Pieczykolan Aleks, Huestegge Lynn
Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Psychol Res. 2018 Jan;82(1):109-120. doi: 10.1007/s00426-017-0923-1. Epub 2017 Sep 27.
Performing several actions simultaneously usually yields interference, which is commonly explained by referring to theoretical concepts such as crosstalk and structural limitations associated with response selection. While most research focuses on dual-task scenarios (involving two independent tasks), we here study the role of response selection and crosstalk for the control of cross-modal response compounds (saccades and manual responses) triggered by a single stimulus. In two experiments, participants performed single responses and spatially compatible versus incompatible dual-response compounds (crosstalk manipulation) in conditions with or without response selection requirements (i.e., responses either changed randomly between trials or were constantly repeated within a block). The results showed that substantial crosstalk effects were only present when response (compound) selection was required, not when a pre-selected response compound was merely repeated throughout a block of trials. We suggest that cross-response crosstalk operates on the level of response selection (during the activation of response codes), not on the level of response execution (when participants can rely on pre-activated response codes). Furthermore, we observed substantial residual dual-response costs even when neither response incompatibility nor response selection requirements were present. This suggests additional general dual-execution interference that occurs on a late, execution-related processing stage and even for two responses in rather distinct (manual and oculomotor) output modules. Generally, the results emphasize the importance of considering oculomotor interference in theorizing on multiple-action control.
同时执行多项动作通常会产生干扰，这通常通过参考诸如串扰以及与反应选择相关的结构限制等理论概念来解释。虽然大多数研究集中在双任务场景（涉及两项独立任务），但我们在此研究反应选择和串扰在控制由单一刺激触发的跨模态反应组合（扫视和手动反应）中的作用。在两项实验中，参与者在有或没有反应选择要求的条件下（即反应在试验之间随机变化或在一个组块内持续重复）执行单一反应以及空间兼容与不兼容的双反应组合（串扰操作）。结果表明，只有在需要反应（组合）选择时才会出现显著的串扰效应，而不是在整个试验组块中仅仅重复预先选择的反应组合时。我们认为，跨反应串扰在反应选择层面（在反应编码激活期间）起作用，而不在反应执行层面（当参与者可以依赖预先激活的反应编码时）起作用。此外，即使既不存在反应不兼容性也不存在反应选择要求，我们仍观察到显著的残余双反应成本。这表明在后期与执行相关的处理阶段甚至对于在相当不同（手动和动眼）输出模块中的两项反应都会出现额外的一般双执行干扰。总体而言，这些结果强调了在对多动作控制进行理论化时考虑动眼干扰的重要性。
