Simultaneous Engagement of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Control in the Stroop Task

Abstract

In this study, with three Stroop task experiments, we investigated simultaneous engagement of list-wide and item-specific control mechanisms and their potential interaction. By using list-wide proportion congruency (LWPC), item-specific proportion congruency (ISPC)-transfer, and unbiased-transfer sets that were made up of distinct color-word pairings, we were able to observe both LWPC and ISPC effects. By comparing the LWPC effects that were observed with the ISPC-transfer sets and the unbiased-transfer sets, we investigated the relationship between item-specific control and list-wide control. By comparing the findings from Experiments 1 and 2 with the findings of Experiment 3, we observed the possible mediating role of contingency learning in the ISPC-transfer sets on the generalizability of list-wide control. Across all experiments, we consistently observed item-specific control, with the ISPC effect. Although we did not find evidence for list-wide control in the first two experiments, in the third experiment, where color-word contingency learning was minimal for ISPC-transfer items, we observed a significant LWPC effect. Our findings indicate that the introduction of contingency learning in the ISPC-transfer items may reduce top-down control. Importantly, none of the experiments revealed an interaction between item-specific control and list-wide control, suggesting that these two control mechanisms operated independently.

Correction to Bozkurt et al., 2023

“…In the article entitled “Simultaneous engagement of top-down and bottom-up control in the Stroop Task: Exploring the effect of contingency learning” by O. Bozkurt, M. Misirlisoy, & N.B. Atalay ( Experimental Psychology , 2023, 70, 294–306, https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000602), some errors have been detected in the published record that occurred in the production process of the PDF proof. Corrections are listed below.…”