Temporal cueing of conflict reduces congruency effects in the Eriksen flanker and Simon tasks

Previous studies have shown that congruency effects are often reduced when exogenous cues predict conflict between targets and distractors in conflict tasks. However, it is unclear how such effects are modulated by implicit temporal cues, as prior findings have been mixed. To address this, we conducted two large-scale experiments (N = 270), supplementing mean performance analyses with diffusion modeling (Diffusion Model for Conflict tasks). In Experiment 1, short and long foreperiods (FPs) were associated with high or low conflict probabilities in classical two-choice versions of the Eriksen flanker and Simon tasks. Mean reaction time analyses revealed that conflict effects were generally reduced with conflict-predicting FPs in both tasks. However, for the Eriksen flanker task, this modulation was larger when the long rather than the short FP predicted conflict, whereas for the Simon task, this modulation was similar or, if any, larger for the short than the long conflict-predicting FP. Diffusion Model for Conflict task analyses, which accounted for task-specific temporal dynamics of congruency effects, suggested that reductions in conflict effects were driven mainly by stronger distractor suppression rather than enhanced target amplification. In Experiment 2, conflict effects were also reduced with conflict-predicting FPs in a confound-minimized four-choice version of the Eriksen flanker task, though effects were smaller and reached significance only in the Diffusion Model for Conflict task analyses. Overall, these findings suggest that temporal cueing of conflict can enhance cognitive control in conflict tasks by strengthening distractor suppression, albeit in a manner that is partly specific to the conflict task. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).