title: Converging evidence for control of color-word Stroop interference at the item level.
abstract: Prior studies have shown that cognitive control is implemented at the list and context levels in the color-word Stroop task. At first blush, the finding that Stroop interference is reduced for mostly incongruent items as compared with mostly congruent items (i.e., the item-specific proportion congruence [ISPC] effect) appears to provide evidence for yet a third level of control, which modulates word reading at the item level. However, evidence to date favors the view that ISPC effects reflect the rapid prediction of high-contingency responses and not item-specific control. In Experiment 1, we first show that an ISPC effect is obtained when the relevant dimension (i.e., color) signals proportion congruency, a problematic pattern for theories based on differential response contingencies. In Experiment 2, we replicate and extend this pattern by showing that item-specific control settings transfer to new stimuli, ruling out alternative frequency-based accounts. In Experiment 3, we revert to the traditional design in which the irrelevant dimension (i.e., word) signals proportion congruency. Evidence for item-specific control, including transfer of the ISPC effect to new stimuli, is apparent when 4-item sets are employed but not when 2-item sets are employed. We attribute this pattern to the absence of high-contingency responses on incongruent trials in the 4-item set. These novel findings provide converging evidence for reactive control of color-word Stroop interference at the item level, reveal theoretically important factors that modulate reliance on item-specific control versus contingency learning, and suggest an update to the item-specific control account (Bugg, Jacoby, & Chanani, 2011).
authors: Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. jbugg@artsci.wustl.edu
authors: Julie M
authors: JM
authors: Bugg
authors: Keith A
authors: KA
authors: Hutchison
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D057190:Stroop Test; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult