Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164-4820, USA.
Psychol Res. 2022 Mar;86(2):627-641. doi: 10.1007/s00426-021-01491-9. Epub 2021 Mar 19.
Often one must depart from an intended course of events to react to sudden situational demands before resuming his or her original action retained in working memory. Retaining an action plan in working memory (WM) can delay or facilitate the execution of an intervening action when the action features of the two action plans partly overlap (partial repetition) compared to when they do not overlap. We investigated whether partial repetition costs (PRCs) or benefits (PRBs) occur when the intervening event is an ideomotor-compatible stimulus that is a biological representation of the response required by the participant. Participants viewed two visual events and retained an action plan to the first event (A) while executing a speeded response to the second, intervening event (B). In Experiment 1A, the two visual events were ideomotor compatible, non-ideomotor compatible (abstract), or one was ideomotor compatible, and the other abstract. Results showed PRCs for all event A-B stimulus combinations with reduced PRCs for intervening, ideomotor compatible events. In contrast to previous research, there was no evidence that ideomotor-compatible actions were automatic and bypassed the selection bottleneck. Experiment 1B confirmed PRCs for ideomotor compatible stimuli that more accurately mimicked the required response. Findings suggest that mechanisms for activating, selecting, and retaining action plans are similar between ideomotor compatible and abstract visual events. We conclude that PRCs occur in response to intervening events when action plans are generated offline and rely on WM, including those for ideomotor-compatible stimuli; but PRBs may be restricted to actions generated online. This conclusion is consistent with the perceptual-motor framework by Goodale and Milner (Trends in Neuroscience 15:22-25, 1992).
通常，人们必须偏离预定的事件进程，对突发的情境需求做出反应，然后再恢复到工作记忆中保留的原始行动。在工作记忆 (WM) 中保留行动计划可以延迟或促进中间动作的执行，尤其是当两个行动计划的动作特征部分重叠（部分重复）时，而不是当它们不重叠时。我们研究了当中间事件是与动作相联想的相容刺激，即参与者所需反应的生物代表时，是否会出现部分重复成本 (PRC) 或部分重复收益 (PRB)。参与者观看两个视觉事件，并保留对第一个事件 (A) 的行动计划，同时对第二个、中间的事件 (B) 执行快速反应。在实验 1A 中，两个视觉事件是与动作相联想的相容的、非与动作相联想的（抽象的），或者一个是与动作相联想的，另一个是抽象的。结果表明，对于所有事件 A-B 刺激组合，都会出现 PRC，而对于中间的、与动作相联想的相容事件，PRC 则会减少。与之前的研究相反，没有证据表明与动作相联想的动作是自动的，并且可以绕过选择瓶颈。实验 1B 证实了与动作相联想的相容刺激的 PRC，这些刺激更准确地模拟了所需的反应。研究结果表明，激活、选择和保留行动计划的机制在与动作相联想的相容和抽象的视觉事件之间是相似的。我们得出结论，当计划是离线生成并依赖于 WM（包括与动作相联想的相容刺激）时，会对中间事件做出反应，出现 PRC；但 PRB 可能仅限于在线生成的动作。这一结论与 Goodale 和 Milner 的知觉-动作框架一致（Trends in Neuroscience 15:22-25, 1992）。
