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- Easy to process, hard to control: Transient and sustained processing fluency impairs cognitive control adjustments to conflictPublication . Oliveira, Gonçalo A; Remondes, Miguel; Garcia-Marques, TeresaRecent research suggests that the cognitive monitoring system of control could be using negative affective cues intrinsic to changes in information processing to initiate top-down regulatory mechanisms. Here, we propose that positive feelings of ease-of-processing could be picked up by the monitoring system as a cue indicating that control is not necessary, leading to maladaptive control adjustments. We simultaneously target control adjustments driven by task context and on a trial-by-trial level, macro-, and micro-adjustments. This hypothesis was tested using a Stroop-like task comprised trials varying in congruence and perceptual fluency. A pseudo randomisation procedure within different proportion of congruence conditions was used to maximise discrepancy and fluency effects. Results suggest that in a mostly congruent context participants committed more fast errors when incongruent trials were easy-to-read. Moreover, within the mostly incongruent condition, we also found more errors on incongruent trials after experiencing the facilitation effect of repeated congruent trials. These results suggest that transient and sustained feelings of processing fluency can downregulate control mechanisms, leading to failed adaptive adjustments to conflict
- Valence word processing in preference vs. lexical decision tasks : insights from muscle blocking proceduresPublication . Oliveira, Gonçalo Aires; Domingos, Ana; Garcia-Marques, TeresaAbstract: Processing is oriented by goals that determine the details of the stimuli to be attended. Previous studies claim that the determination of word valence (neutral, positive, or negative) is prioritized at early processing stages. This effect of immediate processing of affective information is supported by behavioral and psychophysiological evidence. Here we address this primacy of affect hypothesis in word processing by performing different blocking procedures on the facial muscles relevant for processing the affective dimension of the stimuli on preference (Experiment 1) and lexical decision tasks (Experiment 2). The results show that not only evaluative judgments were disturbed by blocking procedures, but that the same result occurred when the affective information was irrelevant to the task. Evidence shows similar interference from blocking facial muscle activity on affective word processing in both experiments, with procedures that immobilize the zygomatic muscle having a greater impact on the processing of positive words. We discuss the informative role of demonstrating these effects as occurring regardless of the processing goal, highlighting different patterns associated with the various blocking procedures.