PMC

Panels A, B, & C illustrate the time courses of congruency sequence effect in Experiments 1, 2, & 3, respectively. The congruency sequence effect, RTs_(cI–cC), and RTs_(iI–iC) were calculated over five quantiles in RTs of each participant and condition. Panel A depicts the time course of congruency sequence effect in the Stroop task. Noteworthy is that congruency sequence effect, RTs(_cI–cC), and RTs_(iI–iC) increased across all five quantiles. Panel B depicts the time course of congruency sequence effect in the word Flanker task. The negative slope between the first two quantiles indicated the decreased congruency sequence effect over the fastest bins; but the positive slope in the last three quantiles indicated the increased congruency sequence effect over the slowest bins. The positive slope between the first two quantiles indicated the increased congruency effects in RTs_(cI–cC) and RTs_(iI–iC) over the fastest bins; but the negative slope between the last two quantiles indicated the decreased congruency effects in RTs_(cI–cC) and RTs_(iI–iC) over the slowest bins. Panel C depicts the time course of congruency sequence effect in the letter Flanker task. The congruency sequence effect decreased with the increasing mean RTs, which was most pronounced between the last two quantiles. The RTs_(cI–cC) increased between the first two quantiles, but decreased in the last three quantiles. The RTs_(iI–iC) increased between the first two quantiles, but kept stable in the last three quantiles. NB. ‘cC’ and ‘iC’ are congruent condition preceded by congruent and incongruent conditions, respectively; ‘cI’ and ‘iI’ are incongruent condition preceded by congruent and incongruent conditions, respectively; RTs is response times; and CSE is congruency sequence effect calculated by the RTs_{[(cI–cC)–(iI–iC)]}.

Congruency effect (incongruent—congruent trials) on the individual participant level for the matching instruction and response instruction. Participants were classified based on the congruency effect. “Conflict priming” = positive congruency effect following standard tones and negative congruency effect following deviant tones. This replicates the pattern reported in Mager et al. (). “deviant tone advantage” = smaller congruency effect following deviant tones. “standard tone advantage”: smaller congruency effect following standard tones. “unclassified”: unusual congruency effect with inverted congruency effects. Facet figures are sorted by congruency classification.

The congruency index measured the similarity of word categorization from online to offline categorization across subjects. For each subject, words that maintained categorization were assigned a 1 and words that were switched were given a zero. Averaged across subjects, words were grouped into 10 equally sized bins dependent on congruency index. Colorbar (side) represents the linear spectrum of subjects' offline word survey of concreteness from most concrete (blue) to most abstract (red). A) The greater the congruency index (maintained categorizations), the faster the RT. These congruent words were words that best fell into either concrete or abstract categories during the offline word survey. B) The postpulse adaptation correlates with the congruency index. Subjects adapted more on congruent words (index closer to 1), than on incongruent words (closer to 0). C) Average movement trajectory preceding pulsed movements with either low congruency indices (gray), less than the mean congruency index, and movements with high congruency indices (black), greater than the mean congruency index. D) Average pulse movement trajectory for low (gray) and high (black) congruency index words for leftward (solid) and rightward (dashed) force perturbations. E) Average postpulse movement trajectory, minus average prepulse movement trajectory, following leftward (solid) and rightward (dashed) pulsed movements with low (gray) and high (black) congruency index words.

Depiction of the sequential congruency effect showing facilitation of RT with repeated trial type and slower RT with changed trial type. c-flanker effect is the congruency effect following congruent stimuli (cI – cC) and i-flanker effect is the congruency effect following incongruent stimuli (iI – iC). The sequential congruency effect (SCE) is the difference between these and represents the influence of previous trial congruency on the flanker effect.