My turn or yours? Me-you-distinction in feature-based action planning.

Binding accounts propose that action planning involves temporarily binding codes of the action's unique features, such as its location and duration. Such binding becomes evident when another action (B) is initiated while maintaining the Action Plan A. Action B is usually impaired if it partially overlaps with the planned Action A (as opposed to full or no feature overlap).

Consensus definitions of perception-action-integration in action control.

The literature on action control is rife with differences in terminology. This consensus statement contributes shared definitions for perception-action integration concepts as informed by the framework of event coding.

Cling together, swing together? Assessing indirect retrieval of stimulus-response bindings for associated stimuli.

When a stimulus is paired with a response, a stimulus-response (SR) binding (or event file) is formed. Subsequent stimulus repetition retrieves the SR binding from memory, which facilitates (impedes) performance when the same (a different) response is required. We aimed to explore whether indirect retrieval of SR bindings by a newly learnt associated stimulus is possible.

Context-specific adaptation for head fakes in basketball: a study on player-specific fake-frequency schedules.

In basketball, an attacking player often plays a pass to one side while looking to the other side. This head fake provokes a conflict in the observing opponent, as the processing of the head orientation interferes with the processing of the pass direction. Accordingly, responses to passes with head fakes are slower and result in more errors than responses to passes without head fakes (head-fake effect).

One Link to Link Them All.

A conditioned response to a stimulus can be transferred to an associated stimulus, as seen in sensory preconditioning. In this research paper, we aimed to explore this phenomenon using a stimulus-response contingency learning paradigm using voluntary actions as responses. We conducted two preregistered experiments that explored whether a learned response can be indirectly activated by a stimulus (S1) that was never directly paired with the response itself.

Core Mechanisms in Action Control: Binding and Retrieval.

This special collection focuses on action control and its two postulated core processes, namely feature binding and retrieval. Action control is an important topic as humans interact with their environment by means of goal-directed behavior, i.e.

Emotional arousal does not modulate stimulus-response binding and retrieval effects.

The adaptation-by-binding account and the arousal-biased competition model suggest that emotional arousal increases binding effects for transient links between stimuli and responses. Two highly-powered, pre-registered experiments tested whether transient stimulus-response bindings are stronger for high versus low arousing stimuli. Emotional words were presented in a sequential prime-probe design in which stimulus relation, response relation, and stimulus arousal were orthogonally manipulated.

Accounting for Proportion Congruency Effects in the Stroop Task in a Confounded Setup: Retrieval of Stimulus-Response Episodes Explains it All.

Proportion congruency (PC) effects on the strength of distractor interference were investigated in a high-powered (n = 109), pre-registered experiment in which participants had to identify the ink color of color words. Replicating the standard PC effect, Stroop interference was larger in blocks comprising mostly congruent word-color combinations, compared to blocks comprising mostly incongruent trials. These block-level differences in the strength of the Stroop effect were eliminated after controlling for (a) the congruency of the most recent episode in which the current word had been presented ("episodic retrieval of control states"), and also after controlling for (b) the response relation of this episode and the current trial ("episodic response retrieval").

Being in the Know: The Role of Awareness and Retrieval of Transient Stimulus-Response Bindings in Selective Contingency Learning.

Previous studies demonstrated that contingency learning can be both (a) unaware (Schmidt et al., 2007), and (b) explained in terms of an automatic retrieval of stimulus-response bindings from the last episode in which the cue stimulus has been presented (Giesen et al., 2020; Schmidt et al.

Perception and action as viewed from the Theory of Event Coding: a multi-lab replication and effect size estimation of common experimental designs.

The Theory of Event Coding (TEC) has influenced research on action and perception across the past two decades. It integrates several seminal empirical phenomena and it has continued to stimulate novel experimental approaches on the representational foundations of action control and perceptual experience. Yet, many of the most notable results surrounding TEC originate from an era of psychological research that relied on rather small sample sizes as judged by today's standards.

Retrieval effects of observationally acquired stimulus-response bindings in participants with high and low autistic traits.

The present study sought to use a paradigm that allows the study of mental representations of observed actions. We investigated whether retrieval of are impaired in participants with high (compared with low) autistic traits. In an extreme group comparison, participants with high versus low autistic traits worked through an observational SR binding and a standard SR binding task (to control for general deficits in cognitive performance).

Reluctance against the machine: Retrieval of observational stimulus-response episodes in online settings emerges when interacting with a human, but not with a computer partner.

Observing how another person responds to a stimulus creates stimulus-response (SR) episodes. These can be retrieved from memory on later occasions, which means that observed responses are utilized for regulating one's own actions. Until now, evidence for storage and retrieval of observationally acquired SR episodes was limited to dyadic face-to-face interactions between two partners who respond in an alternating fashion.

Smaller Than Expected.

In two pre-registered studies, we investigated whether processes of imitative action regulation are facilitated after experiencing an episode of social exclusion. We reasoned that imitative action regulation effects should be more pronounced for participants who were socially excluded, providing them with an "automatic means" to socially reconnect with others. Participants played a virtual ball-tossing game to experimentally induce social exclusion or inclusion experiences.

Not so social after all: Video-based acquisition of observational stimulus-response bindings.

Merely observing how another person responds to a stimulus results in incidental stimulus-response (SR) bindings in memory. These observationally acquired SR bindings can be retrieved on a later occasion. Retrieval will bias current behavioral response tendencies towards re-execution of the observed response.

Binding and Retrieval in Action Control (BRAC).

Human action control relies on representations that integrate perception and action, but the relevant research is scattered over various experimental paradigms and the theorizing is overly paradigm-specific. To overcome this obstacle we propose BRAC (binding and retrieval in action control), an overarching, integrative framework that accounts for a wide range of seemingly unrelated findings by assuming 'two core processes: feature binding and retrieval'. In contrast to previous approaches, we define binding and retrieval as functionally different and separable processes that independently contribute to the observed effects.

The Law of Recency: An Episodic Stimulus-Response Retrieval Account of Habit Acquisition.

A habit is a regularity in automatic responding to a specific situation. Classical learning psychology explains the emergence of habits by an extended learning history during which the response becomes associated to the situation (learning of stimulus-response associations) as a function of practice ("law of exercise") and/or reinforcement ("law of effect"). In this paper, we propose the "law of recency" as another route to habit acquisition that draws on episodic memory models of automatic response regulation.

Contingency learning as binding? Testing an exemplar view of the colour-word contingency learning effect.

The learning of contingent regularities between events is fundamental for interacting with our world. We are also heavily influenced by recent experiences, as frequently studied in the stimulus-response binding literature. According to one view ("unitary view"), the learning of regularities across many events and the influence of recent events on current performance can coherently be explained with one high-learning rate memory mechanism.

Separating after-effects of target and distractor processing in the tactile sensory modality.

The present study investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying aftereffects of tactile target and distractor processing. In our experiment, participants selected tactile target stimuli against simultaneously presented tactile distractor stimuli in prime-probe sequences. Tactile distractors in each prime/probe trial were either response incompatible (i.

Intimacy Effects on Action Regulation: Retrieval of Observationally Acquired Stimulus-Response Bindings in Romantically Involved Interaction Partners Versus Strangers.

Previous research has shown that stimulus-response (SR) binding and retrieval processes also occur when responses are only observed in another person (Giesen et al., 2014). Importantly, this effect depends on the two individuals interacting interdependently during the task (e.

Dissociating distractor inhibition and episodic retrieval processes in children: No evidence for developmental deficits.

It is often assumed that children show reduced or absent inhibition of distracting material due to pending cognitive maturation, although empirical findings do not provide strong support for the idea of an "inhibitory deficit" in children. Most of this evidence, however, is based on findings from the negative priming paradigm, which confounds distractor inhibition and episodic retrieval processes. To resolve this confound, we adopted a sequential distractor repetition paradigm of Giesen, Frings, and Rothermund (2012), which provides independent estimates of distractor inhibition and episodic retrieval processes.

Flexible goal imitation: Vicarious feedback influences stimulus-response binding by observation.

This study investigated whether vicarious feedback influences binding processes between stimuli and observed responses. Two participants worked together in a shared color categorization task, taking the roles of actor and observer in turns. During a prime trial, participants saw a word while observing the other person executing a specific response.

Multi-level response coding in stimulus-response bindings: Irrelevant distractors retrieve both semantic and motor response codes.

Stimulus-response (S-R) episodes are formed whenever a response is executed in close temporal proximity to a stimulus. Subsequent stimulus repetition will retrieve the episode from memory, reactivating the previous response. Whereas many research findings attest to the flexibility of representing stimulus features, only little is known about the way responses are coded within transient S-R episodes, that is, whether the retrieved response is represented in terms of specific motor codes, abstract/semantic codes, or both.

Adapting to stimulus-response contingencies without noticing them.

Episodic stimulus-response (S-R) bindings emerge whenever a response is executed in temporal proximity to a stimulus and they are retrieved from memory by repeating the stimulus on a later occasion. To examine whether retrieval of S-R bindings is sensitive to contextual influences, we manipulated contingencies between stimulus repetitions and response repetitions. In a sequential priming paradigm, stimulus repetitions were either predictive of response repetitions (positive contingency) or response changes (negative contingency) or were orthogonal to the response relation (no contingency).

Loss of attentional inhibition in older adults--Does it really exist? An experimental dissociation of inhibitory and memory retrieval processes.

It is commonly assumed that attentional inhibitory functioning decreases with age, even though empirical evidence is mixed. These inconsistencies possibly stem from methodological artifacts: distractor inhibition is typically assessed with the negative priming paradigm, which confounds inhibition and episodic retrieval. In the present study, we investigated age differences in a sequential distractor repetition paradigm (Giesen, Frings, & Rothermund, 2012) that provides independent estimates of distractor inhibition and episodic retrieval processes.

Copying competitors? Interdependency modulates stimulus-based retrieval of observed responses.

We investigated whether stimuli are integrated with responses that are merely observed, but not executed by oneself, and examined the moderating role of mutual dependency between coactors on the binding and retrieval of stimuli and observed responses. A prime-probe paradigm was shared between 2 coactors who took the roles of actor and observer in turns. We also varied the interdependency between the pairs of participants (cooperation vs.