The interplay between control processes and feature relevance: Evidence from dual-task methodology

Author:

Montefinese Maria12ORCID,Hallam Glyn3,Thompson Hannah Elizabeth4,Jefferies Elizabeth3

Affiliation:

1. Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK

2. Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

3. Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK

4. School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

Abstract

Neuropsychological studies suggest a distinction between (a) semantic knowledge and (b) control processes that shape the retrieval of conceptual information to suit the task or context. These aspects of semantic cognition are specifically impaired in patients with semantic dementia and semantic aphasia, respectively. However, interactions between the structure of knowledge and control processes that are expected during semantic retrieval have not been fully characterised. In particular, domain-general executive resources may not have equal relevance for the capacity to promote weak yet task relevant features (i.e., “controlled retrieval) and to ignore or suppress distracting information (i.e., “selection”). Here, using a feature selection task, we tested the contribution of featural relevance to semantic performance in healthy participants under conditions of divided attention. Healthy participants showed greater dual-task disruption as the relevance value of the distractor feature linearly increased, supporting the emerging view that semantic relevance is one of the organising principles of the structure of semantic representation. Moreover, word frequency, and inter-correlational strength affected overall performance, but they did not show an interaction with dual-task conditions. These results suggest that domain-general control processes, disrupted by divided attention, are more important to the capacity to efficiently avoid distracting information during semantic decision-making than to the promotion of weak target features. The present study therefore provides novel information about the nature of the interaction between structured conceptual knowledge and control processes that support the retrieval of appropriate information and relates these results to a new theoretical framework, termed controlled semantic cognition.

Funder

università degli studi di padova

wellcome trust

The Stroke Association

h2020 european research council

fp7 ideas: european research council

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Physiology (medical),General Psychology,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology,General Medicine,Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology,Physiology

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