Action effect features, but not anatomical features, determine the Backward Crosstalk Effect: evidence from crossed-hands experiments

Abstract

The Backward Crosstalk Effect (BCE) indicates that response features of Task 2 in a dual-task paradigm influence even Task 1 performance. However, it can be assumed that responses are represented with multiple features in the cognitive system. In this regard, Ideomotor Theory suggests action effects as one central response feature in human action control and an earlier study by Janczyk, Pfister, Hommel, and Kunde (Cognition 132: 30-43, 2014) already provided some evidence that action effects are a crucial determinant of the BCE. The present study aimed to further investigate which response features are critical for the BCE. Therefore, a crossed-hands manipulation was implemented in two experiments to examine whether the spatial position of the actual response and thus its associated action effects or the body-side of the effectors' anatomical connection determine the BCE. Analyses revealed that even when participants press a left response key with the right hand and vice versa, the usual BCE occurs. These results indicate that the BCE depends on spatial features of the action effects rather than on anatomical features and thus provide additional support for the assumption that action effects have an important influence on the BCE and on action control in general.

Monitoring and control in multitasking

“…2). This sequential modulation also occurs with vocal responses in Task 1 or Task 2 (Renas, Durst, & Janczyk, 2017) and has been reported for preschool children (Janczyk, Büschelberger, & Herbort, 2017) as well as for older adults (Janczyk, Mittelstädt, & Wienrich, 2018).…”

“…The examples reviewed above involved control adjustments of several kinds: Janczyk and colleagues observed a Gratton-like sequential modulation in a dual-task paradigm, in the form of reduced BCEs in dual-task pairs after R1-R2-incompatible relative to -compatible dual-task pairs (Janczyk, 2016;Janczyk et al, 2017;Janczyk, Mittelstädt, et al, 2018;Renas et al, 2017). Schuch and colleagues observed that control adjustments at the task level involve inhibition of the nolonger-relevant task during a task switch (Sexton & Cooper, 2017), as well as improved performance after task conflict (Schuch & Grange, 2015).…”

Two sources of task prioritization: The interplay of effector-based and task order-based capacity allocation in the PRP paradigm

“…Particularly, his data suggested that response selection of Task 1 is affected by response-related features of Task 2. Specifically, Task 1 performance was influenced by the response–response compatibility relation between the two tasks (as well as by the compatibility between the secondary response and the primary stimulus), a phenomenon referred to as backward crosstalk/compatibility effect (Hommel, 1998 ; see also Durst & Janczyk, 2018 , 2019 ; Hommel & Eglau, 2002 ; Huestegge, Pieczykolan, & Janczyk, 2018 ; Janczyk, Pfister, Hommel, & Kunde, 2014 ; Janczyk & Huestegge, 2017 ; Janczyk, Renas, & Durst, 2018 ; Renas, Durst, & Janczyk, 2018 ). This suggests that at least some aspect of response-related central processing (e.g., response activation) can occur in parallel.…”

The Backward Crosstalk Effect Does Not Depend on the Degree of a Preceding Response Conflict

“…Interestingly, the BCE is modulated by contextual features (Fischer et al, 2014; Fischer & Hommel, 2012) and recent task history (Durst & Janczyk, 2019; Janczyk, 2016; Renas et al, 2018; Scherbaum et al, 2015) with a strong BCE following compatible trials and a smaller or even reversed BCE following incompatible trials (e.g., Janczyk, 2016). Such observations have been taken as evidence for enhanced “shielding” of the prioritized Task 1 from Task 2 influences (Fischer et al, 2014), triggered by the experience of conflict.…”