Exploring short- and long-term dynamics of context-specific adjustments of cognitive control

目标导向行为的特征之一是利用上下文信息灵活地调整认知控制和注意，以适应不断变化的环境。近年来，对这种语境调整的研究推动了我们的认识，主要集中在所谓的情境特定比例一致性（CSPC）效应上。然而，这种对语境调整的理解目前受到两个方面的挑战：一是对语境调整的研究结果是否与认知控制有关的质疑；二是这些反映了短期灵活机制的语境调整是否会导致长期的不灵活性。在我们的项目中，我们的目标是通过指定上下文调整的过程和机制来解决这些问题。在研究的第一步中，我们打算澄清基于认知控制的解释和具有挑战性的基于刺激-反应-预测的解释在语境调整的获得和参与中的作用。在第二行中，我们打算研究上下文调整的长期后果，并调查这种调整如何与额外的上下文需求相互作用。为了实现这些目标，我们采用了一种基于两个时间尺度的方法来跟踪，首先，通过应用时间连续测量（如小鼠跟踪和脑电图频率标记）来跟踪导致上下文调整的短期条件。其次，我们的目标是通过应用跨会话和多上下文方法来追踪上下文调整的长期成本和潜力。通过这种方式，我们打破了简化的非此即彼以及对环境调整的唯一积极的短期观点，并得出了行为灵活的环境调整的过程和机制的详细理论图景。

One of the hallmarks of goal-directed behavior is the use of contextual information to flexibly adjust cognitive control and attention to an ever-changing environment. Research on such context adjustments has forwarded our understanding in recent years, focusing mainly on the so-called context-specific proportion congruency (CSPC) effects. However this understanding of context adjustments is currently challenged from two directions: First, it has been questioned, whether the research findings on context adjustments are related to cognitive control at all, and second, whether these context adjustments which reflect a flexible mechanism in the short-term can lead to inflexibility in the long-term. In our project, we aim to resolve these issues by specifying the processes and mechanisms underlying context adjustments. In a first line of research we intend to clarify the role of both, a cognitive control-based account and the challenging stimulus-response-prediction-based account in the acquisition and engagement of contextual adjustments. In a second line, we intend to study the long-term consequences of context adjustments and investigate how such adjustments interact with additional contextual requirements.For these objectives, we follow an approach based on two time scales to trace, first, the short-term conditions that lead to contextual adjustments by applying time-continuous measurements such as mouse tracking and EEG frequency tagging. Second, we aim at tracing long-term costs and potentials of contextual adjustments by applying an across-session and multi-contextual approach. This way, we burst open the simplified either/or as well as the solely positive short-term view on contextual adjustments and derive a detailed theoretical picture of the processes and mechanisms underlying the flexible contextual adjustment of behavior.