Conflict-Triggered Goal Shielding

Action control in a changing environment requires that one shield current goals from distracting information (goal shielding) and at the same time monitor the environment for potentially significant stimuli that may afford a goal switch (background monitoring). Response conflicts modulate the balance between goal shielding and background monitoring, as indicated by reduced susceptibility to interference after response conflicts. Such conflict-adaptation effects have been attributed to enhanced recruitment of cognitive control on trials following conflicts. Here we show that conflict triggers increased goal shielding on the conflict trial itself. Subjects performed a spatial compatibility task during which they had to notice rare prospective memory cues. Such cues were overlooked more often on conflict trials than on nonconflict trials, a result indicating that shielding of the current goal and inhibition of distractors were increased on the current trial when it involved a response conflict. Thus, evidence for enhanced recruitment of control following conflict may partly reflect aftereffects of goal shielding on the conflict trial itself.

[1]  G. Dreisbach.  How positive affect modulates cognitive control: The costs and benefits of reduced maintenance capability , 2006, Brain and Cognition.

[2]  S. Keele,et al.  Changing internal constraints on action: the role of backward inhibition. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[3]  R. Marsh,et al.  The demands of an ongoing activity influence the success of event-based prospective memory , 2002, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[4]  R. Marsh,et al.  An Analysis of Prospective Memory , 2006 .

[5]  Tim Shallice,et al.  The relationship between prospective memory and retrospective memory: neuropsychological evidence , 1997 .

[6]  Mark A McDaniel,et al.  Cue-focused and reflexive-associative processes in prospective memory retrieval. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[7]  E. Donchin,et al.  Optimizing the use of information: strategic control of activation of responses. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[8]  M. McDaniel,et al.  Strategic and automatic processes in prospective memory retrieval: a multiprocess framework , 2000 .

[9]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  An integrative theory of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine function: adaptive gain and optimal performance. , 2005, Annual review of neuroscience.

[10]  J. Beckmann,et al.  Action control : from cognition to behavior , 1985 .

[11]  J. Ellis.  Prospective memory or the realization of delayed intentions: A conceptual framework for research. , 1996 .

[12]  Rebekah E. Smith.  The cost of remembering to remember in event-based prospective memory: investigating the capacity demands of delayed intention performance. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[13]  Jason L Hicks,et al.  On the relationship between effort toward an ongoing task and cue detection in event-based prospective memory. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[14]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  Conflict monitoring versus selection-for-action in anterior cingulate cortex , 1999, Nature.

[15]  J. Gregory Trafton,et al.  Memory for goals: an activation-based model , 2002, Cogn. Sci..

[16]  Thomas Goschke,et al.  Voluntary action and cognitive control from a cognitive neuroscience perspective , 2003 .

[17]  J. Kuhl.  Volitional Mediators of Cognition-Behavior Consistency: Self-Regulatory Processes and Action Versus , 1985 .

[18]  E. Miller,et al.  An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. , 2001, Annual review of neuroscience.

[19]  Martin L. Bink,et al.  Activation of completed, uncompleted, and partially completed intentions , 1998 .

[20]  M. Botvinick,et al.  Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. , 2001, Psychological review.

[21]  E. Awh,et al.  Conflict adaptation effects in the absence of executive control , 2003, Nature Neuroscience.

[22]  M. McDaniel,et al.  Multiple processes in prospective memory retrieval: factors determining monitoring versus spontaneous retrieval. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[23]  T. Goschke,et al.  Representation of intentions: Persisting activation in memory. , 1993 .

[24]  Narziß Kaspar Ach,et al.  Analyse des Willens , 1935 .

[25]  G. Dreisbach,et al.  How positive affect modulates cognitive control: reduced perseveration at the cost of increased distractibility. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[26]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  Conflict monitoring and anterior cingulate cortex: an update , 2004, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[27]  K. R. Ridderinkhof,et al.  The Role of the Medial Frontal Cortex in Cognitive Control , 2004, Science.

[28]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  Anterior Cingulate Conflict Monitoring and Adjustments in Control , 2004, Science.

[29]  T. Goschke.  Intentional reconfiguration and involuntary persistence in task-set switching , 2000 .

[30]  I. Koch,et al.  The role of response selection for inhibition of task sets in task shifting. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[31]  Melissa J. Guynn,et al.  A two‐process model of strategic monitoring in event‐based prospective memory: Activation/retrieval mode and checking , 2003 .