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Generalized signaling for control: evidence from postconflict and posterror performance adjustments
Raymond Y Cho1, Joseph M Orr, Jonathan D Cohen
1Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institue & Clinic, University of Pittsburg, 3811 O'Hara Street, Oxford 454, Pittsburg, PA 15213, USA. chory@upmc.edu
Summary
Cognitive control adjustments signal across different tasks, not just within a single task context. This finding reveals a generalized mechanism for cognitive control signaling in goal-directed behavior.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human behavior
Background:
- Goal-directed behavior relies on cognitive control for real-time adjustments to processing demands.
- The generalizability of cognitive control signaling across different task contexts is a key question in understanding its architecture.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether cognitive control adjustments, typically observed within a single task, generalize across different task contexts.
- To explore the nature of signaling for cognitive control adjustments.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a stimulus-response compatibility paradigm with orthogonal stimulus-response sets (horizontal and vertical directions).
- Manipulated cues to indicate compatible or incompatible response requirements.
- Analyzed trial-to-trial adjustments, including performance after incompatible trials and slower responses after errors.
Main Results:
- Trial-to-trial adjustments were observed for both direction-repeat and direction-switch trials.
- Demonstrated that cognitive control effects extend beyond the specific task context in which they originate.
Conclusions:
- Signaling for cognitive control adjustments is not strictly limited to the immediate task context.
- These findings suggest a more generalized mechanism for cognitive control, impacting performance across different, even orthogonal, task demands.
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