Affiliation:
1. University of Tübingen
2. University of Freiburg
3. University of Trier
Abstract
Abstract
Recent studies have suggested that abstract control-states (i.e., internal attentional states independent from concrete stimuli and responses) can be stored in episodic memory and retrieved subsequently. However, the duration of such a control-state memory remains unclear. Previous research has found a quick and complete decay for stimulus-response bindings after 2000–5000 ms. Here, we tested a possible decay of control-state bindings with retrieval-delays of 2000, 3000, or 5000 ms. Five preregistered experiments used a confound-minimized prime-target task to measure the congruency sequence effect (CSE) separately for trials in which a nominally irrelevant context feature changed or repeated across trials. Analyses of the individual experiments did not result in conclusive evidence. A mega analysis integrating the data of all experiments (Ntotal = 326) replicated evidence for binding and retrieval of control-states, in that larger CSEs were found for context repetition trials. Importantly, Bayesian analysis indicated that this effect was not modulated by the length of retrieval delay. While this finding suggests that bindings of abstract control-states can be relatively robust, we also discuss possible limitations of the present research.
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC