Hasshim Nabil, Carruthers Molly, Ferrand Ludovic, Augustinova Maria, Parris Benjamin A
School of Health and Society, University of Salford, Salford, UK.
De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2025 May;78(5):884-896. doi: 10.1177/17470218241235671. Epub 2024 Mar 15.
Cognitive control is the ability to allocate attention away from stimuli that are irrelevant to achieving a goal, towards stimuli that are. When conflict is anticipated, attention is biased in a global, top-down manner called proactive control and this effortful type of cognitive control is engaged before stimulus onset. The list-wise congruency proportion (LWPC) effect, where the Stroop congruency effect is reduced when there are more incongruent than congruent trials compared to vice versa, has been viewed as one of the prime signatures of this type of cognitive control. However, there has been recent debate about the extent to which this effect should be attributed to proactive control instead of alternative explanations such as simpler associative learning or reactive control. Thus, by using pupillometry (i.e., an indicator of cognitive effort), the present study investigated the extent to which LWPC effects result from effortful proactive control. Experiment 1 employed a classic proportion congruency manipulation, while Experiment 2 replaced congruent trials with neutral trials to control for potential effects of associative learning. While in line with past findings, proportion congruency effects were obtained in response times of both experiments and pupillometry showed both proportion congruency and Stroop effects after stimulus onset, no differences in pupil sizes were found during the preparatory phase. Therefore, these results do not support the idea that the observed LWPC effects are due to participants engaging in effortful proactive control.
认知控制是一种能力，即把注意力从与实现目标无关的刺激上转移到与之相关的刺激上。当预期会出现冲突时，注意力会以一种整体的、自上而下的方式产生偏向，这被称为主动控制，这种需要付出努力的认知控制在刺激出现之前就会启动。逐列表一致性比例（LWPC）效应是指，与一致性试验多于不一致性试验的情况相比，当不一致性试验多于一致性试验时，Stroop一致性效应会减弱，该效应被视为这类认知控制的主要特征之一。然而，最近人们对于这种效应应在多大程度上归因于主动控制而非其他解释（如更简单的联想学习或反应控制）存在争议。因此，本研究通过使用瞳孔测量法（即认知努力的一个指标），来探究LWPC效应在多大程度上是由需要付出努力的主动控制所导致的。实验1采用了经典的比例一致性操作，而实验2用中性试验取代了一致性试验，以控制联想学习的潜在影响。虽然与过去的研究结果一致，两个实验的反应时间都出现了比例一致性效应，并且瞳孔测量法显示刺激出现后既有比例一致性效应也有Stroop效应，但在准备阶段未发现瞳孔大小存在差异。因此，这些结果并不支持所观察到的LWPC效应是由于参与者进行了需要付出努力的主动控制这一观点。
