A comment on the Revised Diffusion Model for Conflict tasks (RDMC).

In conflict tasks, such as the Simon, Eriksen flanker, or Stroop task, a relevant and an irrelevant feature indicate the same or different responses in congruent and incongruent trials, respectively. The congruency effect refers to faster and less error-prone responses in congruent relative to incongruent trials. Distributional analyses reveal that the congruency effect in the Simon task becomes smaller with increasing RTs, reflected by a negative-going delta function.

Task-order control in dual-tasks: Only marginal interactions between conflict at lower levels and higher processes of task organization.

When simultaneously performing two tasks that share response properties, interference can occur. Besides general performance decrements, performance in the first task is worse when the second task requires a spatially incompatible response, known as the backward crosstalk effect (BCE). The size of this BCE, similar to congruency effects in conflict tasks, is subject to a sequential modulation, with a smaller BCE after incompatible compared to compatible trials.

Separating facilitation and interference in backward crosstalk.

When two speeded tasks have spatially overlapping responses, preactivated Task 2 (T2) response information influences Task 1 (T1) response selection, a phenomenon known as the backward crosstalk effect (BCE). Current models of the BCE implicitly assume that T2 response information is equally present in trials requiring compatible or incompatible responses, such that T1 performance improves when T2 requires a compatible response and deteriorates when T2 requires an incompatible response. Thus, T2 response information should have a facilitatory and an interfering effect on T1.

The impact of distractor relevance on the strength and timing of cognitive control: Evidence from delta plots and diffusion model analyses.

In the present study, we examined how the relevance of potentially distracting information modulates the interplay of target and distractor processing in conflict tasks. Specifically, we manipulated the degree to which distracting information is relevant for performing the overall task by varying the proportion of trials in which a response to the distractor(s) (Experiments 1a and 1b: location in a Simon task; Experiment 2: flankers in an Eriksen flanker task) instead of to the target was required. Across all experiments, the congruency effect on mean RT was larger with the increasing relevance of the distractor(s).

The role of task-relevant and task-irrelevant information in congruency sequence effects: Applying the diffusion model for conflict tasks.

In conflict tasks, such as the Simon, Eriksen flanker, or Stroop task, the congruency effect is often reduced after an incongruent compared to a congruent trial: the congruency sequence effect (CSE). It was suggested that the CSE may reflect increased processing of task-relevant information and/or suppression of task-irrelevant information after experiencing an incongruent relative to a congruent trial. In the present study, we contribute to this discussion by applying the Diffusion Model for Conflict tasks (DMC) framework in the context of CSEs to flanker and Simon tasks.

A tutorial on using the paired t test for power calculations in repeated measures ANOVA with interactions.

The a priori calculation of statistical power has become common practice in behavioral and social sciences to calculate the necessary sample size for detecting an expected effect size with a certain probability (i.e., power).

Serial and parallel processing in multitasking: Concepts and the impact of interindividual differences on task and stage levels.

In multitasking research, a central question revolves around whether humans can process tasks in parallel. What "in parallel" refers to, however, differs between research perspectives and experimental approaches. From a , parallel processing can be conceived as to whether complete tasks are processed in an overlapping manner and how this impacts task performance.

Response activation and activation-transmission in response-based backward crosstalk: Analyses and simulations with an extended diffusion model.

In dual-task experiments, overlapping response characteristics of two subsequently performed tasks may not only affect performance in Task 2 but also in Task 1. This phenomenon is often explained through activated Task 2 response information influencing Task 1 response selection, which then possibly propagates again into Task 2. So far, however, only little is known about (a) the time course of this Task 2 response activation and (b) possible transmission/propagation mechanisms.

S1-R2 and R1-R2 Backward Crosstalk Both Affect the Central Processing Stage.

A frequent observation in dual-task experiments is that performance in Task 1 is influenced by conceptual or spatial overlap with features of Task 2. Such compatibility-based backward crosstalk effects (BCEs) can occur when overlap exists between the responses of two tasks-the R1-R2 BCE-or between the stimulus in Task 1 and the response in Task 2-the S1-R2 BCE. The present study investigated whether the S1-R2 BCE has a perceptual locus, and by implication, whether the two BCEs have a common processing locus or different ones.