title: Context, not conflict, drives cognitive control.
abstract: Theories of cognitive control generally assume that perceived conflict acts as a signal to engage inhibitory mechanisms that suppress subsequent conflicting information. Crucially, an absence of conflict is not regarded as being a relevant signal for cognitive control. Using a cueing, a priming, and a Simon task, we provide evidence that conflict does not have this unique signal status: Encountering a conflict does not lead to behavioral adjustments on subsequent conflict trials, whereas encountering a nonconflict trial does lead to behavioral adjustments on subsequent nonconflict trials. We propose that this apparent role-reversal can be explained by a mechanism that responds to both the presence and the absence of conflict, down-regulating the visuomotor system following conflict, and up-regulating it following nonconflict.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom. f.schlaghecken@warwick.ac.uk
authors.forename: Friederike
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schlaghecken
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martini
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time