Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Stimulus- and response-conflict-induced cognitive control in the flanker task

  • Brief Reports
  • Published:
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recently, several studies have been conducted to investigate the top-down adjustments made after incongruent trials during conflict tasks. In the present study, we investigated conflict monitoring with different types of conflict. In a modified version of the flanker task, a distinction was made between stimulus—stimulus conflict and stimulus—response conflict. Six colors were mapped to three responses in order to exclude all sequences in which a relevant or an irrelevant stimulus- or response-related feature was repeated from trialn−1 to trialn. An analysis of the effect of the congruency of the previous trial demonstrated that conflict adaptation was present. The stimulus congruency effect was reduced after both a stimulus-incongruent trial and a response-incongruent trial. The response congruency effect did not vary as a function of previous congruency. These findings are discussed in relation to the distinction between conflict detection and conflict regulation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Botvinick, M. M., Braver, T. S., Barch, D. M., Carter, C. S., &Cohen, J. D. (2001). Conflict monitoring and cognitive control.Psychological Review,108, 624–652.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Botvinick, M. [M.], Nystrom, L. E., Fissell, K., Carter, C. S., &Cohen, J. D. (1999). Conflict monitoring versus selection-for-action in anterior cingulate cortex.Nature,402, 179–181.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gratton, G., Coles, M. G. H., &Donchin, E. (1992). Optimizing the use of information: Strategic control of activation of responses.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,121, 480–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hommel, B., Proctor, R. W., &Vu, K.-P. L. (2004). A feature-integration account of sequential effects in the Simon task.Psychological Research,68, 1–17.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kerns, J. G., Cohen, J. D., MacDonald, A. W., III,Cho, R. Y., Stenger, V. A., &Carter, C. S. (2004). Anterior cingulate conflict monitoring and adjustments in control.Science,303, 1023–1026.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, X., Banich, M. T., Jacobson, B. L., &Tanabe, J. L. (2004). Common and distinct neural substrates of attentional control in an integrated Simon and spatial Stroop task as assessed by event-related fMRI.NeuroImage,22, 1097–1106.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, U., Awh, E., &Laurey, P. (2003). Conflict adaptation effects in the absence of executive control.Nature Neuroscience,6, 450–452.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Milham, M. P., Banich, M. T., Webb, A., Barad, V., Cohen, N. J., Wszalek, T., &Kramer, A. F. (2001). The relative involvement of anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex in attentional control depends on nature of conflict.Cognitive Brain Research,12, 467–473.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Notebaert, W., Gevers, W., Verbruggen, F., &Liefooghe, B. (2006). Top-down and bottom-up sequential modulations of congruency effects.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,13, 112–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Notebaert, W., Soetens, E., &Melis, A. (2001). Sequential analysis of a Simon task—Evidence for an attention-shift account.Psychological Research,65, 170–184.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, M., Lammertyn, J., Verbruggen, F., & Vandierendonck, A. (in press). Tscope: A C library for programming cognitive experiments on the MS Windows platform. Behavior Research Methods.

  • Stürmer, B., Leuthold, H., Soetens, E., Schröter, H., &Sommer, W. (2002). Control over location-based response activation in the Simon task: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,28, 1345–1363.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ullsperger, M., Bylsma, L. M., &Botvinick, M. M. (2005). The conflict adaptation effect: It’s not just priming.Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience,5, 467–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Veen, V., Cohen, J. D., Botvinick, M. M., Stenger, V. A., &Carter, C. S. (2001). Anterior cingulate cortex, conflict monitoring, and levels of processing.NeuroImage,14, 1302–1308.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wühr, P. (2005). Evidence for gating of direct response activation in the Simon task.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,12, 282–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium

    Frederick Verbruggen, Wim Notebaert, Baptist Liefooghe & André Vandierendonck

Authors
  1. Frederick Verbruggen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wim Notebaert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Baptist Liefooghe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. André Vandierendonck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frederick Verbruggen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Verbruggen, F., Notebaert, W., Liefooghe, B. et al. Stimulus- and response-conflict-induced cognitive control in the flanker task. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 13, 328–333 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193852

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193852

Keywords

Search

Navigation