Diede Nathaniel T, Bugg Julie M
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2019 Jul;81(5):1386-1404. doi: 10.3758/s13414-019-01686-8.
Flexibility of cognitive control is illustrated by the context-specific proportion compatibility (CSPC) effect, the now well-documented pattern showing that compatibility effects are reduced in mostly incompatible relative to mostly compatible locations. The episodic-retrieval account attributes the CSPC effect to location-specific representations that include the attentional settings formed via experience within a given location (e.g., a "focused" attentional setting becomes bound to a location with frequent conflict, whereas a "relaxed" setting becomes bound to one with infrequent conflict). However, Diede and Bugg (Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 78, 1255-1266, 2016) demonstrated that the attentional setting associated with a given location can be based on experiences that accumulate across multiple "grouped" locations-namely, those that are proximal to each other, relative to other (distal) locations. This spatial grouping effect supported the relative-proximity hypothesis, which we further tested in the present study. Experiment 1 replicated the spatial grouping effect and showed that it could be disrupted by a horizontal line dividing the otherwise grouped locations. Experiments 2 through 4 suggested that grouping might be a form of "chunking"-that is, the spatial grouping effect did not occur when the proximal locations were few enough in number (two) to represent independently, but it did occur when there were six locations. When there were eight proximal locations (and ten locations overall), the CSPC effect disappeared entirely. These findings suggest important boundary conditions for the relative-proximity hypothesis and inform our understanding of how past experiences with conflict are organized in the form of episodic representations that enable on-the-fly adjustments in cognitive control.
认知控制的灵活性通过情境特定比例兼容性（CSPC）效应得以体现，这是一种现已得到充分记录的模式，表明在大多数不相容位置相对于大多数相容位置，兼容性效应会减弱。情景检索理论将CSPC效应归因于特定位置的表征，这些表征包括通过在给定位置的经验形成的注意力设置（例如，“集中”的注意力设置与频繁冲突的位置相关联，而“放松”的设置与冲突较少的位置相关联）。然而，迪德和巴格（《注意力、感知与心理物理学》，78卷，1255 - 1266页，2016年）证明，与给定位置相关联的注意力设置可以基于在多个“分组”位置积累的经验——也就是说，相对于其他（远端）位置，那些彼此相邻的位置。这种空间分组效应支持了相对接近假设，我们在本研究中对其进行了进一步测试。实验1重复了空间分组效应，并表明它可能会被一条将原本分组的位置分开的水平线所破坏。实验2至4表明，分组可能是一种“组块化”形式——也就是说，当近端位置数量足够少（两个）以至于可以独立表征时，空间分组效应不会出现，但当有六个位置时，它确实会出现。当有八个近端位置（总共十个位置）时，CSPC效应完全消失。这些发现为相对接近假设提出了重要的边界条件，并为我们理解过去冲突经验如何以情景表征的形式组织起来提供了信息，这种情景表征能够在认知控制中进行即时调整。
