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Neutral affordances: Task conflict in the affordances task
Ran Littman1, Eyal Kalanthroff1
1Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
Consciousness and Cognition
|December 19, 2021
Summary
Task conflict occurs when stimuli trigger competing tasks, now measurable in affordances tasks beyond the Stroop task. This research shows affordances tasks reveal both task and response conflicts, aiding cognitive control assessment.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Task conflict arises when a single stimulus activates multiple competing tasks.
- The color-word Stroop task is the primary paradigm for studying task conflict.
- The affordances task, typically used to study action preparation, has not been fully explored for task conflict.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate task conflict within the affordances task.
- To differentiate task conflict from response conflict in affordances tasks.
- To establish a neutral condition for the affordances task to isolate task conflict.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed an affordances task using manipulable objects and neutral house images.
- Reaction times were measured for congruent, incongruent, and neutral trials.
- Cognitive control was manipulated by creating low-control and high-control blocks in a second experiment.
Main Results:
- House images served as effective neutral stimuli, yielding shorter reaction times than incongruent and congruent trials.
- Task conflict was observed in both congruent and incongruent affordances trials.
- Cognitive control manipulations affected congruent and incongruent trials but not neutral trials, supporting the distinction.
Conclusions:
- The affordances task elicits both task-level and response-level conflicts.
- This task can serve as a non-linguistic measure for assessing task conflict and cognitive control.
- Findings extend the understanding of task conflict beyond traditional paradigms like the Stroop task.
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