title: Context-specific adjustment of cognitive control: Transfer of adaptive control sets.
abstract: Cognitive control protects processing of relevant information from interference by irrelevant information. The level of this processing selectivity can be flexibly adjusted to different control demands (e.g., frequency of conflict) associated with a certain context, leading to the formation of specific context-control associations. In the present study we investigated the robustness and transferability of the acquired context-control demands to new situations. In three experiments, we used a version of the context-specific proportion congruence (CSPC) paradigm, in which each context (e.g., location) is associated with a specific conflict frequency, determining high and low control demands. In a learning phase, associations between context and control demands were established. In a subsequent transfer block, stimulus-response mappings, whole task sets, or context-control demands changed. Results showed an impressive robustness of context-control associations, as context-specific adjustments of control from the learning phase were virtually unaffected by new stimuli and tasks in the transfer block. Only a change of the context-control demand eliminated the context-specific adjustment of control. These findings suggest that context-control associations that have proven to be adaptive in the past are continuously applied despite major changes in the task structure as long as the context-control associations remain the same.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Technische Universität Dresden , Dresden , Germany.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Surrey
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Gesine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dreisbach
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Technische Universität Dresden , Dresden , Germany.|c Department of Psychology , University of Greifswald , Greifswald , Germany.
authors.forename: Rico
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013997:Time Factors; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognitive control; Context-specific proportion congruence; Control regulation; Dual-task; Stimulus-driven control; proportion congruence