title: Attentional adjustment to conflict strength: evidence from the effects of manipulating flanker-target SOA on response times and prestimulus pupil size.
abstract: Current models of cognitive control assume gradual adjustment of processing selectivity to the strength of conflict evoked by distractor stimuli. Using a flanker task, we varied conflict strength by manipulating target and distractor onset. Replicating previous findings, flanker interference effects were larger on trials associated with advance presentation of the flankers compared to simultaneous presentation. Controlling for stimulus and response sequence effects by excluding trials with feature repetitions from stimulus administration (Experiment 1) or from the statistical analyses (Experiment 2), we found a reduction of the flanker interference effect after high-conflict predecessor trials (i.e., trials associated with advance presentation of the flankers) but not after low-conflict predecessor trials (i.e., trials associated with simultaneous presentation of target and flankers). This result supports the assumption of conflict-strength-dependent adjustment of visual attention. The selective adaptation effect after high-conflict trials was associated with an increase in prestimulus pupil diameter, possibly reflecting increased cognitive effort of focusing attention.
authors.affiliation: Helmut-Schmidt-University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, <location>Germany</location>
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wendt
authors.affiliation: University of Würzburg, <location>Germany</location>
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kiesel
authors.affiliation: Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, <location>Germany</location>
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Geringswald
authors.affiliation: Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, <location>Germany</location>
authors.forename: Sascha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Purmann
authors.affiliation: Technische Universität Dresden, <location>Germany</location>
authors.forename: Rico
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: conflict adjustment; executive control; flanker task