@phdthesis{Reuss2013, author = {Reuß, Heiko}, title = {The interplay of unconscious processing and cognitive control}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-76950}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The aim of this study was both to investigate the influence of cognitive control on unconscious processing, and to investigate the influence of unconscious processing on cognitive control. At first, different mechanisms and accounts to explain unconscious priming are presented. Here, perceptual and motor processes, as well as stimulus-response learning, semantic categorization, and the action trigger account as theories to explain motor priming are discussed. Then, the issue of the potential limits of unconscious processing is presented. Findings that indicate that active current intentions and expertise modulate unconscious processing are illustrated. Subsequently, results that imply an influence of unconsciously presented stimuli that goes beyond motor processes are discussed, with a special focus on inhibition processes, orienting of attention, task set activation, and conflict adaptation. Then I present the results of my own empirical work. Experiment 1 shows that the effective processing of unconsciously presented stimuli depends on expertise, even when potentially confounding difference between the expert and novice groups are controlled. The results of Experiments 2 and 3 indicate that the intention to use particular stimuli is a crucial factor for the effectiveness of these stimuli when they are presented unconsciously. Additionally, these findings show that shifts of attention can be triggered by centrally presented masked arrow cues. Experiments 4 and 5 broaden these results to cue stimuli that are not inherently associated with a spatial meaning. The finding corroborate that typically endogenously controlled shifts of attention can also be induced by unconscious stimuli. Experiments 6 and 7 demonstrate that even a central cognitive control process like task set activation is not contingent on conscious awareness, but can in contrast be triggered through unconscious stimulation. Finally, these results are integrated and I discuss how the concept of cognitive control and the limits of unconscious processing may have to be reconsidered. Furthermore, potential future research possibilities in this field are presented.}, subject = {Bewusstsein}, language = {en} } @article{FoersterPfisterReussetal.2017, author = {Foerster, Anna and Pfister, Roland and Reuss, Heiko and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Commentary: Feeling the Conflict: The Crucial Role of Conflict Experience in Adaptation}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1405}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01405}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190032}, year = {2017}, abstract = {A commentary on: Feeling the Conflict: The Crucial Role of Conflict Experience in Adaptationby Desender, K., Van Opstal, F., and Van den Bussche, E. (2014). Psychol. Sci. 25, 675-683. doi:10.1177/0956797613511468 Conflict adaptation in masked priming has recently been proposed to rely not on successful conflictresolution but rather on conflict experience (Desender et al., 2014). We re-assessed this proposal ina direct replication and also tested a potential confound due toconflict strength. The data supported this alternative view, but also failed to replicate basic conflict adaptation effects of the original studydespite considerable power.}, language = {en} } @article{EderDignath2019, author = {Eder, Andreas B. and Dignath, David}, title = {Expected value of control and the motivational control of habitual action}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1812}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01812}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195703}, year = {2019}, abstract = {A hallmark of habitual actions is that, once they are established, they become insensitive to changes in the values of action outcomes. In this article, we review empirical research that examined effects of posttraining changes in outcome values in outcome-selective Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) tasks. This review suggests that cue-instigated action tendencies in these tasks are not affected by weak and/or incomplete revaluation procedures (e.g., selective satiety) and substantially disrupted by a strong and complete devaluation of reinforcers. In a second part, we discuss two alternative models of a motivational control of habitual action: a default-interventionist framework and expected value of control theory. It is argued that the default-interventionist framework cannot solve the problem of an infinite regress (i.e., what controls the controller?). In contrast, expected value of control can explain control of habitual actions with local computations and feedback loops without (implicit) references to control homunculi. It is argued that insensitivity to changes in action outcomes is not an intrinsic design feature of habits but, rather, a function of the cognitive system that controls habitual action tendencies.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hoffmann2020, author = {Hoffmann, Mareike}, title = {Effector System Prioritization in Multitasking}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-20108}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201084}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Multitasking, defined as performing more than one task at a time, typically yields performance decrements, for instance, in processing speed and accuracy. These performance costs are often distributed asymmetrically among the involved tasks. Under suitable conditions, this can be interpreted as a marker for prioritization of one task - the one that suffers less - over the other. One source of such task prioritization is based on the use of different effector systems (e.g., oculomotor system, vocal tract, limbs) and their characteristics. The present work explores such effector system-based task prioritization by examining to which extent associated effector systems determine which task is processed with higher priority in multitasking situations. Thus, three different paradigms are used, namely the simultaneous (stimulus) onset paradigm, the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm, and the task switching paradigm. These paradigms invoke situations in which two (in the present studies basic spatial decision) tasks are a) initiated at exactly the same time, b) initiated with a short varying temporal distance (but still temporally overlapping), or c) in which tasks alternate randomly (without temporal overlap). The results allow for three major conclusions: 1. The assumption of effector system-based task prioritization according to an ordinal pattern (oculomotor > pedal > vocal > manual, indicating decreasing prioritization) is supported by the observed data in the simultaneous onset paradigm. This data pattern cannot be explained by a rigid "first come, first served" task scheduling principle. 2. The data from the PRP paradigm confirmed the assumption of vocal-over-manual prioritization and showed that classic PRP effects (as a marker for task order-based prioritization) can be modulated by effector system characteristics. 3. The mere cognitive representation of task sets (that must be held active to switch between them) differing in effector systems without an actual temporal overlap in task processing, however, is not sufficient to elicit the same effector system prioritization phenomena observed for overlapping tasks. In summary, the insights obtained by the present work support the assumptions of parallel central task processing and resource sharing among tasks, as opposed to exclusively serial processing of central processing stages. Moreover, they indicate that effector systems are a crucial factor in multitasking and suggest an integration of corresponding weighting parameters in existing dual-task control frameworks.}, subject = {Mehrfacht{\"a}tigkeit}, language = {en} } @article{HoffmannKochHuestegge2022, author = {Hoffmann, Mareike A. and Koch, Iring and Huestegge, Lynn}, title = {Are some effector systems harder to switch to? In search of cost asymmetries when switching between manual, vocal, and oculomotor tasks}, series = {Memory \& Cognition}, volume = {50}, journal = {Memory \& Cognition}, number = {7}, doi = {10.3758/s13421-022-01287-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324887}, pages = {1563-1577}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In task-switching studies, performance is typically worse in task-switch trials than in task-repetition trials. These switch costs are often asymmetrical, a phenomenon that has been explained by referring to a dominance of one task over the other. Previous studies also indicated that response modalities associated with two tasks may be considered as integral components for defining a task set. However, a systematic assessment of the role of response modalities in task switching is still lacking: Are some response modalities harder to switch to than others? The present study systematically examined switch costs when combining tasks that differ only with respect to their associated effector systems. In Experiment 1, 16 participants switched (in unpredictable sequence) between oculomotor and vocal tasks. In Experiment 2, 72 participants switched (in pairwise combinations) between oculomotor, vocal, and manual tasks. We observed systematic performance costs when switching between response modalities under otherwise constant task features and could thereby replicate previous observations of response modality switch costs. However, we did not observe any substantial switch-cost asymmetries. As previous studies using temporally overlapping dual-task paradigms found substantial prioritization effects (in terms of asymmetric costs) especially for oculomotor tasks, the present results suggest different underlying processes in sequential task switching than in simultaneous multitasking. While more research is needed to further substantiate a lack of response modality switch-cost asymmetries in a broader range of task switching situations, we suggest that task-set representations related to specific response modalities may exhibit rapid decay.}, language = {en} }