Investigating the Prospective Sense of Agency: Effects of Processing Fluency, Stimulus Ambiguity, and Response Conflict

Stimulus ambiguity elicits response conflict

Neuroscience Letters ◽

10.1016/j.neulet.2008.02.023 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 435 (2) ◽

pp. 158-162 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Arnaud Szmalec ◽

Frederick Verbruggen ◽

André Vandierendonck ◽

Wouter De Baene ◽

Tom Verguts ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Response Conflict ◽

Stimulus Ambiguity

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Conflict Monitoring Across the Life Span

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000120 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 124-135 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Daniela Czernochowski

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Life Span ◽

Age Groups ◽

Conflict Detection ◽

Response Conflict ◽

Conflict Monitoring ◽

Subsequent Performance ◽

Additional Control ◽

Performance Response ◽

Conflict Detection And Resolution

Errors can play a major role for optimizing subsequent performance: Response conflict associated with (near) errors signals the need to recruit additional control resources to minimize future conflict. However, so far it remains open whether children and older adults also adjust their performance as a function of preceding response conflict. To examine the life span development of conflict detection and resolution, response conflict was elicited during a task-switching paradigm. Electrophysiological correlates of conflict detection for correct and incorrect responses and behavioral indices of post-error adjustments were assessed while participants in four age groups were asked to focus on either speed or accuracy. Despite difficulties in resolving response conflict, the ability to detect response conflict as indexed by the Ne/ERN component was expected to mature early and be preserved in older adults. As predicted, reliable Ne/ERN peaks were detected across age groups. However, only for adults Ne/ERN amplitudes associated with errors were larger compared to Nc/CRN amplitudes for correct trials under accuracy instructions, suggesting an ongoing maturation in the ability to differentiate levels of response conflict. Behavioral interference costs were considerable in both children and older adults. Performance for children and older adults deteriorated rather than improved following errors, in line with intact conflict detection, but impaired conflict resolution. Thus, participants in all age groups were able to detect response conflict, but only young adults successfully avoided subsequent conflict by up-regulating control.

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Disfluent, But Fast

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000456 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 66 (5) ◽

pp. 346-354

Author(s):

Štěpán Bahník

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Response Times ◽

Processing Fluency ◽

Retrieval Fluency ◽

Decision Times

Abstract. Processing fluency, a metacognitive feeling of ease of cognitive processing, serves as a cue in various types of judgments. Processing fluency is sometimes evaluated by response times, with shorter response times indicating higher fluency. The present study examined existence of the opposite association; that is, it tested whether disfluency may lead to faster decision times when it serves as a strong cue in judgment. Retrieval fluency was manipulated in an experiment using previous presentation and phonological fluency by varying pronounceability of pseudowords. Participants liked easy-to-pronounce and previously presented words more. Importantly, their decisions were faster for hard-to-pronounce and easy-to-pronounce pseudowords than for pseudowords moderate in pronounceability. The results thus showed an inverted-U shaped relationship between fluency and decision times. The findings suggest that disfluency can lead to faster decision times and thus demonstrate the importance of separating different processes comprising judgment when response times are used as a measure of processing fluency.

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