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The influence of reward associations on conflict processing in the Stroop task.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Krebs, RM; Boehler, CN; Woldorff, MG
Published in: Cognition
December 2010

Performance in a behavioral task can be facilitated by associating stimulus properties with reward. In contrast, conflicting information is known to impede task performance. Here we investigated how reward associations influence the within-trial processing of conflicting information using a color-naming Stroop task in which a subset of ink colors (task-relevant dimension) was associated with monetary incentives. We found that color-naming performance was enhanced on trials with potential-reward versus those without. Moreover, in potential-reward trials, typical conflict-induced performance decrements were attenuated if the incongruent word (task-irrelevant dimension) was unrelated to reward. In contrast, incongruent words that were semantically related to reward-predicting ink colors interfered with performance in potential-reward trials and even more so in no-reward trials, despite the semantic meaning being entirely task-irrelevant. These observations imply that the prospect of reward enhances the processing of task-relevant stimulus information, whereas incongruent reward-related information in a task-irrelevant dimension can impede task performance.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Cognition

DOI

EISSN

1873-7838

Publication Date

December 2010

Volume

117

Issue

3

Start / End Page

341 / 347

Location

Netherlands

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Stroop Test
  • Reward
  • Reaction Time
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Extinction, Psychological
  • Experimental Psychology
 

Citation

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ICMJE
MLA
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Krebs, R. M., Boehler, C. N., & Woldorff, M. G. (2010). The influence of reward associations on conflict processing in the Stroop task. Cognition, 117(3), 341–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.08.018
Krebs, Ruth M., Carsten N. Boehler, and Marty G. Woldorff. “The influence of reward associations on conflict processing in the Stroop task.Cognition 117, no. 3 (December 2010): 341–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.08.018.
Krebs RM, Boehler CN, Woldorff MG. The influence of reward associations on conflict processing in the Stroop task. Cognition. 2010 Dec;117(3):341–7.
Krebs, Ruth M., et al. “The influence of reward associations on conflict processing in the Stroop task.Cognition, vol. 117, no. 3, Dec. 2010, pp. 341–47. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.08.018.
Krebs RM, Boehler CN, Woldorff MG. The influence of reward associations on conflict processing in the Stroop task. Cognition. 2010 Dec;117(3):341–347.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cognition

DOI

EISSN

1873-7838

Publication Date

December 2010

Volume

117

Issue

3

Start / End Page

341 / 347

Location

Netherlands

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Stroop Test
  • Reward
  • Reaction Time
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Extinction, Psychological
  • Experimental Psychology