Spoiler alert: Reliable distractor response cues benefit response selection

Top-down control in choosing appropriate actions is a key ability of human cognition. While target-related foreknowledge has long been studied, recent research in various domains has focused on our ability to use foreknowledge about distractions stored in working memory. However, previous research has exclusively investigated distractor foreknowledge derived from stimulus features such as location or color. The present study examined whether the effective use of distractor foreknowledge can also be achieved when it is based solely on response-related information. We tested the effectiveness of distractor foreknowledge in a Flanker task by varying the type of foreknowledge cue. In two experiments (N₁ = 117, N₂ = 119), participants received either stimulus-related cues (i.e., the shape of the distractors was presented before the Flanker display) or response-related cues (i.e., the associated response of the distractors was cued before the Flanker display), both with 100% validity. Performance was compared with a control condition with no foreknowledge. We found that Flanker effects related to response interference were reduced irrespective of the foreknowledge cue type across both experiments. These results extend prior work on distractor templates, which have traditionally focused on stimulus features, by showing that response-related distractor representations can benefit response selection. We interpret the results against the background of the common coding principle. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).