Reactive and proactive control processes in voluntary task choice.
Deciding which task to perform when multiple tasks are available can be influenced by external influences in the environment. In the present study, we demonstrate that such external biases on task-choice behavior reflect reactive control adjustments instead of a failure in control to internally sele...
| Published in: | Memory & Cognition Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 417 - 430 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
Feb2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=175755609&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 175755609 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0090502X MEG jtl: Memory & Cognition issn: 0090502X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Feb2024 vid: 52 iid: 2 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 175755609 10.3758/s13421-023-01470-y ppf: 417 ppct: 13 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1MB tig: atl: Reactive and proactive control processes in voluntary task choice. aug: au: Mittelstädt, Victor Mackenzie, Ian G. Braun, David A. Arrington, Catherine M. affil: https://ror.org/03a1kwz48 Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Schleichstraße 4, 72076, Tübingen, Germany https://ror.org/012afjb06 Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA su: Analysis of variance Motivation (Psychology) Task performance Decision making Experimental design Time Short-term memory Research funding Reaction time sug: subj: Analysis of variance Motivation (Psychology) Task performance Decision making Experimental design Time Short-term memory Research funding Reaction time keyword: Cognitive control Free choice Proactive control Reactive control Voluntary task switching Cognitive control Free choice Proactive control Reactive control Voluntary task switching ab: Deciding which task to perform when multiple tasks are available can be influenced by external influences in the environment. In the present study, we demonstrate that such external biases on task-choice behavior reflect reactive control adjustments instead of a failure in control to internally select a task goal. Specifically, in two experiments we delayed the onset of one of two task stimuli by a short (50 ms), medium (300 ms), or long (1,000 ms) stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) within blocks while also varying the relative frequencies of short versus long SOAs across blocks (i.e., short SOA frequent vs. long SOA frequent). Participants' task choices were increasingly biased towards selecting the task associated with the first stimulus with increasing SOAs. Critically, both experiments also revealed that the short-to-medium SOA bias was larger in blocks with more frequent long SOAs when participants had limited time to prepare for an upcoming trial. When time to select an upcoming task was extended in Experiment 2, this interaction was not significant, suggesting that the extent to which people rely on reactive control adjustments is additionally modulated by proactive control processes. Thus, the present findings also suggest that voluntary task choices are jointly guided by both proactive and reactive processes, which are likely to adjust the relative activation of different task goals in working memory. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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