Automaticity of cognitive control: goal priming in response-inhibition paradigms.
Response inhibition is a hallmark of cognitive control. An executive system inhibits responses by activating a stop goal when a stop signal is presented. The authors asked whether the stop goal could be primed by task-irrelevant information in stop-signal and go/no-go paradigms. In Experiment 1, the task-irrelevant primes GO, ###, or STOP were presented in the go stimulus. Go performance was slower for STOP than for ### or GO. This suggests that the stop goal was primed by task-irrelevant information. In Experiment 2, STOP primed the stop goal only in conditions in which the goal was relevant to the task context. In Experiment 3, GO, ###, or STOP were presented as stop signals. Stop performance was slower for GO than for ### or STOP. These findings suggest that task goals can be primed and that response inhibition and executive control can be influenced by automatic processing.
Verbruggen
Frederick
F
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. frederick.verbruggen@ugent.be
Logan
Gordon D
GD
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001332:Automatism; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors