Strategy and Processing Speed Eclipse Individual Differences in Control Ability in Conflict Tasks

Response control or inhibition is one of the cornerstones of modem cognitive psychology, featuring prominently in theories of executive functioning and impulsive behavior. However, repeated failures to observe correlations between commonly applied tasks have led some theorists to question whether common response conflict processes even exist A challenge to answering this question is that behavior is multifaceted, with both conflict and nonconflict processes (e.g.. strategy, processing spud) contributing to individual differences. Here, we use a cognitive model to dissociate these processes; the diffusion model for conflict tasks (Ulrich et al., 2015). In a meta-analysis of fits to seven empirical datasets containing combinations of the flanker. Simon, color-word Strap, and spatial Stroop tasks, we observed weak (r < .05) zero-order correlations between tasks in parameters reflecting conflict processing. seemingly challenging a general control construct. However. our meta-analysis showed consistent positive correlations in parameters representing processing speed and strategy. We then use model simulations to evaluate whether correlations in behavioral costs are diagnostic of the presence or absence of common mechanisms of conflict processing. We use the model to impose known correlations for conflict mechanisms across tasks, and we compare the simulated behavior to simulations when there is no conflict correlation across tasks. We find that correlations in strategy and processing speed can produce behavioral correlations equal to. or larger than, those produced by correlated conflict mechanisms. We conclude that correlations between conflict tasks arc only weakly informative about common conflict mechanisms if researchers do not control for strategy and processing speed.

Automated summary

Response control or inhibition is crucial in modern cognitive psychology but the lack of consistent correlations between commonly used tasks has raised doubts about the existence of common response conflict processes. Behavior is multifaceted, with both conflict and nonconflict processes contributing to individual differences. Using a cognitive model can help to differentiate these processes, with the need to control for strategy and processing speed when studying correlations between tasks.