Long-term aftereffects of response inhibition: memory retrieval, task goals, and cognitive control

Cognitive control theories attribute control to executive processes that adjust and control behavior online. Theories of automaticity attribute control to memory retrieval. In the present study, online adjustments and memory retrieval were examined, and their roles in controlling performance in the stop-signal paradigm were elucidated. There was evidence of short-term response time adjustments after unsuccessful stopping. In addition, it was found that memory retrieval can slow responses for 1-20 trials after successful inhibition, which suggests the automatic retrieval of task goals. On the basis of these findings, the authors concluded that cognitive control can rely on both memory retrieval and executive processes.     

Does early-career underemployment impact future career success? A path dependency perspective

Whereas many studies have shown that underemployed people experience lower objective career success and lower subjective career success while being underemployed, little research has been done on the lasting effects of underemployment. This study addresses the role of time in career success research by examining the impact of level underemployment, content underemployment and contingent employment on subsequent objective (i.e. salary) and subjective career success (i.e. job satisfaction). Our 10-year longitudinal dataset of 335 Dutch university graduates permits us to examine the impact of preceding underemployment as well as the specific timing of the underemployment in one's career. The multilevel analysis results illustrate that level and contingent underemployment have a negative impact on future pay, whereas content underemployment negatively affects job satisfaction five years later. In addition, for level underemployment also the timing turns out to matter, suggesting that the signal that it sends to employers may differ depending on when in one's career it happened. Taken together, these findings point to the importance of using a path-dependency perspective when trying to understand people's career success.     

Proactive motor control reduces monetary risk taking in gambling

Less supervision by the executive system after disruption of the right prefrontal cortex leads to increased risk taking in gambling because superficially attractive-but risky-choices are not suppressed. Similarly, people might gamble more in multitask situations than in single-task situations because concurrent executive processes usually interfere with each other. In the study reported here, we used a novel monetary decision-making paradigm to investigate whether multitasking could reduce rather than increase risk taking in gambling. We found that performing a task that induced cautious motor responding reduced gambling in a multitask situation (Experiment 1). We then found that a short period of inhibitory training lessened risk taking in gambling at least 2 hr later (Experiments 2 and 3). Our findings indicate that proactive motor control strongly affects monetary risk taking in gambling. The link between control systems at different cognitive levels might be exploited to develop new methods for rehabilitation of addiction and impulse-control disorders.     

A sequential analysis of relevant and irrelevant information in the Stroop task

The effect of repeating relevant (colour) and irrelevant (word) stimulus information is investigated in two Stroop tasks. Thomas (1977) observed that the Stroop effect is reduced when the irrelevant word is repeated from trial n -1 to trial n. A similar effect was observed in the Simon task (Notebaert, Soetens, & Melis, 2001; Notebaert & Soetens, 2003a). MacLeod (1991) interprets this effect as sustained suppression and relates it to negative priming. In this paper we investigate whether the reduced Stroop effect for word repetitions is indeed related to the negative priming effect. In Experiment 1 with a response-stimulus interval (RSI) of 50 ms, the Stroop effect is not influenced by the sequence of the word and there is no negative priming effect. In Experiment 2 with an RSI of 200 ms, the Stroop effect is reduced for word repetitions but there is still no negative priming effect. This does not support the sustained-suppression hypothesis. The reduced Stroop effect for word repetitions is explained in terms of response priming.     

The phonological loop in task alternation and task repetition

It has recently been proposed that task repetition is easier than task alternation because the appropriate task settings are already present in working memory, whereas during task alternation task settings must be retrieved from long-term memory (Mayr & Kliegl, 2000). The present study tested whether the phonological loop is involved in keeping the relevant task settings active in working memory. It may then be expected that concurrent articulatory suppression would diminish the facilitation associated with task repetition because the phonological loop could no longer maintain the appropriate task settings active in working memory. Both during task repetition and task alternation the relevant task settings should then be retrieved from long-term memory. Three dual-task experiments were conducted. The results of Experiment 1 were in support of our prediction. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1 and showed that the task settings probably represent the adequate response mappings. Experiment 3 ruled out the involvement of the visuo-spatial sketchpad and more general coordination demands during dual tasking.     

Enhancement of perceptual representations by endogenous attention biases competition in response selection

Perception and response selection are core processes in the generation of overt behavior. Selective attention is known to facilitate behavioral performance by altering perceptual processes. It remains unclear, however, whether selective attention can aid the resolution of response conflict, and if so, at what stage of processing this takes place. In two experiments, an endogenous cuing task was combined with a flanker task to assess the interaction of selective attention with response selection. The results of Experiment 1 show that cuing reduces the flanker-congruency effect when the cue and flanker are presented in close temporal proximity to each other. The results of Experiment 2 demonstrate that pre- but not post-cuing the target reduced the congruency effect, showing that selective attention can affect performance, but is ineffective once stimulus processing has proceeded to response selection. Our results provide evidence that selective attention can aid the resolution of response conflict by altering early perceptual processing stages.     

Spontaneous goal inferences are often inferred faster than spontaneous trait inferences

We present four experiments in which participants were exposed to texts depicting behaviors that afforded inferences about actors' traits and goals. Results from a false recognition task with varying response deadlines revealed heightened activation of goal inferences already within a 350 ms response deadline. In contrast, trait inferences were made only when there was no response deadline, and when the behavior also implied a goal. These results indicate that spontaneous inferences on goals are often encoded more strongly in memory and are reactivated much more quickly in comparison with spontaneous trait inferences. Moreover, spontaneous trait inferences are often facilitated when an inference is first made on the goal of the behavior. These findings are discussed in light of recent developmental and neuroscientific evidence on social inferences, and current theories on impression formation.     

Integrating different notions of employability in a dynamic chain: The relationship between job transitions,movement capital and perceived employability

This study connects different notions of employability with the ultimate aim to arrive at integration of a research field that has been criticized for being fragmented and fuzzy. We define employability as “an individual's chance of a job in the internal and/or external labor market”. Employability research assesses employability differently, looking at the realization of this chance (i.e., job transitions), personal strengths that increase this chance (i.e., movement capital) and appraisals of this chance (i.e., perceived employability). We hypothesize and establish in a two-wave sample of 643 Belgian (Dutch-speaking) employees that these different notions of employability form a dynamic chain, so that job transitions promote movement capital, which then affects perceived employability and ultimately feeds back to job transitions. Furthermore, we found that the internal labor market versus the external labor market are important foci in employability research since internal and external job transitions were found to relate differently to the other notions of employability.     

Automatic motor activation by mere instruction

Previous behavioral studies have shown that instructions about stimulus–response (S-R) mappings can influence task performance even when these instructions are irrelevant for the current task. In the present study, we tested whether automatic effects of S–R instructions occur because the instructed stimuli automatically activate their corresponding responses. We registered the lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) that were evoked by the instructed stimuli while participants were performing a task for which those mappings were irrelevant. Instructed S–R mappings clearly affected task performance in electrophysiological and behavioral measures. The LRP was found to deflect in the direction of the response tendency that corresponded with the instructed S–R mapping. Early activation of the instructed response was observed but occurred predominantly on slow trials. In contrast, response conflict evoked by instructed S–R mappings did not modulate the N2 amplitude. The results strongly suggest that, like experienced S–R mappings, instructed S–R mappings can lead to automatic response activation, but possibly via a different route.