Investigating the congruency sequence effect: A behavior meta-analysis and an fMRI study

Poster Session A - Saturday, April 13, 2024, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Yunji Lee¹ (ylee737@gatech.edu), Derek Smith², Eric Schumacher¹; ¹Georgia Institute of Technology, ²Johns Hopkins University

The congruency sequence effect (CSE) refers to a smaller congruency effect after incongruent trials compared to congruent trials in the conflict task. The CSE reflects the dynamics of cognitive control in a transient manner. An ongoing debate between top-down vs. bottom-up has existed about the underlying mechanisms of CSE. By conducting meta-analysis of all relevant CSE literature in the past (from 1992 to 2023), the current study suggested that 1) CSE is larger for studies that included bottom-up confounds, 2) CSE is still robust and significant for confound-minimized studies, 3) CSE is larger within a task than between tasks, which supports task-specific control, 4) the advantage of using the prime-probe task in CSE studies. In addition, we conducted an fMRI study, employed the confound-minimized prime-probe task, to examine the neural correlates of the CSE. The results showed robust brain activation in the conflict-related regions for the congruency effect but less distinct activation for the control-related regions for the CSE. Together, the present study provides converging evidence from the past CSE studies and highlights for future research.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control