The instruction-based congruency effect predicts task execution efficiency: Evidence from inter- and intra-individual differences

Dynamic changes in task preparation in a multi-task environment: The task transformation paradigm

A key element of human flexible behavior concerns the ability to continuously predict and prepare for sudden changes in tasks or actions. Here, we tested whether people can dynamically modulate task preparation processes and decision-making strategies when the identity of a to-be-performed task becomes uncertain. To this end, we developed a new paradigm where participants need to prepare for one of nine tasks on each trial. Crucially, in some blocks, the task being prepared could suddenly shift to a different task after a longer cue-target interval, by changing either the stimulus category or categorization rule that defined the initial task. We found that participants were able to dynamically modulate task preparation in the face of this task uncertainty. A second experiment shows that these changes in behavior were not simply a function of decreasing task expectancy, but rather of increasing switch expectancy. Finally, in the third and fourth experiment, we demonstrate that these dynamic modulations can be applied in a compositional manner, depending on whether either only the stimulus category or categorization rule would be expected to change.

Goal-Based Binding of Irrelevant Stimulus Features for Action Slips

Abstract. Binding between representations of stimuli and actions and later retrieval of these compounds provide efficient shortcuts in action control. Recent observations indicate that these mechanisms are not only effective when action episodes go as planned, but they also seem to be at play when actions go awry. Moreover, the human cognitive system even corrects traces of error commission on the fly because it binds the intended but not actually executed response to concurrent task-relevant stimuli, thus enabling retrieval of a correct, but not actually executed response when encountering the stimulus again. However, a plausible alternative interpretation of this finding is that error commission triggers selective strengthening of the instructed stimulus–response mapping instead, thus promoting its efficient application in the future. The experiment presented here makes an unequivocal case for episodic binding and retrieval in erroneous action episodes by showing binding between task-irrelevant stimuli and correct responses.

Automatic effects of instructions: a tale of two paradigms

When examining rapid instructed task learning behaviorally, one out of two paradigms is usually used, the Inducer-Diagnostic (I-D) and the NEXT paradigm. Even though both paradigms are supposed to examine the same phenomenon of Automatic Effect of Instructions (AEI), there are some meaningful differences between them, notably in the size of the AEI. In the current work, we examined, in two pre-registered studies, the potential reasons for these differences in AEI size. Study 1 examined the influence of the data-analytic approach by comparing two existing relatively large data-sets, one from each paradigm (Braem et al., in Mem Cogn 47:1582–1591, 2019; Meiran et al., in Neuropsychologia 90:180–189, 2016). Study 2 focused on the influence of instruction type (concrete, as in NEXT, and abstract, as in I-D) and choice complexity of the task in which AEI-interference is assessed. We did that while using variants of the NEXT paradigm, some with modifications that approximated it to the I-D paradigm. Results from Study 1 indicate that the data-analytic approach partially explains the differences between the paradigms in terms of AEI size. Still, the paradigms remained different with respect to individual differences and with respect to AEI size in the first step following the instructions. Results from Study 2 indicate that Instruction type and the choice complexity in the phase in which AEI is assessed do not influence AEI size, or at least not in the expected direction. Theoretical and study-design implications are discussed.