Lee Ping-Shien, Ballard Timothy, Sewell David K
School of Psychology, University of Queensland.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2025 Jul 21. doi: 10.1037/xlm0001508.
The congruency sequence effect (CSE), or Gratton effect, describes diminished congruency effects (i.e., faster responses for <<<<< vs. <<><< stimuli in a flanker task) on trials following an incongruent trial compared to those following a congruent trial. Traditionally, the CSE is regarded as an index of conflict adaptation. Accounts of the CSE have typically emphasized either top-down (cognitive control) or bottom-up (associative) processes. To disentangle top-down and bottom-up contributions to the CSE, we compared performance on versions of Simon and flanker tasks that control for memory and learning effects present in the standard versions of these tasks with the standard tasks. We analyzed the data using a recently developed model that explains conflict effects in terms of attention-shifting dynamics, the revised diffusion model for conflict tasks. Our modeling analyses suggest the CSEs in both Simon tasks are mainly driven by across-trial changes in the way attention is loaded onto distractor information, consistent with top-down control. In contrast, for both flanker tasks, our model-based analysis does not provide clear evidence favoring either top-down or bottom-up contributions to the CSEs overall. Furthermore, we fit the standard version of these tasks while separately analyzing trials based on whether the response was repeated or alternated across successive trials. Model fits suggest a combination of both influences, with different patterns for congruent and incongruent trials. Performance benefits on congruent trials are driven by adjusting how attention is loaded onto distractor information based on the previous congruency types (i.e., top-down influence). However, on incongruent trials, asymmetrical repetition benefits are mainly due to faster memory retrieval (i.e., bottom-up influence) and reactive attentional control. Our findings highlight that a more nuanced and integrated theoretical framework is necessary to capture the interplay between top-down and bottom-up processes in explaining control mechanisms when analyzing different response sequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
一致性序列效应（CSE），即格拉顿效应，描述了与一致性试次之后的试次相比，在不一致试次之后的试次中，一致性效应减弱（即，在侧翼任务中，对<<<<刺激的反应快于对<<><<刺激的反应）。传统上，CSE被视为冲突适应的一个指标。对CSE的解释通常要么强调自上而下（认知控制）过程，要么强调自下而上（联想）过程。为了区分自上而下和自下而上对CSE的贡献，我们将西蒙任务和侧翼任务版本的表现与标准任务进行了比较，这些版本控制了这些任务标准版本中存在的记忆和学习效应。我们使用最近开发的一个模型分析了数据，该模型根据注意力转移动态来解释冲突效应，即冲突任务的修正扩散模型。我们的模型分析表明，两个西蒙任务中的CSE主要由注意力加载到干扰信息上的方式的跨试次变化驱动，这与自上而下的控制一致。相比之下，对于两个侧翼任务，我们基于模型的分析没有提供明确证据表明自上而下或自下而上对CSE总体有贡献。此外，我们对这些任务的标准版本进行了拟合，同时根据反应在连续试次中是重复还是交替，分别分析试次。模型拟合表明两种影响的结合，一致性和不一致性试次有不同模式。一致性试次的表现优势是通过根据先前的一致性类型调整注意力加载到干扰信息上的方式来驱动的（即自上而下的影响）。然而，在不一致试次中，不对称的重复优势主要归因于更快的记忆检索（即自下而上的影响）和反应性注意力控制。我们的研究结果强调，在分析不同反应序列时，需要一个更细致入微和综合的理论框架来捕捉自上而下和自下而上过程之间的相互作用，以解释控制机制。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2025美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
