On the relationship between mind wandering and mindfulness.

Mind wandering (MW) and mindfulness have both been reported to be vital moderators of psychological wellbeing. Here, we aim to examine how closely associated these phenomena are and evaluate the psychometrics of measures often used to quantify them. We investigated two samples, one consisting of German-speaking unpaid participants (GUP, n [Formula: see text] 313) and one of English-speaking paid participants (EPP, n [Formula: see text] 228) recruited through MTurk.

Correction: Assessing the Evidence for Asymmetrical Switch Costs and Reversed Language Dominance Effects - A Meta-Analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.5334/joc.186.

Assessing the Evidence for Asymmetrical Switch Costs and Reversed Language Dominance Effects - A Meta-Analysis.

Two seemingly counterintuitive phenomena - asymmetrical language switch costs and the reversed language dominance effect - prove to be particularly controversial in the literature on language control. Asymmetrical language switch costs refer to the larger costs for switching into the dominant language compared to switching into the less dominant language, both relative to staying in either one language. The reversed language dominance effect refers to longer reaction times when in the more dominant of the two languages in situations that require frequent language switching (i.

Multiplicative priming of the correct response can explain the interaction between Simon and flanker congruency.

In the Simon task, participants perform a decision on non-spatial features (e.g., stimulus color) by responding with a left or right key-press to a stimulus presented on the left or right side of the screen.

Interference control in working memory: Evidence for discriminant validity between removal and inhibition tasks.

Working memory (WM) is a system for maintenance of and access to a limited number of goal-relevant representations in the service of higher cognition. Because of its limited capacity, WM requires interference-control processes, allowing us to avoid being distracted by irrelevant information. Recent research has proposed two interference-control processes, which are conceptually similar: (1) an active, item-wise removal process assumed to remove no-longer relevant information from WM, and (2) an inhibitory process assumed to suppress the activation of distractors against competing, goal-relevant representations.

Age-related deficits in the congruency sequence effect are task-specific: An investigation of nine tasks.

In most attentional-control tasks, incongruent trials (i.e., trials with a conflict between two responses) are intermixed with congruent trials (i.

Finding an interaction between Stroop congruency and flanker congruency requires a large congruency effect: A within-trial combination of conflict tasks.

Responding to a conflict is assumed to trigger attentional-control processes-that is, processes that enable us to activate goal-relevant information and to inhibit irrelevant information. Typically, conflict is induced in tasks, such as the Stroop task (which requires identifying the color of color words) or the flanker task (which requires identifying a central character among flankers). Combining the conflicts within the same trial has been found to result in an interaction in reaction times (RTs), suggesting a generalization of attentional control.

Simon Says-On the influence of stimulus arrangement, stimulus material and inner speech habits on the Simon effect.

In Simon-type interference tasks, participants are asked to perform a 2-choice reaction on a stimulus dimension while ignoring the stimulus position. Commonly, robust congruency effects are found; that is, reactions are faster when the relevant stimulus attribute and the assigned response match the location of the stimulus. Simon congruency effects are regularly attributed to a fast, nonverbal processing route.

Same same but different? Modeling N-1 switch cost and N-2 repetition cost with the diffusion model and the linear ballistic accumulator model.

In three task-switching experiments, we investigated the relationship of n-1 switch cost and n-2 repetition cost. N-1 switch cost is observed when participants are asked to switch from one classification task to another, e.g.

Is executive control related to working memory capacity and fluid intelligence?

In the last two decades, individual-differences research has put forward 3 cognitive psychometric constructs: executive control (i.e., the ability to monitor and control ongoing thoughts and actions), working memory capacity (WMC, i.

Sequential conflict resolution under multiple concurrent conflicts: An ERP study.

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether responding to multiple concurrent conflicts results in a simultaneous or sequential conflict resolution. To this end, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in a paradigm combining a Stroop and a flanker task. In this paradigm, participants were asked to respond to the color of the central letter while ignoring the meaning of the word (Stroop task) and the color of the flanking letters (flanker task).

Inhibition in aging: What is preserved? What declines? A meta-analysis.

Aging has been assumed to go along with deficient inhibitory processes in cognitive performance. According to this inhibition deficit hypothesis, older adults are less able to suppress or ignore irrelevant thoughts and actions than young adults are. This hypothesis has been investigated in a large number of studies.

Should we stop thinking about inhibition? Searching for individual and age differences in inhibition ability.

Inhibition is often conceptualized as a unitary construct reflecting the ability to ignore and suppress irrelevant information. At the same time, it has been subdivided into inhibition of prepotent responses (i.e.

How long-lasting is the post-conflict slowing after incongruent trials? Evidence from the Stroop, Simon, and flanker tasks.

The purpose of the present study was to determine how long-lasting the post-conflict slowing following incongruent stimuli is. In previous research, incongruent stimuli have been used to induce a conflict because they have relevant features for two different response alternatives. So far, the post-conflict slowing following incongruent stimuli has mainly been assessed up to one trial.

After-effects without monitoring costs: The impact of prospective memory instructions on task switching performance.

In a prospective memory task, verbal instructions are used to define an appropriate target event as retrieval cue. This target event is typically part of an ongoing activity and is thus bivalent as it involves features relevant for both the prospective memory task and the ongoing task. Task switching research has demonstrated that responding to bivalent stimuli is costly and can slow down even subsequent performance.

Contextual within-trial adaptation of cognitive control: Evidence from the combination of conflict tasks.

It is assumed that we recruit cognitive control (i.e., attentional adjustment and/or inhibition) to resolve 2 conflicts at a time, such as driving toward a red traffic light and taking care of a near-by ambulance car.

Post-conflict slowing after incongruent stimuli: from general to conflict-specific.

Encountering a cognitive conflict not only slows current performance, but it can also affect subsequent performance, in particular when the conflict is induced with bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two different tasks) or with incongruent trials (i.

Turning univalent stimuli bivalent: Synesthesia can cause cognitive conflict in task switching.

In this study we investigated whether synesthetic color experiences have similar effects as real colors in cognitive conflict adaptation. We tested 24 synesthetes and two yoke-matched control groups in a task-switching experiment that involved regular switches between three simple decision tasks (a color decision, a form decision, and a size decision). In most of the trials the stimuli were univalent, that is, specific for each task.

Age affects the adjustment of cognitive control after a conflict: evidence from the bivalency effect.

Age affects cognitive control. When facing a conflict, older adults are less able to activate goal-relevant information and inhibit irrelevant information. However, cognitive control also affects the events after a conflict.

More conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent events: a study of the bivalency effect.

Encountering a conflict triggers an adjustment of cognitive control. This adjustment of cognitive control can even affect subsequent performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether more conflict triggers more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance.

Recognition memory across the lifespan: the impact of word frequency and study-test interval on estimates of familiarity and recollection.

The goal of this study was to investigate recognition memory performance across the lifespan and to determine how estimates of recollection and familiarity contribute to performance. In each of three experiments, participants from five groups from 14 up to 85 years of age (children, young adults, middle-aged adults, young-old adults, and old-old adults) were presented with high- and low-frequency words in a study phase and were tested immediately afterwards and/or after a one day retention interval. The results showed that word frequency and retention interval affected recognition memory performance as well as estimates of recollection and familiarity.

An orienting response is not enough: Bivalency not infrequency causes the bivalency effect.

When switching tasks, occasionally responding to bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two different tasks) slows performance on subsequent univalent stimuli, even when they do not share relevant features with bivalent stimuli.

The bivalency effect represents an interference-triggered adjustment of cognitive control: an ERP study.

When bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two different tasks) occur occasionally among univalent stimuli, performance is slowed on subsequent univalent stimuli even if they have no overlapping stimulus features.

Episodic context binding in task switching: evidence from amnesia.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether amnesic patients show a bivalency effect. The bivalency effect refers to the performance slowing that occurs when switching tasks and bivalent stimuli appear occasionally among univalent stimuli. According to the episodic context binding account, bivalent stimuli create a conflict-loaded context that is re-activated on subsequent trials and thus it is assumed that it depends on memory binding processes.

Beyond monitoring: after-effects of responding to prospective memory targets.

Responding to bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with features relevant for different tasks) slows subsequent performance.