TY - JOUR
T1 - Working memory load but not multitasking eliminates the prepared reflex
T2 - Further evidence from the adapted flanker paradigm
AU - Meiran, Nachshon
AU - Cohen-Kdoshay, Oshrit
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a research grant from the Israel Science Foundation to the first author. We wish to thank Yoav Kessler for very helpful comments.
PY - 2012/2/1
Y1 - 2012/2/1
N2 - The prepared reflex (PR) metaphor (Exner, 1879; Woodworth, 1938) suggests that stimulus-response (S-R) instructions held in working memory (WM) can lead to autonomous response activation without any practice. Cohen-Kdoshay and Meiran (2007) showed flanker compatibility effects immediately following the instructions (First Trials Flanker Compatibility Effect, FTFCE) and also showed that FTFCE was eliminated when participants had to hold an additional novel task rule in mind. They attributed the elimination of the FTFCE to WM load, but did not rule out multitasking and associated increased control demands as a possible alternative explanation. In the present experiment, the authors compared a no-load condition, a load condition involving a secondary task that was changed in every block (thus requiring WM) and a multi-tasking condition involving a secondary that remained the same throughout the experiment. The results show FTFCE without load and in the multi-tasking condition but no FTFCE in the WM load condition, establishing the critical involvement of WM storage capacity in the FTFCE.
AB - The prepared reflex (PR) metaphor (Exner, 1879; Woodworth, 1938) suggests that stimulus-response (S-R) instructions held in working memory (WM) can lead to autonomous response activation without any practice. Cohen-Kdoshay and Meiran (2007) showed flanker compatibility effects immediately following the instructions (First Trials Flanker Compatibility Effect, FTFCE) and also showed that FTFCE was eliminated when participants had to hold an additional novel task rule in mind. They attributed the elimination of the FTFCE to WM load, but did not rule out multitasking and associated increased control demands as a possible alternative explanation. In the present experiment, the authors compared a no-load condition, a load condition involving a secondary task that was changed in every block (thus requiring WM) and a multi-tasking condition involving a secondary that remained the same throughout the experiment. The results show FTFCE without load and in the multi-tasking condition but no FTFCE in the WM load condition, establishing the critical involvement of WM storage capacity in the FTFCE.
KW - Flanker-compatibility
KW - Instructions
KW - Prepared reflex
KW - Working memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855792668&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.008
DO - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84855792668
SN - 0001-6918
VL - 139
SP - 309
EP - 313
JO - Acta Psychologica
JF - Acta Psychologica
IS - 2
ER -