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Gao P, Jiang Z, Yang Y, Zheng Y, Feng G, Li X. Temporal neural dynamics of understanding communicative intentions from speech prosody. Neuroimage 2024; 299:120830. [PMID: 39245398 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2024] [Revised: 08/29/2024] [Accepted: 09/01/2024] [Indexed: 09/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Understanding the correct intention of a speaker is critical for social interaction. Speech prosody is an important source for understanding speakers' intentions during verbal communication. However, the neural dynamics by which the human brain translates the prosodic cues into a mental representation of communicative intentions in real time remains unclear. Here, we recorded EEG (electroencephalograph) while participants listened to dialogues. The prosodic features of the critical words at the end of sentences were manipulated to signal either suggestion, warning, or neutral intentions. The results showed that suggestion and warning intentions evoked enhanced late positive event-related potentials (ERPs) compared to the neutral condition. Linear mixed-effects model (LMEM) regression and representational similarity analysis (RSA) analyses revealed that these ERP effects were distinctively correlated with prosodic acoustic analysis, emotional valence evaluation, and intention interpretation in different time windows; The onset latency significantly increased as the processing level of abstractness and communicative intentionality increased. Neural representations of intention and emotional information emerged and parallelly persisted over a long time window, guiding the correct identification of communicative intention. These results provide new insights into understanding the structural components of intention processing and their temporal neural dynamics underlying communicative intention comprehension from speech prosody in online social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Panke Gao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Zhufang Jiang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yufang Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Language Ability, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China
| | - Yuanyi Zheng
- School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
| | - Gangyi Feng
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China; Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China.
| | - Xiaoqing Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Language Ability, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China.
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Hershman R, Beckmann L, Henik A. Task and information conflicts in the numerical Stroop task. Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e14057. [PMID: 35353908 PMCID: PMC9541263 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2021] [Revised: 03/03/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022]
Abstract
Studies of the Stroop color‐word task have provided evidence for the existence of two conflicts: (1) an early task conflict between noting the relevant color and reading afforded by the irrelevant word (or word‐like stimuli), and (2) a late information conflict between the information provided by the word and the information provided by the color. Measurements of pupil changes, in addition to reaction time (RT), have extended understanding regarding these two conflicts. The current work examines the generalizability of such understanding. We ask whether similar processes work in the comparative judgment of numbers (e.g., in the numerical Stroop task). We present two experiments that support and extend the knowledge gained in the word‐color context to numerical processing. Similar to results with the Stroop color‐word task, we found a dissociation between RT and pupillometry and an early task conflict followed by an information conflict. Recent Stroop color‐word studies have indicated the existence of an early task conflict followed by an information conflict. The current experiments used pupillometry to show the existence of these two conflicts in a numerical Stroop‐like task. Accordingly, our research extends and generalizes the two‐conflict notion beyond color‐word processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronen Hershman
- Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.,Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Lisa Beckmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Avishai Henik
- Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.,Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Littman R, Keha E, Kalanthroff E. Task Conflict and Task Control: A Mini-Review. Front Psychol 2019; 10:1598. [PMID: 31379659 PMCID: PMC6650768 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2019] [Accepted: 06/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Stimulus-driven behaviors are triggered by the specific stimuli with which they are associated. For example, words elicit automatic reading behavior. When stimulus-driven behaviors are incongruent with one’s current goals, task conflict can emerge, requiring the activation of a task control mechanism. The Stroop task induces task conflict by asking participants to focus on color naming and ignore the automatic, stimulus-driven, irrelevant word reading task. Thus, task conflict manifests in Stroop incongruent as well as in congruent trials. Previous studies demonstrated that when task control fails, reaction times in congruent trials slow down, leading to a reversed facilitation effect. In the present mini-review, we review the literature on the manifestation of task conflict and the recruitment of task control in the Stroop task and present the physiological and behavioral signatures of task control and task conflict. We then suggest that the notion of task conflict is strongly related to the concept of stimulus-driven behaviors and present examples for the manifestation of stimulus-driven task conflict in the Stroop task and additional tasks, including object-interference and affordances tasks. The reviewed literature supports the illustration of task conflict as a specific type of conflict, which is different from other conflict types and may manifest in different tasks and under diverse modalities of response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ran Littman
- The Clinical Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Eldad Keha
- The Clinical Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.,Department of Psychology, Achva Academic College, Arugot, Israel
| | - Eyal Kalanthroff
- The Clinical Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Han J, Dai Y, Xie L, Li F. Brain responses associated with different hierarchical effects on cues and targets during rule shifting. Biol Psychol 2018; 134:52-63. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.02.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2017] [Revised: 02/14/2018] [Accepted: 02/15/2018] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Meiran N, Pereg M. Automatic Retrieval of Newly Instructed Cue-Task Associations Seen in Task-Conflict Effects in the First Trial after Cue-Task Instructions. Exp Psychol 2017; 64:37-48. [DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Abstract. Novel stimulus-response associations are retrieved automatically even without prior practice. Is this true for novel cue-task associations? The experiment involved miniblocks comprising three phases and task switching. In the INSTRUCTION phase, two new stimuli (or familiar cues) were arbitrarily assigned as cues for up-down/right-left tasks performed on placeholder locations. In the UNIVALENT phase, there was no task cue since placeholder’s location afforded one task but the placeholders were the stimuli that we assigned as task cues for the following BIVALENT phase (involving target locations affording both tasks). Thus, participants held the novel cue-task associations in memory while executing the UNIVALENT phase. Results show poorer performance in the first univalent trial when the placeholder was associated with the opposite task (incompatible) than when it was compatible, an effect that was numerically larger with newly instructed cues than with familiar cues. These results indicate automatic retrieval of newly instructed cue-task associations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nachshon Meiran
- Department of Psychology and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Maayan Pereg
- Department of Psychology and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Cue response dissociates inhibitory processes: task identity information is related to backward inhibition but not to competitor rule suppression. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2016; 81:168-181. [PMID: 26762518 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-015-0742-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2015] [Accepted: 12/20/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
In task switching, a conflict between competing task-sets is resolved by inhibiting the interfering task-set. Recent models have proposed a framework of the task-set as composed of two hierarchical components: abstract task identity (e.g., respond to quantity) and more concrete task rules (e.g., category-response rules mapping the categories "one" and "three" to the left and right keys, respectively). The present study explored whether task-set inhibition is the outcome of a general control process or whether it reflects multiple inhibitory processes, each targeting a different component of the competing task-set. To this end, two effects of task-set inhibition were examined: backward inhibition (BI), reflecting the suppression of a just-performed task-set that is no longer relevant; and, competitor rule suppression (CRS), reflecting the suppression of an irrelevant task-set that generates a response conflict. In two task switching experiments, each involving three tasks, we asked participants to make two responses: a cue response, indicating the identity of the relevant task (e.g., "Color"), and a target response requiring the implementation of the task rule (e.g., "Red"). The results demonstrate that BI, but not CRS, appears in cue responses, and thus, suggests that BI reflects inhibition that influences representations related to abstract task identity, rather than (just) competing responses or response rules. These results support a dissociation between inhibitory processes in task switching. The current findings also provide further evidence for a multi-component conceptualization of task-set and task-set inhibition.
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Ranti C, Chatham CH, Badre D. Parallel temporal dynamics in hierarchical cognitive control. Cognition 2015; 142:205-29. [PMID: 26051820 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2014] [Revised: 03/31/2015] [Accepted: 05/05/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive control allows us to follow abstract rules in order to choose appropriate responses given our desired outcomes. Cognitive control is often conceptualized as a hierarchical decision process, wherein decisions made at higher, more abstract levels of control asymmetrically influence lower-level decisions. These influences could evolve sequentially across multiple levels of a hierarchical decision, consistent with much prior evidence for central bottlenecks and seriality in decision-making processes. However, here, we show that multiple levels of hierarchical cognitive control are processed primarily in parallel. Human participants selected responses to stimuli using a complex, multiply contingent (third order) rule structure. A response deadline procedure allowed assessment of the accuracy and timing of decisions made at each level of the hierarchy. In contrast to a serial decision process, error rates across levels of the decision mostly declined simultaneously and at identical rates, with only a slight tendency to complete the highest level decision first. Simulations with a biologically plausible neural network model demonstrate how such parallel processing could emerge from a previously developed hierarchically nested frontostriatal architecture. Our results support a parallel processing model of cognitive control, in which uncertainty on multiple levels of a decision is reduced simultaneously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolyn Ranti
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, 190 Thayer St., Providence, RI 02912, United States; Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Emory University, 1920 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, United States.
| | - Christopher H Chatham
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, 190 Thayer St., Providence, RI 02912, United States
| | - David Badre
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, 190 Thayer St., Providence, RI 02912, United States; Brown Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Box 1953, 2 Stimson Ave, Providence, RI 02912, United States
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Cue-type manipulation dissociates two types of task set inhibition: backward inhibition and competitor rule suppression. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2015; 80:625-39. [DOI: 10.1007/s00426-015-0663-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2014] [Accepted: 03/19/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Parris BA. Task conflict in the Stroop task: When Stroop interference decreases as Stroop facilitation increases in a low task conflict context. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1182. [PMID: 25368593 PMCID: PMC4202807 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2014] [Accepted: 09/29/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
In the present study participants completed two blocks of the Stroop task, one in which the response-stimulus interval (RSI) was 3500 ms and one in which RSI was 200 ms. It was expected that, in line with previous research, the shorter RSI would induce a low Task Conflict context by increasing focus on the color identification goal in the Stroop task and lead to a novel finding of an increase in facilitation and simultaneous decrease in interference. Such a finding would be problematic for models of Stroop effects that predict these indices of performance should be affected in tandem. A crossover interaction is reported supporting these predictions. As predicted, the shorter RSI resulted in incongruent and congruent trial reaction times (RTs) decreasing relative to a static neutral baseline condition; hence interference decreased as facilitation increased. An explanatory model (expanding on the work of Goldfarb and Henik, 2007) is presented that: (1) Shows how under certain conditions the predictions from single mechanism models hold true (i.e., when Task conflict is held constant); (2) Shows how it is possible that interference can be affected by an experimental manipulation that leaves facilitation apparently untouched; and (3) Predicts that facilitation cannot be independently affected by an experimental manipulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin A Parris
- Psychology Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University Poole, UK
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