Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Schleichstraße 4, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
Psychol Res. 2023 Sep;87(6):1768-1783. doi: 10.1007/s00426-022-01755-y. Epub 2022 Nov 20.
Previous studies have shown incorrect motor activation when making perceptual decisions under conflict, but the potential involvement of motor processes in conflict resolution is still unclear. The present study tested whether the effects of distracting information may be reduced when anticipated motor processing demands increase. Specifically, across two mouse-tracking Simon experiments, we manipulated blockwise motor demands (high vs. low) by requiring participants to move a mouse cursor to either large versus small (Experiment 1) or near versus far (Experiment 2) response boxes presented on the screen. We reasoned that participants would increase action control in blocks with high versus low motor demands and that this would reduce the distracting effect of location-based activation. The results support this hypothesis: Simon effects were reduced under high versus low motor demands and this modulation held even when controlling for time-varying fluctuations in distractor-based activation via distributional analyses (i.e., delta plots). Thus, the present findings indicate that anticipation of different motor costs can influence conflict processing. We propose that the competition between distractor-based and target-based activation is biased at premotor and/or motor stages in anticipation of motor demands, but also discuss alternative implementations of action control.
先前的研究表明，在冲突下进行知觉决策时会出现错误的运动激活，但运动过程在冲突解决中的潜在参与仍不清楚。本研究测试了在预期的运动处理需求增加时，分散信息的影响是否会降低。具体来说，在两个鼠标追踪 Simon 实验中，我们通过要求参与者将鼠标光标移动到屏幕上呈现的大与小（实验 1）或近与远（实验 2）的响应框来分块地操纵运动需求（高与低）。我们推断，参与者在高与低运动需求的块中会增加动作控制，并且即使通过分布分析（即 delta 图）控制基于位置的激活的时变波动，这种控制也会降低基于位置的激活的分散效应。结果支持这一假设：在高与低运动需求下，Simon 效应降低，即使通过分布分析（即 delta 图）控制基于位置的激活的时变波动也是如此。因此，目前的发现表明，不同运动成本的预期可以影响冲突处理。我们提出，在预期运动需求时，基于干扰的激活和基于目标的激活之间的竞争在运动前和/或运动阶段存在偏向，但也讨论了动作控制的替代实现。
