RETRACTED ARTICLE: Losing control: Mostly incongruent lists postpone, but do not eliminate, the Stroop effect

Abstract

Identifying the color (e.g., red) of a color word that is incongruent (e.g., “BLUE”) can be remarkably difficult. The Stroop effect is a measure of the interference between activity from word and color pathways. The efficacy of these pathways is thought to be highly contingent on the frequency of incongruent trials within a block. A block of trials with mostly incongruent (MI) trials typically results in a smaller Stroop effect than a block with mostly congruent (MC) trials. This reduction of the Stroop effect has been largely attributed to the strategic list-wide control of the word pathway. Here, the time course of the Stroop effect was explored using speed-accuracy tradeoff functions (SATfs) in tasks with 50 % congruent, MC, and MI trials. In the MC and 50 % congruent condition, color-word congruency affected the rate parameter of the SATf. In the MI condition, however, congruency affected the asymptote. This evidence is consistent with the idea that the strategic control of the word pathway is an effortful, temporary phenomenon, prone to buckle if responding is held in check.

Introduction

The distinction between “automatic” and “controlled” processing has long played a pivotal role in cognitive theorizing (e.g., Posner & Snyder, 1975). Although control processes are relatively slower, more effortful, and more resource demanding, than “automatic” processes, they are vital to the performance of goal-oriented and flexible behavior. Controlled processes are also necessary for monitoring conflict between information processing pathways (e.g., Botvinick et al., 2001), although there is generally little consensus on the mechanisms that accomplish this feat.

Identifying the color of a word stimulus is typically slowed, and more prone to erroneous responding, if the color (e.g., blue) and the word (e.g., RED) are incongruent. Congruent stimuli (e.g., RED written in the color red) are responded to more quickly and less erroneously. The performance difference between congruent and incongruent trials is known as the Stroop effect (Stroop, 1935). It is generally believed that the impairment on incongruent trials is the result of interference between word and color identification processes (e.g., see MacLeod, 1991; Posner & Snyder, 1975).

The Stroop task has been serviceable in the study of strategic control mechanisms (Bugg & Crump, 2012; Levin & Tzelgoc, 2014). Lowe and Mitterer (1982) – and Logan, Zbrodoff, and Williamson (1984; see also Logan & Zbrodoff, 1979) – noted that proportion congruent manipulations had a robust impact on the Stroop effect. They observed smaller Stroop (and Stroop-like) effects when there were mostly incongruent (MI), than when there were mostly congruent (MC), trials within a block. This reduction of the Stroop effect with MI blocks is often referred to as the list-wide proportion congruent (LWPC) effect (Jacoby, Lindsay, & Hessels, 2003). The LWPC effect was first interpreted as a strategic modulation of word reading processes (Logan & Zbrodoff, 1979) and has typically called into question a strong “automaticity” account of the Stroop effect. Logan and Zbrodoff proposed that this strategy might include weighing evidence from the irrelevant (e.g., word) dimension a little less in MI conditions than in balanced (i.e., equal proportions of congruent and incongruent trials) or MC conditions. Weighing the irrelevant dimension less is not unlike inhibiting word reading: both processes reduce Stroop interference (Lindsay & Jacoby, 1994). Under the dual mechanism of control (DMC) framework (e.g., Braver, 2012), this account of the LWPC effect is thought to reflect proactive control wherein a preparatory mental set (e.g., “inhibit reading”) influences the efficacy of a pathway before the onset of a stimulus whose features trigger activity along said pathway.

Alternative accounts of the LWPC effect do not assume any contribution of proactive control. Rather, these accounts presume reactive processes (i.e., those that are only initiated in response to the stimulus; Braver, 2012; Bugg, 2014; Gonthier, Braver, & Bugg, 2016; Hutchison, 2011) are sufficient to account for LWPC effects. For instance, some have proposed that the inhibition of the task-irrelevant (i.e., word) pathway might take place at an early stage of the reading process, shortly after the presentation of the target (Jacoby et al., 2003). Reactive processes are less resource depleting than proactive processes because they are used as needed. They tend to be rather slow, however, as they need to be continually reactivated in the presence of the events that triggered them in the first place (Braver, 2012).

While there have been numerous demonstrations of the LWPC effect, there is little known of its time course. Understanding the time course of stimulus processing is critical to teasing apart reactive versus proactive sources of the LWPC effect. A proactive account presumes an early effect of LWPC on target, and conflict, processing (Logan & Zbrodoff, 1979). Alternatively, reactive processes should have no influence on the early phase of target processing and should only affect late components of target processing.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are one approach that can be used to assess the mental chronometry of the LWPC modulation of the Stroop effect. West and Alain (2000) observed a smaller difference in the N450 component on MI trials than on MC trials. They suggested the N450 reflects the activity of a neural system involved in the inhibition of the (conceptual) processing of the word feature. This LWPC modulation of the N450, however, was only seen with responses that were faster than the median. Responses that were slower than the median tended to have a larger Stroop effect and the N450 was unaffected by the LWPC manipulation. They argued that the control mechanism responsible for suppressing word-reading processes “fluctuates in efficiency over time” (West & Alain, 2000, p. 110).

Most investigations of the LWPC effect have relied heavily on mean reaction time (RT) as the measure of performance. Although mean RT is certainly a valuable tool, the analysis of the mean RTs, alone, has limitations. In many tasks, error rates are near ceiling and are analyzed either as an afterthought or as a way to reinforce the patterns observed in the more sensitive measure (i.e., RT). There is, however, a well-known trading relationship between accuracy and response time (i.e., the speed-accuracy tradeoff; SAT). The SAT function (SATf), a descriptive model of the SAT, has a rich history in psychophysics (e.g., see Bogacz, Wagenmakers, Forstmann, & Nieuwenhuis, 2010; Pachella, 1974; Standage, Blohm, & Dorris, 2014). Although there are a number of methodological approaches to measure the SATf (Wickelgren, 1977), the response-signal approach (Reed, 1973) has long held special appeal because it allows for the quantitative assessment of target sensitivity (i.e., d′) as a function of time. The standard SATf is presented below (Wickelgren, 1977):

$$ {d}^{\prime }(t)=\kern0.5em \lambda \left[1-{e}^{-\beta \left(t-\delta \right)}\right], for\ t>\delta, else\ 0, $$

(1)

Where the intercept (δ) is the time (t) where d′ begins to rise above chance (d′=0) performance; β is a rate parameter indexing the change in d′ as a function of t; and λ is the asymptotic value of d′ reflecting discriminability.

Task-switching costs (Samavatyan & Leth-Steensen, 2009), inhibition of return (Ivanoff & Klein, 2006; Zhao et al., 2011), and global-local stimulus conflict (Boer & Keuss, 1982) have been shown to delay the intercept parameter. This is generally consistent with the presence of a difference in a preparatory state before the processing of the relevant target feature. The spatial orienting of attention appears to improve the rate parameter and the asymptote (Carrasco & McElree, 2001; Giordano, et al., 2009; Grubb, White, Heeger, & Carrasco, 2014), consistent with an effect that is contingent on some processing of the target. It is not currently known how Stroop conflict affects the parameters of the SATf.

At first blush, the interpretation of the SATf seems trivial: it reflects the change in target evidence that occurs with processing time (or lag). The latent mechanisms underlying the SATf, however, appear to be quite complex (Ratcliff, 2006). Sequential sampling models (e.g., Ratcliff, Smith, Brown, & McKoon, 2016) generally assume that decision-making is the result of a noisy accumulation of perceptual evidence from a starting point to a decision criterion. Most of these models hold that the SATf is the result of a strategic shift in the decision criterion¹: emphasizing decision accuracy increases the decision criterion and slows responding to allow more evidence to accrue. Others (e.g., Rae et al., 2014), however, have claimed that emphasizing speed not only decreases the decision criterion, but also the rate in which evidence is extracted from the stimulus (see also Zhang & Rowe, 2014). These studies, however, did not use the response-signal methodology. Not all methodological approaches to the SATf are equivalent (e.g., see Luce, 1986; Wickelgren, 1977). Nonetheless, most accounts of the SATf do hold some common assumptions: (1) at short lags decisions are based on partial evidence or, perhaps, guessing (Olman, 1966; see also Yellott, 1967) and (2) at long lags decisions are based on full evidence and decisions that reach threshold early may be held in check until the response signal is presented (Ratcliff, 2006).

The purpose of the present investigation is twofold. The first goal was to use the response-signal methodology to derive SATfs in a Stroop task. In Experiment 1, volunteers performed a manual Stroop task, with an equal proportion of congruent and incongruent trials under the standard “fast and accurate” instructions and with the SAT response-signal method. This first experiment will provide a baseline for the second goal of this study: to determine how parameters of the SATf in a manual Stroop task are affected by a LWPC manipulation. In Experiment 2, the frequency of congruent trials (i.e., MC) was increased. In Experiments 3 and 4 the proportion of incongruent trials (i.e., MI) was increased. The advantage of SATfs in this context is that they will allow us to determine whether proactive control mechanisms are responsible for the LWPC effect in a manual Stroop task. A strictly proactive control account of the LWPC effect predicts that congruency ought to affect the early portion of the SATf in MC and MI conditions (e.g., see Logan & Zbrodoff, 1979). On the other hand, if the LWPC effect is largely the result of reactive control, then congruency ought to affect later components of the SATf in MC and MI conditions.

Experiment 1: 50 % congruent

Method

Participants

Most SAT studies collect hundreds or thousands of trials from a small sample of volunteers. Accordingly, the sample size was determined from pilot testing and matched what is typically seen in the SAT literature. Ten Saint Mary’s University psychology students, between the ages of 18 and 30 years, participated in return for course credit. Each took part in an individual session that lasted approximately 2.5 h. All individuals had English as a first language, normal hearing, and normal (or corrected-to-normal) vision.

Apparatus and stimuli

All stimuli were presented on a 15-in iMac G3 desktop and responses were entered on an Apple A1048 keyboard (Apple, CA, USA) modified for millisecond accuracy (Empirisoft, NY, USA). Superlab (Cedrus, CA, USA) was used to collect data and present stimuli. The fixation point was a black dot, 0.64° in diameter, presented at the center of the screen. Red and blue uppercase letters, printed in Times New Roman 72-point font, were presented on a white background at the center of the computer screen. The response signal was a short (30 ms) medium pitched tone (880 Hz).

Procedure

The experiment was conducted in a naturally lit, quiet room. Participants sat approximately 57cm from the screen. The instructions were first read by the participants and then presented orally to them by a researcher. All participants practiced the Stroop task in the standard task before the SAT task was introduced. There were four blocks of 64 trials (50 % were congruent) in the standard task. Data from the standard task were used in the analysis of mean RTs, error rates, Vincentized quintiles, and the parameters from the best fit ex-Gaussian distribution (the latter two analyses are presented in the Supplemental Material).

Before the experiment began, participants were shown an example of a congruent and an incongruent stimulus set and were instructed to respond to the color of the word and not to the word itself. The participants also practiced the task, without the response tone, to become familiar with the response mappings. At the beginning of each trial a black fixation point at the center of a white screen was presented for 750 ms. The fixation point was removed and the screen was left blank for 30 ms. The word “RED” or “BLUE” was then presented in either a red or blue color and remained visible for 45 ms. In the standard task, the next trial began after a response or after 1,500 ms had lapsed. In the SAT task, the response signal was then presented after one of eight target-tone onset asynchronies (TTOAs: 60 ms, 90 ms, 120 ms, 240 ms, 360 ms, 480 ms, 600 ms, or 1,200 ms). Only one TTOA was presented within a block of trials, and the order of TTOAs was randomized between blocks and participants. If a response occurred within 240 ms of the onset of the response signal, a cartoon happy face image was presented for 350 ms. If a response occurred after 240 ms, a cartoon sad face was presented for 1,200 ms. If a response occurred before the onset of the tone, a worried face (i.e., the mouth was presented with a triangle wave pattern) was presented for 750 ms. Four blocks of 64 trials were presented at each TTOA (i.e., 2,048 trials total). Half of the trials within each block were congruent (and the other half were incongruent).

Statistical analysis

All comparisons between performance estimates on congruent and incongruent trials were performed using the nonparametric Wilcoxon signed rank test because (1) the sample size was small and (2) the data often failed to satisfy the normality assumption (according to Shapiro-Wilks tests) of a parametric test (e.g., t-test). As a complement to the Wilcoxon signed rank test, the rank biserial correlation (r _rb) was provided along with 95 % bootstrapped confidence intervals. This nonparametric measure of effect size is familiar to most researchers and ranges from -1 to +1 (0 indicates no relationship). It is used to assess the monotonicity between a variable and a condition (Glass, 1966) in nonparametric designs. The values of r _rb, and the 95 % confidence intervals, were estimated using the mes.m function (Hentschke & Stüttgen, 2011) in Matlab (Mathworks Inc., Natick, MA).

Standard task

The data from the standard task (i.e., those without the SAT instructions) were pre-processed in two stages. First, individual RTs slower than 1,200 ms were discarded for the ex-Gaussian and Vincentization analysis (see Supplemental Material) to avoid extreme values.² The remaining RTs were then trimmed before estimating the mean by excluding responses that were incorrect and greater than or less than three standard deviations from the mean.

SAT task

Processing lag was calculated by averaging all RTs, relative to the onset of the target (not the tone), within a 360-ms window of the response tone. Sensitivity to the target’s color (d′) was the primary measure of accuracy (Macmillan & Creelman, 2005). Hit or false alarm rates at floor or ceiling values were adjusted by subtracting or adding ½f (Kadlec, 1999). Estimates of the d′ for each participant were achieved with bootstrap resampling, using the mean of 10,000 samples for each condition at each TTOA to the individual cell (in the 8 [TTOA] × 2 [congruence] matrix) with the fewest trials (e.g., see Ivanoff, et al., 2014) because the total number of trials (i.e., the base) can influence d′ values as false alarm or hit rates approach floor or ceiling levels.

The SAT analysis comprised of two stages, following common practice. First, the group mean data was analyzed using a hierarchical fitting approach (e.g., Carrasco & McElree, 2001; Giordano, et al., 2009; Ivanoff, et al., 2014; McElree & Carrasco, 1999) using maximum likelihood estimation (Liu & Smith, 2009) with the optimization function fmincon in Matlab (Mathworks, Natick, MA). The data were quantitatively assessed using fits to the standard SATf (Eq. 1).

The fit was evaluated using two measures. First, the overall fit was evaluated with an adjusted R² (Dosher, Han, & Lu, 2004):

$$ {R}_{adj}^2=\kern0.5em 1-\frac{\sum \limits_{i=1}^n{\left({d}_i-{\widehat{d}}_i\right)}^2/\left(n-k\right)}{\sum \limits_{i=1}^n{\left({d}_i-\overline{d}\right)}^2/\left(n-1\right)} $$

(2)

In this equation, n is the number of data points, k is the number of free parameters, d _i are the observed d′ values, $\widehat{d_i}$ are the predicted d′ values, and ${\overline{d}}_i$ is the mean. Secondly, the Schwarz weighted Bayesian information criterion, wBIC (Wagenmakers & Farrell, 2004), was used to select the best fit from the finite set of nested models ranging from a fully saturated model (2δ-2β-2λ) to the simplest (null) model (1δ-1β-1λ; e.g., see Liu & Smith, 2009; Wagenmakers & Farrell, 2004). The wBIC values can be used to determine the relative weight of evidence for one model over another. The second phase of the analysis involved the derivation and analysis of parameter estimates (δ, β, and λ) from individual participants. Parameter estimates were derived from the fully saturated model, separately for congruent and incongruent conditions.

Results

The data from one participant was removed from the analysis because of an extremely high error rate (48 %) in the standard task. A technical error resulted in missing SAT data of another participant. The standard and SAT data from the remaining eight participants were analyzed. On average, the minimum proportion of responses (across TTOAs and conditions) occurring within time window was approximately 69 %. Thus, compliance with the response windows was good.

Standard task

The data from the standard task were subjected to the analyses described earlier. Excluding trials three standard deviations above or below the mean eliminated only one to six trials per participant. Table 1 provides the group means and effect sizes (r _rb with 95 % confidence intervals) for the individual mean RTs and accuracy rates. There was a significant effect of congruency on mean RTs, but not on accuracy.

Table 1 Mean (and standard deviation) and effect size analysis of the standard task in Experiments 1(50 % Congruent), 2 (Mostly Congruent), and 4 (Mostly Incongruent).

SAT task

The d′ versus lag data were fit to the SATf (Eq. 1) as outlined in the methods. Table 2 presents a comparison of d′ in the congruent condition versus the incongruent condition at each TTOA. The effect of word-color congruence on d′ was strong in the middle TTOAs (i.e., 120 ms to 360 ms). The average of the fits to the data of individual participants is also provided in Table 2. The null model (1δ-1β-1λ) fit the group average data surprisingly well (${R}_{adj}^2$ = 0.92; wBIC = 0.18); however, the fit to the 1δ-2β-1λ model was superior (${R}_{adj}^2$=0.97; wBIC = 0.23) and was preferred to the null model by a factor of 1.3. The parameter estimates of each participant from the full model (2δ-2β-2λ) were also analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Although the effect of congruence on β was statistically significant, the effect size was modest (Table 2). The data is plotted in Fig. 1 for the full model.

Table 2 Mean (and standard deviation) and effect size analysis of the data from the response-signal (speed-accuracy tradeoff; SAT) task in Experiment 1 (50% Congruent).

Fig. 1

Target sensitivity (d’) versus processing lag in Experiment 1 (50 % congruent)

Discussion

Not surprisingly, the results from the standard task provide clear evidence of a Stroop effect. More importantly for the present purposes, there is evidence that color-word congruency influenced the rate parameter of the SATf. An effect of congruency on the rate parameter is consistent with the idea that Stroop conflict slows the ability to transition from a speeded (and less accurate) state to one with a focus on high accuracy. This effect is unlike that seen in task-switching, inhibition of return, and global-local conflict tasks (Boer & Keuss, 1982; Samavatyan & Leth-Steensen, 2009; Zhao et al., 2011). It is also unlike that seen in studies of attentional cueing (Carrasco & McElree, 2001), where both the rate and asymptote are affected by orienting.

The finding that congruence affected the rate parameter of the SATf provides an important baseline to investigate the mechanisms behind the LWPC modulation of the Stroop effect. Most accounts of the LWPC effect predict greater Stroop conflict in an MC condition and less conflict in an MI condition (e.g., Lowe & Mitterer, 1982). The proactive control account specifically holds that the attentional gating of the word pathway, prior to the presentation of the target, is responsible for the LWPC effect. According to this account of the LWPC effect, MC and MI lists should affect the early portion of the SATf (i.e., the intercept parameter; see Logan & Zbrodoff, 1979, p. 173, for a similar prediction). In the MC condition, there should be greater emphasis or attentional weight placed on the word pathway. This mechanism ought to initially hasten the intercept on congruent trials and delay it on incongruent trials. In contrast, in the MI condition, there should be less attentional weight to, or possibly inhibition of, the word pathway. This mechanism ought to delay the intercept on congruent trials.

Reactive control kicks in only after the target appears, presumably after some degree of stimulus-response translation. Accordingly, this account predicts a late influence of LWPC on the SATf, presumably on the rate parameter. In the MC condition, the greater weight on the word pathway ought to augment the rate parameter difference between congruent and incongruent conditions. In the MI condition, the reactive control account predicts that there ought to be little or no impact of congruence on the rate parameter.

Experiment 2: Mostly congruent

In the current experiment, the predictions of the proactive and reactive control accounts were investigated in the MC condition (75 % congruent). According to the proactive control account, congruency should hasten the intercept parameter. The reactive control account predicts a greater difference between the rate parameter for congruent and incongruent trials than that observed in Experiment 1.

Method

Participants

Nine volunteers, from Saint Mary’s University, participated in this study in return for course credit. None of the volunteers participated in Experiment 1.

Stimuli, apparatus, and procedure

The stimulus, apparatus, and procedure were identical to that in Experiment 1 with the following exception. In the standard task, there were four blocks of 48 congruent and 16 incongruent trials. Likewise, in the SAT task, there were four blocks of 48 congruent and 16 incongruent trials, for each TTOA.

Results

The data from one volunteer was unusable due to a high number (>80 %) of responses before the response tone at the longest (1,200 ms) TTOA. The data from the remaining eight volunteers was submitted to the same analysis steps as in Experiment 1. The average minimal proportion of responses within the window was about 71 %.

Standard task

Excluding RTs greater or less than three standard deviations from the mean eliminated two to seven trials per participant. The results from the remaining trials in the standard task are provided in Table 1. There was a significant congruency effect on mean RTs and accuracy rates.

SAT task

Table 3 presents the effect of congruency on d′ across TTOAs. While the null model fit the group average data well (${R}_{adj}^2$=0.82; wBIC=0.10), the 1δ-2β-1λ model (${R}_{adj}^2$=0.97; wBIC=0.28) and the 1δ-1β-2λ model (${R}_{adj}^2$=0.96; wBIC=0.24) provided better descriptions of the data. The 1δ-2β-1λ model was preferred over the 1δ-1β-2λ model by a slim margin (i.e., 0.28/0.24 = 1.17). There is good reason, however, to be suspicious of the 1δ-1β-2λ model as the d′ difference between congruent and incongruent conditions at the longest TTOA (1,200 ms) was small and it was not statistically significant. A bloated d′ difference between the congruent and incongruent conditions within the mid TTOAs may be responsible for the reasonable fit of the 1δ-1β-2λ model. Figure 2 illustrates the fit of the full model to the group data. The parameters from the individual fits of the full model were compared with Wilcoxon sign rank test. Color-word congruency significantly affected the β and λ parameters (Table 3).

Table 3 Mean (and standard deviation) and effect size analysis of the data from the response-signal (speed-accuracy tradeoff; SAT) task in Experiment 2 (Mostly Congruent).

Fig. 2

Target sensitivity (d’) versus processing lag in Experiment 2 (mostly congruent)

Fifty percent congruent (Experiment 1) versus MC (Experiment 2)

The nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the incongruent-congruent difference (i.e., the Stroop effect) between experiments. All measures of the incongruent-congruent difference in Experiment 1 (50 % congruent) were compared to those in Experiment 2 (MC) using the Mann-Whitney U test (for independent samples). In the standard task there were no statistically significant differences. In the SAT task neither the d′, nor the parameter differences, were significant.³

Discussion

The results of Experiment 2 were very similar to those of Experiment 1. Color-word congruency had an impact on mean RTs not unlike that observed in Experiment 1. In fact, there was very little evidence, from the standard task, that the greater proportion of congruent trials increased the Stroop effect.

Like Experiment 1, there was an effect of color-word congruency on the rate parameter, suggesting that Stroop conflict slows the ability to transition from a speeded (and less accurate) state to the more accurate (and slower) state. Two of the non-significant findings are theoretically worth noting. First, there was no evidence for an effect of color-word congruency on the intercept parameter in Experiment 2. Second, the effect of color-word congruency on the rate parameter was not statistically greater in the MC condition (Experiment 2) than it was in the 50 % congruency condition (Experiment 1). Together, there was no evidence for any supplemental form of cognitive control in MC lists compared to 50 % congruence lists. Nonetheless, it is certainly plausible that control mechanisms are not implemented unless conflict occurs with greater frequency (i.e., in MI conditions).

The effect of congruence on the asymptote parameter was statistically significant, but there are at least three reasons to be wary of this effect. First, the group-defined model that included separate asymptotes for the congruent and incongruent was not the preferred model. The preferred model (by a slim margin) was one that included an effect of congruency on the rate parameter. Secondly, there was no evidence that the effect of congruence on the asymptote parameter differed between Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. (However, there was no evidence that they did not differ either.) Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the effect of congruency was not significant in the d′ data at the longest TTOA. This suggests that the fit to the model with an effect of congruency on the asymptote may have been the result of a relatively large effect on the rate parameter. Thus, for these reasons, it is best to be cautious about any presumed effect of congruence on the asymptote in this experiment.

Experiment 3: Mostly incongruent

In the present experiment, the proportion of incongruent trials was increased (and the proportion of congruent trials decreased). According to the proactive control account, this manipulation should result in slower onset of processing (i.e., the intercept parameter) in the congruent condition owing to the attentional gating of, or inhibition to, the word pathway. The reactive control account predicts that the effect of congruency on the rate parameter should be absent or noticeably reduced.

Method

Participants

Seven new volunteers took part in the study for course credit.

Apparatus, stimuli, and procedure

The methodology was identical to that in Experiment 2 with the exception that the ratio of congruent to incongruent trials was now 1:3 (rather than 3:1 as it was in Experiment 2).

Results

Due to a programming error, the data from the standard task was unusable. The error was detectable after collecting data from seven volunteers. The error was not present in the SAT task. Thus, only the data from the SAT task is reported. This error was corrected, and all analyses conducted, in a replication (see Experiment 4).

SAT task

The best model was one with only a change in the asymptote (1δ-1β-2λ; ${R}_{adj}^2$=0.971; wBIC=0.39). It was preferable to the null (1δ-1β-1λ; ${R}_{adj}^2$=0.72; wBIC=0.13) by a factor of 3.0. The group data is plotted in Fig. 3 for the full model. The parameters from the full model were compared with the Wilcoxon signed rank test and r _rb. As seen in Table 4, congruency only significantly affected λ.

Fig. 3

Target sensitivity (d’) versus processing lag in Experiment 3 (mostly incongruent)

Table 4 Mean (and standard deviation) and effect size analysis of the data from the response-signal (speed-accuracy tradeoff; SAT) task in Experiment 3 (Mostly Incongruent)

Fifty percent congruent (Experiment 1) versus MI (Experiment 3)

The same between-experiment analyses performed with Experiments 1 and 2 was performed here with Experiments 1 and 3. The congruent–incongruent difference in λ was significantly different between Experiments 1 and 3 (U=4, p<0.05). This difference was driven by a lower λ in Experiment 3 in the incongruent condition compared to the λ in Experiment 1 in the incongruent condition (U=56, p<0.05). There was no between-experiment difference in the congruent condition.

Discussion

There was no evidence for an effect of congruency on the intercept in this experiment. This finding is not consistent with the predictions of the proactive control account. In contrast to what was observed in Experiments 1 and 2, there was no evidence for an effect of color-word congruency on the rate parameter⁴, a finding consistent with a reactive control account. Unexpectedly, there was also a large effect of congruency on the asymptote. This finding is consistent with neither the proactive nor reactive cognitive control accounts. Owing to an unfortunate coding error, the data from the standard task were unusable. For this reason, this coding error was remedied in Experiment 4. Experiment 4 was also an attempt to replicate the finding in the SAT task in Experiment 3.

Experiment 4: Mostly incongruent (Replication)

The current experiment was designed to replicate the SAT results from Experiment 3. The coding error that resulted in the loss of data from the standard task was fixed.

Method

Participants

Ten new volunteers took part in this experiment for course credit.

Procedure

The task was an exact replication of Experiment 3, with the exception that the coding error for the standard task was fixed.

Results

Surprisingly, one of the volunteers performed the SAT task near perfectly (even at the fastest TTOAs) and there was no adequate fit to their data using Equation 1. Another volunteer appeared to struggle with the task, or failed to understand the instructions, even at the longest TTOA in the congruent condition (d′ = 0.37). The analysis was performed on the data from the remaining eight volunteers.

Standard task

Two to seven trials, per volunteer, were removed following the application of the three standard deviation exclusionary criteria. The results from the standard task are provided in Table 1. As is commonly observed in the MI condition, there was no effect of congruency on mean RTs. The only effect of congruency was observed on the accuracy rate.

SAT task

The best model (1δ-1β-2λ; ${R}_{adj}^2$=0.96; wBIC = 0.52) was one in which only λ differed between conditions. The 1δ-1β-2λ model was preferred to the null model (1δ-1β-1λ; ${R}_{adj}^2$=0.69; wBIC = 0.04) by a wide margin (14.3). The data is plotted in Figure 4 for the full model. The parameters from the individual fits were compared with the Wilcoxon signed rank test. As seen in Table 5, color-word congruency only significantly affected λ⁵.

Fig. 4

Target sensitivity (d’) versus processing lag in Experiment 4 (mostly incongruent)

Table 5 Mean (and standard deviation) and effect size analysis of the data from the response-signal (speed-accuracy tradeoff; SAT) task in Experiment 4 (Mostly Incongruent).

Fifty percent congruent (Experiment 1) versus MI (Experiment 4)

In the standard task, the effect of congruency on mean RTs and the accuracy rate did not differ significantly between Experiments 1 and 4. In the SAT task, the congruent-incongruent difference in the λ parameter was greater in Experiment 4 than it was in Experiment 1 (U=8, p<0.05), largely because of a drop in λ in the incongruent condition in Experiment 4 compared to the incongruent condition in Experiment 1(U=64, p<0.05). However, there was also a smaller between-experiment difference in the congruent condition (U=53, p<0.05), with a lower λ in Experiment 4 than in Experiment 1. There were no other differences between the SATf parameters in Experiments 1 and 4.

Discussion

Like most studies of the LWPC effect, there was no evidence of color-word congruency on mean RTs in the MI condition. In fact, the only convincing effect of congruency was on the error rate in the standard task. The effect of congruency on the error rate was similar in magnitude to that in the MC condition (Experiment 2), and the between-experiment analysis revealed no interaction across error rates or any of the other measures from the standard task. Thus, the LWPC effect appears to be limited to mean RT.

Importantly, the effects of congruency on the SATf were similar to those from Experiment 3. There was only an effect of congruency on the asymptote. No account of the LWPC effect readily predicts a greater effect of congruency on any performance metric in MI versus 50 % congruent tasks. Instead, the results suggest that in MI conditions the congruency effect is only seen with very late responses and may reflect a failure of cognitive control.

General discussion

The temporal loci of the Stroop and LWPC effects were uncovered with SATfs. The key findings from this novel combination of methodologies can be summarized succinctly in two ways. First, in a Stroop task with 50 % congruency (Experiment 1) or with MC (Experiment 2), the rate parameter of the SATf was greater on congruent trials than it was on incongruent trials. Tentatively, this finding might be the result of convergent, summative response activation from two sources (word and color pathways) on congruent trials improving the transition from fast and inaccurate responding to slow and accurate responding. Alternatively, the conflict from these two sources on incongruent trials might have made this transition more difficult. Although future studies using a suitable neutral condition might determine which account best describes the effect of congruency on the SATf, there are well-known challenges associated with selecting an appropriate neutral condition (e.g., Jonides & Mack, 1984; MacLeod, 1991).

The second key result concerned the LWPC manipulation. The LWPC effect in the standard RT task was replicated: color-word congruence affected mean RT in the 50 % congruence (Experiment 1) and MC (Experiment 2) conditions, but not in the MI condition (Experiment 4). Likewise, in the SAT task, there was an effect of color-word congruence on the rate parameter in the 50 % congruence and MC conditions, but not in the MI conditions (Experiments 3 and 4). As previously discussed, these effects on the rate parameter suggest that there is a reactive, strategic modulation of the word pathway. However, the larger effect of congruency on the asymptotic parameter in the MI tasks (Experiments 3 and 4), compared to the 50 % congruent task (Experiment 1), does not readily fit with theories of the LWPC effect and more generally within the DMC framework. Blanket assertions – that the Stroop effect is reduced (or eliminated) in MI conditions – no longer appear to be accurate. Although the Stroop effect was not apparent under MI conditions within the early phase of the SATf, it was present in the later phase (i.e., the asymptote parameter). This pattern (i.e., greater Stroop effect in an MI list than a list with 50 % congruence or MC) has not been reported quite like this before and has important implications for theories of cognitive control and the LWPC effect.

As argued earlier, the proactive control account is, perhaps, the most intuitive account of the LWPC effect. It attributes the LWPC effect to an alteration of a sustained mental set that impacts the accessibility of word reading pathways. Logan and Zbrodoff (1979) thought that a “shift in the initial state of evidence about word meaning … might be observed in the early portion of the [SAT] function” (p. 173). Braver (2012) argued that proactive control is “a form of ‘early selection’ in which goal-relevant information is actively maintained in a sustained manner, before the occurrence of cognitively demanding events [emphasis added], to optimally bias attention, perception and action systems in a goal-driven manner” (p. 106). Accordingly, the proactive account of the LWPC effect predicted an effect of color-word congruency on the SATf intercept parameter in the MC and MI conditions. Contrary to this prediction, there was no evidence of an effect of LWPC on the intercept parameter in any experiment. Instead, the present results implicate reactive control as the source of the LWPC effect.

The results from other studies have also called into question the role of proactive control in LWPC tasks. Bugg, Jacoby and Toth (2008; see also Jacoby et al., 2003) mixed balanced and MI stimuli within a block so that the overall frequency of incongruent stimuli was greater than the frequency of congruent stimuli. They observed a reduced Stroop effect for stimuli that were part of the MI list, but not for stimuli with balanced frequencies that were included in the list, suggesting that proactive control is not responsible for the LWPC effect. However, with a similar approach, Hutchison (2011; see also Bugg & Chanani, 2011) found evidence of a general LWPC effect not readily attributable to specific items (c.f., Jacoby et al., 2003). Moreover, this LWPC effect was greatest for those individuals with low working memory capacity. Maintaining proactive control for an extended period of time may be too onerous for some individuals. Thus, evidence for proactive control may be complicated by individual differences and, perhaps, subtle differences in experimental design.

While reactive control readily accounts for the modulating effect of LWPC on the SATf rate parameter, it does not readily explain the large effect of color-word congruency on the SATf asymptote parameter in the MI conditions in Experiments 3 and 4. It is plausible that, like other forms of control (e.g., Inzlicht & Schmeichel, 2012), the attenuation of cognitive conflict by reactive control mechanisms in MI lists is resource- or time-limited. Some have suggested that, with long TTOAs in response-signal tasks, the response decision is simply held in check until the response signal is presented (e.g., Ratcliff, 2006). While this generalization may hold for simpler tasks, it does not seem to apply in Stroop tasks, as it does not explain the effect of congruency on the asymptote. It is possible that maintaining control over the word pathway in the MI condition is too arduous to maintain for a long period of time. The suppression of the word pathway may be released before the response is finally executed. In other words, it appears to be a lapse in cognitive control. Of course, this proposal – although intriguing and consistent with the current findings – requires further investigation.

Limitations and other factors

The present study reflects the first attempt to describe the effect of Stroop color-word congruence on the SATf. Any interpretations are naturally bound by methodological and analytical choices. These choices are discussed below.

The Stroop effect may have different locus in manual tasks than it does in vocal tasks (Liotti, Woldorff, Perez, & Mayberg, 2000; Sharma & McKenna, 1998), and, if so, this places restrictions on the generality of the present findings. A “nontraditional” Stroop task with manual responses was used for pragmatic reasons. In pilot testing, it was noted that vocal responses with the response-signal methodology posed a number of unique challenges. Vocal responses were often self-corrected midway through pronunciation (e.g., “re…blue”). Missed deadlines were more likely than vocal mistakes at short TTOAs. It is possible that extensive training or other methodological approaches to the SATf (e.g., response deadlines rather than windows; e.g., see Lindsay & Jacoby, 1994) may mitigate this limitation.

In the current work LWPC was manipulated in a between-subjects design. Within-subjects designs are much more common in the literature. There are at least two implications of the between-subjects approach. Firstly, it may discourage the use of different strategies across conditions (e.g., 50 % congruent, MI, or MC) because there is no “baseline” strategy to shift away from. It is possible that MC lists do not strongly promote the use of the word pathway unless there is experience with a condition wherein congruent trials are much less frequent (e.g., 50 % congruent or MI). Regardless, those in the MI condition, although never experiencing either the MC or 50 % congruency conditions, clearly adopted a distinctive processing strategy. An advantage of the between-subjects approach is that there is no need to be concerned with order effects and strategic spill-over from one condition (e.g., MC) to another (e.g., MI). Secondly, the between-subjects approach is less statistically powerful than the within-subjects design. The relatively small sample size (for a between-subjects contrast) certainly does not help. Nevertheless, despite this limitation, some between-subject differences were revealed.

The SAT methodological approach might have been challenging for some volunteers. The task was performed in a single session lasting approximately 2.5 h (with several breaks). Some volunteers described the testing session as “tiring”. It is possible that this is not the ideal precondition for proactive control. Consequently, a potential limitation of the present work is that the failure to find evidence for proactive control in a SAT task cannot be taken as evidence against any contribution of proactive control in all SAT tasks.

The two-stimulus/two-response design used here may be overly simplistic and may not necessarily muster proactive control. Nonetheless, this was not an uncommon methodological approach in the early literature. Interestingly, Logan, Zbrodoff, and Williamson (1984) failed to find evidence for a LWPC effect with a larger stimulus set. It is not clear why a task with a larger stimulus set eliminates the LWPC effect, although a future SAT study may help to identify the locus of this discrepancy.

Future investigations of proactive control in conflict tasks may want to consider avoiding trial frequency manipulations as this may confound trial-by-trial sequence effects with top-down control. There seems to be potential in one particular methodological approach. Entel, Tzelgov, and Bereby-Meyer (2014) found evidence for an LWPC-like effect with simple (although false) MC and MI instructions in a list of balanced trial types. Logan and Zbrodoff (1982) observed larger spatial Stroop effects when a cue was informative with respect to the type of trial (congruent or incongruent) than when it was uninformative (see also Bugg & Smallwood, 2016; Goldfarb & Henik, 2013; Hutchison, Bugg, Lim, & Olsen, 2016). Evidence for proactive control in Stroop tasks may require procedures that encourage the engagement of a specific mental set (before stimulus onset) by discouraging reactive control strategies.

Summary

In the first quantitative SAT investigation of a Stroop effect using the response-signal method, an effect of congruency on the rate parameter was observed in 50 % congruent and MC conditions. Increasing the proportion of incongruent trials (MI) eliminated the congruency effect on the rate parameter, but increased the effect of congruency on the asymptote. The findings suggest that the strategic, reactive control of the Stroop effect in MI lists is likely effortful and is prone to eventually fail.

Author Note

We would like to thank Bryan R. Burnham, an anonymous reviewer, and Todd Kahan for their reviews of our manuscript. We also thank Andrew Heathcote for his review on an earlier draft of this manuscript. This work was supported by a discovery grant from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada to J.I.