In the flow of action: Anticipated action sequences in response-response binding

In theories of human action, it is assumed that individual actions are nested within higher-order action plans. This hierarchical structure oftentimes allows for the anticipatory planning of multiple future actions even before the current action is fully executed or situational cues demand this specific action. However, much of the existing research on basic action control processes has focused on isolated actions, that is, sequentially planned and executed actions, leaving it unclear whether these findings generalize to more naturalistic, preplanned action contexts. In particular, although the binding of individual responses into common representations and their retrieval from memory have been proposed as key mechanisms supporting action control of action sequences, it remains poorly understood how these processes operate when multiple responses can be planned in advance as part of an action sequence. In this study, we compared action contexts in which individual responses were planned and executed sequentially to contexts in which response sequences allowed for the preplanning of individual responses. Crucially, response-response binding effects of comparable strength were observed in both action contexts. Thus, binding and retrieval of responses seem not only to influence current performance during sequential action planning and execution but also to influence ongoing behavior within action sequences that could be preplanned.