Citation

Rietbergen M, Roelofs A, den Ouden H, Cools R. Acta Psychol. 2018; 191: 124-130.

Affiliation

Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Kapittelweg 9, 6525 EN, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.09.008

PMID

30253259

Abstract

It is unclear whether cognitive and motor control are parallel and interactive or serial and independent processes. According to one view, cognitive control refers to a set of modality-nonspecific processes that act on supramodal representations and precede response modality-specific motor processes. An alternative view is that cognitive control represents a set of modality-specific operations that act directly on motor-related representations, implying dependence of cognitive control on motor control. Here, we examined the influence of response modality (vocal vs. manual) on three well-established subcomponent processes of cognitive control: shifting, inhibiting, and updating. We observed effects of all subcomponent processes in reaction times. The magnitude of these effects did not differ between response modalities for shifting and inhibiting, in line with a serial, supramodal view. However, the magnitude of the updating effect differed between modalities, in line with an interactive, modality-specific view. These results suggest that updating represents a modality-specific operation that depends on motor control, whereas shifting and inhibiting represent supramodal operations that act independently of motor control.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Cognitive control; Motor control; Response modality