Context-Specific Conflict Adaptation and Consciousness: Specifying Central Mechanisms and Boundary Conditions

认知控制过程和意识之间的关系在过去几年中引起了激烈的争论。虽然经典的控制理论假设认知控制和意识之间存在密切联系，但最近的发现表明，某些控制过程，如反应的抑制或任务集的激活，可以在无意识中被触发。然而，到目前为止，关于冲突适应这一中央认知控制过程及其与意识的关系的研究结果相对不一致。Reuss，Desender，Kiseel和昆德(2014)发现，在特定情况下，当语境和冲突信息都没有被有意识地呈现时，适应与某些冲突频率相关的快速变化的语境是可能的。本课题的目标是研究特定语境冲突适应的潜在机制，考察特定语境适应的限度和边界条件，特别是明确有意识的刺激表征在语境适应的不同方面所起的作用。我将调查冲突和语境的哪些特征对(无意识的)语境特定的顺应至关重要，顺应过程基于哪些机制，以及主观冲突感在语境调节中起到什么作用。在这个项目中，操纵意识一方面允许研究与认知控制过程相关的无意识处理的限制和可能性。另一方面，操纵意识也有助于确定特定于语境的冲突适应的潜在机制、前提条件和特征。因此，这个项目的结果将扩大我们对意识何时以及如何启动特定认知过程的理解，并具体说明特定背景下的冲突适应是如何发挥作用的。

The relation of cognitive control processes and awareness was intensely debated in the last few years. While classic theories of control assume a close link between cognitive control and awareness, recent findings suggest that certain control processes, like the inhibition of responses, or the activation of task sets, can be triggered unconsciously. However, hitherto findings regarding conflict adaptation, which is a central cognitive control process, and its relation with awareness are relatively inconsistent. Reuss, Desender, Kiesel, and Kunde (2014) found that, under particular circumstances, an adaptation to quickly changing contexts that are associated with certain conflict frequencies is possible when neither the context nor the conflict information is represented consciously. The goal of this project is to investigate the underlying mechanisms of context-specific conflict adaptation, to examine the limits and boundary conditions of context-specific adaptation, and especially to specify the role of conscious stimulus representations in different aspects of contextual adaptation. I will investigate which characteristics of the conflict and of the context are crucial for (unconscious) context-specific adaptation, which mechanisms the adaptation process is based on, and which role subjective feeling of conflict plays for the contextual modulation. In this project, manipulating awareness allows, on the one hand, investigating the limits and possibilities of unconscious processing with respect to cognitive control processes. On the other hand, manipulating awareness also helps defining the underlying mechanisms, preconditions, and characteristics of context-specific conflict adaptation. The results of this project will therefore extend our understanding of when and how awareness is necessary to initiate particular cognitive processes, and specify how context-specific conflict adaption functions.