current trials), F(1,35) = 132.22, p < .001, η2 = .79. The main effect of previous-trial congruency was not significant, F(1,35) = .52, p > .47, η2 = .02. Most importantly, a
Discussion
In this study we examined the behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of conflict processing and conflict adaptation effects. Behavioral data revealed the anticipated increases in RTs and error rates on incongruent relative to congruent trials (i.e., Stroop interference). Replicating several previous studies using the Stroop task (Egner & Hirsch, 2005; Kerns et al., 2004, Notebaert et al., 2006), a conflict adaptation effect was observed for RT data that remained when color and negative
Summary and conclusions
Present findings are consistent with previous studies indicating robust behavioral conflict adaptation effects that cannot be accounted for solely by associative or negative priming. The neural time course of conflict adaptation effects, as measured by ERPs, revealed a parietal conflict SP that monotonically differentiated Stroop stimuli on the basis of previous-trial context and a fronto-medial N450 that was sensitive to current-trial congruency but was not differentiated by previous-trial
Acknowledgements
This original research has not been published elsewhere and was supported by a pre-doctoral National Institute of Health (NIH) Fellowship to MJL (F31 NS053335) and grants K01 MH01857 and R21 MH073076 from the NIH to WMP. We extend our appreciation to Cortney Mauer, Megan McIntyre, Drew Nagle, Allen Sirizi, and Raechel Steckley for their assistance in data collection.
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