Portuguese Catholic University, Institute of Health Sciences, Lisbon, Portugal; William James Center for Research, ISPA University Institute, Portugal.
CINTESIS.UA, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal.
Conscious Cogn. 2018 Aug;63:110-122. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.06.021. Epub 2018 Jul 7.
Executive control and its modulation of attentional mechanisms allow us to detect and adapt to conflicting information. According to recent studies, executive control functions may be modulated by unconsciously perceived information, although the available evidence is not consistent. In this study, we used a Flanker Task and employed Chromatic Flicker Fusion, a suppression technique that has been proposed as more adequate to elicit executive control functions, to assess conflict and conflict adaptation effects. Our results showed that, when suppressed, flankers did not evoke conflict related effects on performance. However, in trials where most flankers were incongruent, longer response times in congruent trials were observed, consistent with orienting responses. Our results help to support earlier theories regarding the inherent limitations of unconsciously perceived information, though future studies should further investigate why and under which conditions is the executive control system modulated by unconscious information.
执行控制及其对注意机制的调节使我们能够检测和适应冲突信息。根据最近的研究，执行控制功能可能会受到无意识感知信息的调节，尽管现有证据并不一致。在这项研究中，我们使用了 Flanker 任务和色闪烁融合技术（一种被认为更适合引发执行控制功能的抑制技术）来评估冲突和冲突适应效应。我们的结果表明，当被抑制时，侧抑制不会在表现上引起与冲突相关的效应。然而，在大多数侧抑制不一致的试验中，观察到在一致试验中反应时间更长，这与定向反应一致。我们的结果有助于支持关于无意识感知信息固有局限性的早期理论，尽管未来的研究应该进一步探讨为什么以及在什么条件下，无意识信息会调节执行控制系统。
