Torres-Quesada, M. , Funes , M. J. & Lupiáñez, J.
Department of Experimental Psychology and Behavioural Physiology. University of Granada. Granada.Spain
In the study of cognitive control, a debated question is whether our system counts with several control mechanisms or with a single general one. In an attempt to answer it, previous studies dissociated two well known effects related to cognitive control, conflict adaptation and proportion congruent effects, based on their ease to generalize across conflict types (Funes et al. 2010b; Torres-Quesada et al., under review). In the present experiment, we tried to dissociate both mechanisms in a more direct manner, by testing whether proportion congruent effects can still be present under conditions where conflict adaptation effects are prevented. We presented two types of conflict (Simon and Spatial Stroop) and a proportion congruent manipulation only affecting one conflict type. Our results showed that both proportion congruent and conflict adaptation effects were conflict type specific. Nevertheless, proportion congruent effects were present even in the conflict type alternation condition, that is, on the condition where conflict adaptation effects were prevented. In conclusion, we can say that proportion congruent and conflict adaptation effects can be measured independently of each other, even if both might have similar consequences on performance (both can be conflict type specific).