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01-05-2013 | Original Article

Working memory demands modulate cognitive control in the Stroop paradigm

Auteurs: Alexander Soutschek, Tilo Strobach, Torsten Schubert

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 3/2013

Abstract

One important task of cognitive control is to regulate behavior by resolving information processing conflicts. In the Stroop task, e.g., incongruent trials lead to conflict-related enhancements of cognitive control and to improved behavioral performance in subsequent trials. Several studies suggested that these cognitive control processes are functionally and anatomically related to working memory (WM) functions. The present study investigated this suggestion and tested whether these control processes are modulated by concurrent WM demands. For this purpose, we performed three experiments in which we combined different WM tasks with the Stroop paradigm and measured their effects on cognitive control. We found that high WM demands led to a suppression of conflict-triggered cognitive control, whereas our findings suggest that this suppression effect is rather due to WM updating than to maintenance demands. We explain our findings by assuming that WM processes interfere with conflict-triggered cognitive control, harming the efficiency of these control processes.

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Titel: Working memory demands modulate cognitive control in the Stroop paradigm
Auteurs: Alexander Soutschek
Tilo Strobach
Torsten Schubert
Publicatiedatum: 01-05-2013
Uitgeverij: Springer-Verlag
Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research / Uitgave 3/2013
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0429-9

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