Bindings in short-term memory: Evidence for content-dependent competition between subsequent response-response bindings

In action control research, it is assumed that actions and surrounding features have to be temporarily bound together to form action plans. Subsequent repetition of any bound feature can trigger retrieval of previously formed bindings. Here, we focus on the question, how multiple subsequently formed feature bindings interact in short-term memory. We employed a sequential prime-probe1-probe2 response-response binding paradigm to test how incoming bindings formed in probe1 affect prime-probe2 binding effects. Concretely, we conducted two identical experiments, in which we investigated the difference in prime-probe2 binding effects after either no probe1, a probe1 that was a partial repetition of the prime episode, or a probe1 that was a full change in regard to the prime episode was presented in between prime and probe2. Overall prime-probe2 binding effects did not differ in the no probe1 presented and the probe1 full change episode but were fully eliminated after a partial repetition probe1. These results are in accordance with previous binding accounts that proposed content-dependent competition between multiple bindings. Furthermore, these findings support the notion that previous bindings have to be dissolved to form new action plans that require some but not all of the previously bound features. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).