Cognitive control and associative processes in a process dissociation model of the Stroop task with application to list-wide and item-specific proportion congruent effects

在一项开创性的研究中，林赛和柯比（1994）应用加工分离程序分离经典Stroop任务中的单词阅读和颜色命名加工。为了验证颜色命名参数（C参数）和单词阅读参数（W参数）的估计值，林赛（Lindsay）和林丹（Linden）通过操纵颜色原型性（只影响C参数）和一致刺激与不一致刺激的比例（只影响W参数）来验证。对于比例操纵，当Stroop刺激大多不一致时，通常获得较小的干扰效应;最初归因于在单词阅读阻碍任务表现的情况下减少单词阅读过程的实验范围内的认知控制策略的结果模式（即，当刺激大部分是不一致的时）。然而，一种新的解释将比例一致效应归因于联想学习机制（施密特和贝斯纳，2008）。这种解释假设，当刺激频繁出现时，特定刺激与特定反应的联系会加强（即，比例一致操纵实际上可能是偶然操纵）。鉴于这种新的解释比例一致的影响，很明显，林赛和Wisby的解释是模棱两可的W参数：只要过程的比例一致的影响是不清楚的，它不能得出结论，在W参数的变化所造成的比例一致的操纵反映了变化的影响，单词阅读过程的反应。只要W参数背后的加工过程不清楚，就不能简单地证明比例一致性调节W参数，从而得出比例一致性效应代表调制词阅读加工的认知控制策略的结论。为了打破这种恶性循环，我们计划调查的过程W参数的基础上，以及与可分离的W参数的帮助下，一致和不一致的刺激的比例一致的影响的过程。计划中的实验将操纵认知控制和联想学习。这些操作对W参数的一致性和不一致性刺激的影响将有助于我们评估认知控制和联想过程对单词阅读参数和比例一致性效应的相对影响。

In a seminal study, Lindsay and Jacoby (1994) applied the process dissociation procedure to dissociate word-reading and color-naming processes in the classical Stroop task. To validate the estimated color-naming parameter (C parameter) and word-reading parameter (W parameter), Lindsay and Jacoby manipulated color prototypicality (affecting only the C parameter) and the proportion of congruent and incongruent stimuli (affecting only the W parameter). For the proportion manipulation, smaller interference effects are typically obtained when Stroop stimuli are mostly incongruent; a result pattern that was initially attributed to experiment-wide cognitive control strategies of reduced word-reading processes in case that word reading hinders task performance (i.e., when stimuli are mostly incongruent). However, a new account ascribes proportion congruent effects to an associative-learning mechanism (Schmidt & Besner, 2008). This account postulates that the link of a particular stimulus with a particular response is strengthened when the stimulus is frequently shown (i.e., a proportion congruent manipulation might in fact be a contingency manipulation). Given this new interpretation of proportion congruent effects, it is apparent that Lindsay and Jacoby's interpretation of the W parameter is ambiguous: As long as processes underlying proportion congruent effects are not clear, it cannot be concluded that a change in W parameters caused by a proportion congruent manipulation reflects a change of the impact of word-reading processes on responses. And as long as the processes underlying W parameters are not clear, it cannot be concluded that proportion congruent effects represent cognitive control strategies of modulated word-reading processes by simply showing that varying proportion congruence modulates W parameters. To break out of this vicious circle, we plan to investigate the processes underlying W parameters as well as the processes underlying proportion congruent effects with the help of separable W parameters for congruent and incongruent stimuli. Planned experiments will manipulate cognitive control and associative learning. The impact of these manipulations on the W parameters of congruent and incongruent stimuli will help us to assess the relative influence of cognitive control and associative processes on word-reading parameters and on proportion congruent effects.