On the relationship between mind wandering and mindfulness.

Mind wandering (MW) and mindfulness have both been reported to be vital moderators of psychological wellbeing. Here, we aim to examine how closely associated these phenomena are and evaluate the psychometrics of measures often used to quantify them. We investigated two samples, one consisting of German-speaking unpaid participants (GUP, n [Formula: see text] 313) and one of English-speaking paid participants (EPP, n [Formula: see text] 228) recruited through MTurk.com. In an online experiment, we collected data using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and the sustained attention to response task (SART) during which self-reports of MW and meta-awareness of MW were recorded using experience sampling (ES) probes. Internal consistency of the MAAS was high (Cronbachs [Formula: see text] of 0.96 in EPP and 0.88 in GUP). Split-half reliability for SART measures and self-reported MW was overall good with the exception of SART measures focusing on Nogo trials, and those restricted to SART trials preceding ES in a 10 s time window. We found a moderate negative association between trait mindfulness and MW as measured with ES probes in GUP, but not in EPP. Our results suggest that MW and mindfulness are on opposite sides of a spectrum of how attention is focused on the present moment and the task at hand.

Correction: Assessing the Evidence for Asymmetrical Switch Costs and Reversed Language Dominance Effects - A Meta-Analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.5334/joc.186.].

Assessing the Evidence for Asymmetrical Switch Costs and Reversed Language Dominance Effects - A Meta-Analysis.

Two seemingly counterintuitive phenomena - asymmetrical language switch costs and the reversed language dominance effect - prove to be particularly controversial in the literature on language control. Asymmetrical language switch costs refer to the larger costs for switching into the dominant language compared to switching into the less dominant language, both relative to staying in either one language. The reversed language dominance effect refers to longer reaction times when in the more dominant of the two languages in situations that require frequent language switching (i.e., mixed-language blocks). The asymmetrical language switch costs are commonly taken as an index for processes of transient, reactive inhibitory language control, whereas the reversed language dominance effect is taken as an index for sustained, proactive inhibitory language control. In the present meta-analysis, we set out to establish the empirical evidence for these two phenomena using a Bayesian linear mixed effects modelling approach. Despite the observation of both phenomena in some studies, our results suggest that overall, there is little evidence for the generality and robustness of these two effects, and this holds true even when conditions - such as language proficiency and preparation time manipulations - were included as moderators of these phenomena. We conclude that asymmetrical switch costs and the reversed language dominance effect are important for theory development, but their utility for theory testing is limited due to their lack of robustness and the absence of confirmed moderatory variables.

Multiplicative priming of the correct response can explain the interaction between Simon and flanker congruency.

In the Simon task, participants perform a decision on non-spatial features (e.g., stimulus color) by responding with a left or right key-press to a stimulus presented on the left or right side of the screen. In the flanker task, they classify the central character while ignoring the flanking characters. In each task, there is a conflict between the response-relevant features and the response-irrelevant features (i.e., the location on the screen for the Simon task, and the flankers for the flanker task). Thus, in both tasks, resolving conflict requires to inhibit irrelevant features and to focus on relevant features. When both tasks were combined within the same trial (e.g., when the row of characters was presented on the left or right side of the screen), most previous research has shown an interaction. In the present study, we investigated whether this interaction is affected by a multiplicative priming of the correct response occurring when both Simon and flanker irrelevant features co-activate the correct response (Exp. 1), a spatial overlap between Simon and flanker features (Exp. 2), and the learning of stimulus-response pairings (Exp. 3). The results only show an impact of multiplicative priming.

Interference control in working memory: Evidence for discriminant validity between removal and inhibition tasks.

Working memory (WM) is a system for maintenance of and access to a limited number of goal-relevant representations in the service of higher cognition. Because of its limited capacity, WM requires interference-control processes, allowing us to avoid being distracted by irrelevant information. Recent research has proposed two interference-control processes, which are conceptually similar: (1) an active, item-wise removal process assumed to remove no-longer relevant information from WM, and (2) an inhibitory process assumed to suppress the activation of distractors against competing, goal-relevant representations. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the tasks used to assess removal and inhibition measure the same interference-control construct. Results showed acceptable to good reliabilities for nearly all measures. Similar to previous studies, a structural equation modeling approach identified a reliable latent variable of removal. However, also similar to some previous studies, no latent variable of inhibition could be established. This was the case even when the correlation matrix used to compute the latent variable of inhibition was disattenuated for imperfect reliability. Critically, the individual measures of inhibition were unrelated to the latent variable of removal. These results provide tentative support for the notion that removal is not related to the interference-control processes assessed in inhibition tasks. This suggests that the removal process should be conceptualized as a process independent of the concept of inhibition, as proposed in computational WM models that implement removal as the "unbinding" of a WM item from the context in which it occurred.

Age-related deficits in the congruency sequence effect are task-specific: An investigation of nine tasks.

In most attentional-control tasks, incongruent trials (i.e., trials with a conflict between two responses) are intermixed with congruent trials (i.e., trials without conflict). Typically, performance is slower and more error-prone on incongruent trials than on congruent trials. This congruency effect has been found to be smaller after incongruent trials than after congruent trials. This finding-labeled the congruency sequence effect (CSE)-has been assumed to reflect a dynamic adjustment of attentional control, which enables participants to enhance goal-relevant features and to inhibit irrelevant features. Only a few studies have investigated the impact of aging on the CSE, and their results are mixed. Compared to young adults, older adults were found to show a similar CSE, no CSE, a larger CSE, or a smaller CSE. This discrepancy in results has been interpreted as the consequence of using different tasks. To test for this, we conducted new analyses on 9 tasks-the color Stroop, number Stroop, arrow flanker, letter flanker, Simon, global-local, positive compatibility, and negative compatibility task-from our previous study (Rey-Mermet, Gade, & Oberauer, 2018). Both a null-hypothesis significance testing approach and a Bayesian hypothesis testing approach showed a similar CSE in both age groups for most tasks. Only in the Stroop tasks, the CSE was larger for older adults. These results are incompatible with the hypothesis of a general age-related deficit in attentional control. At the same time, they question the construct validity of the CSE. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Finding an interaction between Stroop congruency and flanker congruency requires a large congruency effect: A within-trial combination of conflict tasks.

Responding to a conflict is assumed to trigger attentional-control processes-that is, processes that enable us to activate goal-relevant information and to inhibit irrelevant information. Typically, conflict is induced in tasks, such as the Stroop task (which requires identifying the color of color words) or the flanker task (which requires identifying a central character among flankers). Combining the conflicts within the same trial has been found to result in an interaction in reaction times (RTs), suggesting a generalization of attentional control. However, this interaction was observed when the congruency effect was substantial-that is, when the RT difference between incongruent trials (e.g., the word "green" printed in red for the Stroop task) and congruent trials (e.g., the word "red" printed in red) was large. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether a large congruency effect is the necessary condition for observing the interaction. To this end, Stroop and flanker tasks were combined, and participants were asked to respond to the color of the central letter/word while ignoring the flanking letters/words. The magnitude of the congruency effect was increased: (a) by testing older adults (Experiment 1), (b) by manipulating the proportion of trials in which participants were asked to respond to the word meaning (Experiment 2), and (c) by using vocal responses (Experiment 3). The results showed an interaction when the Stroop congruency effect was large. Therefore, such interactions can be used to validate or invalidate theoretical explanations only when the precondition-a large congruency effect-is fulfilled.

Simon Says-On the influence of stimulus arrangement, stimulus material and inner speech habits on the Simon effect.

In Simon-type interference tasks, participants are asked to perform a 2-choice reaction on a stimulus dimension while ignoring the stimulus position. Commonly, robust congruency effects are found; that is, reactions are faster when the relevant stimulus attribute and the assigned response match the location of the stimulus. Simon congruency effects are regularly attributed to a fast, nonverbal processing route. In 3 experiments, we tested the importance of verbal representations in the Simon effect by manipulating the format of representations (verbal vs. nonverbal) with stimulus material (i.e., words vs. gratings) and stimulus arrangement (i.e., horizontally vs. vertically). Results of the first experiment point to a modulation of the Simon effects by both factors when they were manipulated between subjects, up to an inversion of the Simon effect for words presented in vertical arrangement. We replicated the inverse congruency effect for verbal material in vertical arrangement when a within-participant design was used (Experiment 2) and when the impact of reading processes was ruled out (Experiment 3). One cause for this inversion might be the construction of language-based representations that counteract automatic processing given the stimulus arrangement. To investigate this, we assessed individual differences in the use of inner speech for self-instruction. Using hierarchical linear modeling analysis, we found that self-rated evaluative and motivational inner speech processes accounted for a significant portion of the Simon effect. This supports claims that individual differences predict performance even in simple cognitive tasks such as the Simon task and highlights the flexibility of basic cognitive processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Same same but different? Modeling N-1 switch cost and N-2 repetition cost with the diffusion model and the linear ballistic accumulator model.

In three task-switching experiments, we investigated the relationship of n-1 switch cost and n-2 repetition cost. N-1 switch cost is observed when participants are asked to switch from one classification task to another, e.g., from judging a digit as odd or even to judging a digit as smaller or larger than five. N-2 repetition cost is observed when participants are asked to switch among three tasks (thereafter called A, B, and C). This cost is observed when the task on trial n-2 is repeated in trial n (i.e., in task sequences like ABA) compared to when it is switched (i.e., in task sequences like CBA). So far, the n-1 switch cost is assumed to be caused either by reconfiguration processes or by episodic-memory inertia from the previously activated task-set. N-2 repetition cost is thought to reflect lingering inhibitory processes for resolving conflict among tasks. Whereas both views are integrated in some models, it is up to date unclear whether n-2 repetition cost is related to n-1 switch cost. To examine this relationship, we decomposed the processes underlying n-1 switch cost and n-2 repetition cost using a diffusion model analysis as well as a linear ballistic accumulator model. The results showed that n-1 switch cost reflects interference caused by the residual activation of the previous task set as indicated by slower evidence accumulation processes. In contrast, there were no consistent parameter modulations underlying n-2 repetition cost. These findings emphasize that different cognitive processes are involved in n-1 switch cost and n-2 repetition cost.

Is executive control related to working memory capacity and fluid intelligence?

In the last two decades, individual-differences research has put forward 3 cognitive psychometric constructs: executive control (i.e., the ability to monitor and control ongoing thoughts and actions), working memory capacity (WMC, i.e., the ability to retain access to a limited amount of information in the service of complex tasks), and fluid intelligence (gF, i.e., the ability to reason with novel information). These constructs have been proposed to be closely related, but previous research failed to substantiate a strong correlation between executive control and the other two constructs. This might arise from the difficulty in establishing executive control as a latent variable and from differences in the way the 3 constructs are measured (i.e., executive control is typically measured through reaction times, whereas WMC and gF are measured through accuracy). The purpose of the present study was to overcome these difficulties by measuring executive control through accuracy. Despite good reliabilities of all measures, structural equation modeling identified no coherent factor of executive control. Furthermore, WMC and gF-modeled as distinct but correlated factors-were unrelated to the individual measures of executive control. Hence, measuring executive control through accuracy did not overcome the difficulties of establishing executive control as a latent variable. These findings call into question the existence of executive control as a psychometric construct and the assumption that WMC and gF are closely related to the ability to control ongoing thoughts and actions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Sequential conflict resolution under multiple concurrent conflicts: An ERP study.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether responding to multiple concurrent conflicts results in a simultaneous or sequential conflict resolution. To this end, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in a paradigm combining a Stroop and a flanker task. In this paradigm, participants were asked to respond to the color of the central letter while ignoring the meaning of the word (Stroop task) and the color of the flanking letters (flanker task). Trials were either incongruent (i.e., inducing a conflict between two response alternatives) or congruent (i.e., inducing no response conflict) in both tasks, or incongruent in one task and congruent in the other task. The behavioral results showed a smaller Stroop congruency effect (i.e., a smaller difference between Stroop incongruent and congruent trials) for flanker incongruent than for flanker congruent trials, replicating previous findings. The ERP results showed that an early ERP component (i.e., P2) was associated with the resolution of the flanker conflict, whereas a later component (i.e., N450) was associated with the resolution of the Stroop conflict. Together, these findings emphasize a sequential organization of conflict resolution processes in the brain which is adaptive when facing multiple concurrent conflicts.

Should we stop thinking about inhibition? Searching for individual and age differences in inhibition ability.

Inhibition is often conceptualized as a unitary construct reflecting the ability to ignore and suppress irrelevant information. At the same time, it has been subdivided into inhibition of prepotent responses (i.e., the ability to stop dominant responses) and resistance to distracter interference (i.e., the ability to ignore distracting information). The present study investigated the unity and diversity of inhibition as a psychometric construct, and tested the hypothesis of an inhibition deficit in older age. We measured inhibition in young and old adults with 11 established laboratory tasks: antisaccade, stop-signal, color Stroop, number Stroop, arrow flanker, letter flanker, Simon, global-local, positive and negative compatibility tasks, and n-2 repetition costs in task switching. In both age groups, the inhibition measures from individual tasks had good reliabilities, but correlated only weakly among each other. Structural equation modeling identified a 2-factor model with factors for inhibition of prepotent responses and resistance to distracter interference. Older adults scored worse in the inhibition of prepotent response, but better in the resistance to distracter interference. However, the model had low explanatory power. Together, these findings call into question inhibition as a psychometric construct and the hypothesis of an inhibition deficit in older age. (PsycINFO Database Record

Inhibition in aging: What is preserved? What declines? A meta-analysis.

Aging has been assumed to go along with deficient inhibitory processes in cognitive performance. According to this inhibition deficit hypothesis, older adults are less able to suppress or ignore irrelevant thoughts and actions than young adults are. This hypothesis has been investigated in a large number of studies. We conducted a meta-analysis to determine whether there is an inhibition deficit in older age and whether this deficit is general or task-specific. We selected 176 studies in which young and older adults were tested on tasks commonly assumed to measure inhibition (i.e., the color Stroop, flanker, Simon, stop-signal, go/no-go, global-local, positive and negative compatibility tasks, as well as the paradigm assessing n-2 repetition costs in task switching). For most tasks (i.e., the color Stroop, flanker, and local tasks, as well as the n-2 repetition costs), the results speak against an inhibition deficit in older age. Only in a few tasks (i.e., the go/no-go and stop-signal tasks), older adults showed impaired inhibition. Moreover, for four tasks (i.e., the Simon, global, positive and negative compatibility tasks), the results suggest that more studies are necessary to draw a firm conclusion. Together, the present findings call into question the hypothesis of a general inhibition deficit in older age.

After-effects without monitoring costs: The impact of prospective memory instructions on task switching performance.

In a prospective memory task, verbal instructions are used to define an appropriate target event as retrieval cue. This target event is typically part of an ongoing activity and is thus bivalent as it involves features relevant for both the prospective memory task and the ongoing task. Task switching research has demonstrated that responding to bivalent stimuli is costly and can slow down even subsequent performance. Thus, responding to prospective memory targets may also result in after-effects, expressed as slowed subsequent ongoing task performance. So far, ongoing task slowing has been mainly considered as a measure of strategic monitoring for the prospective memory cues. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether after-effects of responding to prospective memory targets contribute to this slowing. In four experiments, a prospective memory task was embedded in a task-switching paradigm and we manipulated the degree of task-set overlap between the prospective memory task and the ongoing task. The results showed consistent after-effects of responding to prospective memory targets in each experiment. Increasing task-set overlap increased the amount and longevity of the after-effects. Surprisingly, prospective memory retrieval was not accompanied by strategic monitoring. Thus, this study demonstrates that ongoing task slowing can occur in the absence of monitoring costs.

How long-lasting is the post-conflict slowing after incongruent trials? Evidence from the Stroop, Simon, and flanker tasks.

The purpose of the present study was to determine how long-lasting the post-conflict slowing following incongruent stimuli is. In previous research, incongruent stimuli have been used to induce a conflict because they have relevant features for two different response alternatives. So far, the post-conflict slowing following incongruent stimuli has mainly been assessed up to one trial. In the first two experiments, we assessed the persistence of the post-conflict slowing across several trials. To this end, we presented a few incongruent stimuli among non-conflict stimuli. The results showed a consistent slowing for the first few trials immediately following the incongruent trials. In addition, a sporadic slowing was still found on later trials. In two subsequent experiments, we investigated to what extent the infrequency of incongruent trials - rather than their conflict - induced this slowing. To determine this, we used the same design as in the first two experiments, but we presented non-conflict stimuli as infrequent stimuli. The results showed a slowing on one subsequent trial, ruling out the possibility that the post-conflict slowing following incongruent trials was only caused by infrequency. Together, the findings of the present study indicate that the conflict induced by incongruent trials can have a longer lasting impact on subsequent trials than previously thought.

Post-conflict slowing after incongruent stimuli: from general to conflict-specific.

Encountering a cognitive conflict not only slows current performance, but it can also affect subsequent performance, in particular when the conflict is induced with bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two different tasks) or with incongruent trials (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two response alternatives). The post-conflict slowing following bivalent stimuli, called "bivalency effect", affects all subsequent stimuli, irrespective of whether the subsequent stimuli share relevant features with the conflict stimuli. To date, it is unknown whether the conflict induced by incongruent stimuli results in a similar post-conflict slowing. To investigate this, we performed six experiments in which participants switched between two tasks. In one task, incongruent stimuli appeared occasionally; in the other task, stimuli shared no feature with the incongruent trials. The results showed an initial performance slowing that affected all tasks after incongruent trials. On further trials, however, the slowing only affected the task sharing features with the conflict stimuli. Therefore, the post-conflict slowing following incongruent stimuli is first general and then becomes conflict-specific across trials. These findings are discussed within current task switching and cognitive control accounts.

Contextual within-trial adaptation of cognitive control: Evidence from the combination of conflict tasks.

It is assumed that we recruit cognitive control (i.e., attentional adjustment and/or inhibition) to resolve 2 conflicts at a time, such as driving toward a red traffic light and taking care of a near-by ambulance car. A few studies have addressed this issue by combining a Simon task (that required responding with left or right key-press to a stimulus presented on the left or right side of the screen) with either a Stroop task (that required identifying the color of color words) or a Flanker task (that required identifying the target character among flankers). In most studies, the results revealed no interaction between the conflict tasks. However, these studies include a small stimulus set, and participants might have learned the stimulus-response mappings for each stimulus. Thus, it is possible that participants have more relied on episodic memory than on cognitive control to perform the task. In 5 experiments, we combined the 3 tasks pairwise, and we increased the stimulus set size to circumvent episodic memory contributions. The results revealed an interaction between the conflict tasks: Irrespective of task combination, the congruency effect of 1 task was smaller when the stimulus was incongruent for the other task. This suggests that when 2 conflicts are presented concurrently, the control processes induced by 1 conflict source can affect the control processes induced by the other conflict source. (PsycINFO Database Record

Turning univalent stimuli bivalent: Synesthesia can cause cognitive conflict in task switching.

In this study we investigated whether synesthetic color experiences have similar effects as real colors in cognitive conflict adaptation. We tested 24 synesthetes and two yoke-matched control groups in a task-switching experiment that involved regular switches between three simple decision tasks (a color decision, a form decision, and a size decision). In most of the trials the stimuli were univalent, that is, specific for each task. However, occasionally, black graphemes were presented for the size decisions and we tested whether they would trigger synesthetic color experiences and thus, turn them into bivalent stimuli. The results confirmed this expectation. We were also interested in their effect for subsequent performance (i.e., the bivalency effect). The results showed that for synesthetic colors the bivalency effect was not as pronounced as for real colors. The latter result may be related to differences between synesthetes and controls in coping with color conflict.

Age affects the adjustment of cognitive control after a conflict: evidence from the bivalency effect.

Age affects cognitive control. When facing a conflict, older adults are less able to activate goal-relevant information and inhibit irrelevant information. However, cognitive control also affects the events after a conflict. The purpose of this study was to determine whether age affects the adjustment of cognitive control following a conflict. To this end, we investigated the bivalency effect, that is, the performance slowing occurring after the conflict induced by bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with features for two tasks). In two experiments, we tested young adults (aged 20-30) and older adults (aged 65-85) in a paradigm requiring alternations between three tasks, with bivalent stimuli occasionally occurring on one task. The young adults showed a slowing for all trials following bivalent stimuli. This indicates a widespread and long-lasting bivalency effect, replicating previous findings. In contrast, the older adults showed a more specific and shorter-lived slowing. Thus, age affects the adjustment of cognitive control following a conflict.

More conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent events: a study of the bivalency effect.

Encountering a conflict triggers an adjustment of cognitive control. This adjustment of cognitive control can even affect subsequent performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether more conflict triggers more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance. To this end, we focussed on the bivalency effect, that is, the adjustment of cognitive control following the conflict induced by bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two tasks). In two experiments, we tested whether the amount of conflict triggered by bivalent stimuli affected the bivalency effect. Bivalent stimuli were either compatible (i.e., affording one response) or incompatible (i.e., affording two different responses). Thus, compatible bivalent stimuli involved a task conflict, whereas incompatible bivalent stimuli involved a task and a response conflict. The results showed that the bivalency effect was not affected by this manipulation. This indicates that more conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance. Therefore, only the occurrence of conflict--not its amount--is determinant for cognitive control.