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

Abstract

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. This finding has been labeled the bivalency effect. It indexes an adjustment of cognitive control, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood yet. The purpose of the present study was to shed light on this question, using event-related potentials. We used a paradigm requiring predictable alternations between three tasks, with bivalent stimuli occasionally occurring on one task. The results revealed that the bivalency effect elicited a sustained parietal positivity and a frontal negativity, a neural signature that is typical for control processes implemented to resolve interference. We suggest that the bivalency effect reflects interference, which may be caused by episodic context binding.

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

“…Episodic context binding thus refers to the memory processes involved in the adjustment of cognitive control and it is supported by results from amnesic patients who fail to show a bivalency effect . Moreover, it is consistent with findings from an electrophysiological study that showed that the bivalency effect is associated with an eventrelated-potential-component that signals interference (Rey-Mermet, Koenig, & Meier, 2013). Importantly, with the bivalency effect, we can investigate more than a simple change in reaction times (RTs).…”

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

“…It is not affected by a manipulation of the interval between task triplets (i.e., 1000, 2000, 3000, or 5000 ms), and it is still significant after many subsequent univalent trials, up to more than 20 s after the conflict (Meier, Rey-Mermet, & Rothen, 2015;Meier et al, 2009;. The bivalency effect is also associated with activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, a brain area recruited for the adjustment of cognitive control, and with an ERP component reflecting interference in cognitive control (Grundy et al, 2013;Rey-Mermet, Koenig, & Meier, 2013;Woodward, Metzak, Meier, & Holroyd, 2008). Furthermore, it draws on memory resources because amnesic patients and older adults fail to show the typical pattern of a long-lasting performance slowing (Meier, Rey-Mermet, Woodward, Mu ¨ri, & Gutbrod, 2013;.…”