Poster #26 - Contextual adjustment of cognitive control in school-aged children:Location as a contextual cue

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Cognitive control is known for its long and protracted development across childhood. Mature control is characterized by its flexible adaptation to fluctuating demands. Due to the very immaturity of their control, it might be specifically useful for children to adjust the amount of control engagement as a function of contextual cues. Recent research has revealed some evidence of control adjustments in children through sequential effects in conflict tasks (Ambrosi et al., 2016; Smulders et al., 2018). In adults, the Context-Specific Proportion Congruency Effect (CSPCE) corresponding to smaller congruency effects (Difference between performance on congruent- and incongruent trials) in the context corresponding to the higher proportion of congruent trials is taken as an index of control adjustment (Crump et al., 2006, 2009). There is however a debate on the underlying mechanisms: Does CSPCE reflect pure learning based on frequency of events or is it the result of contextual information biasing attentional control when processing new items in the same contexts?
Based on Crump et al. (2009), we investigated the extent to which school-aged children may benefit from a nominally irrelevant cue, stimulus location, predictive of the likelihood of congruency in a STROOP task (above or below the fixation point). To rule out explanations in terms of pure frequency learning and consider true contextually-based modulation of control, stimuli were divided into context- and transfer items. The first ones were perfectly predictable by their location (e.g., 100% congruent when above and 100% incongruent when below the fixation point) thereby offering an experience of contrasted control settings associated with each location. Would this experience generalize to the frequency-unbiased (50% Cong) transfer items and reveal a reduced congruency effect for transfer items displayed in the overall mostly incongruent location?
Thirty 8- and thirty-four 10-year-old children performed a child-adapted version of a Stroop task. They were asked to press a key corresponding to the “true color” of the items (strawberry, salad, carrot, banana) displayed either in their canonical color (congruent) or in an unusual one (incongruent). CSPCE was examined on transfer items.
A classical Stroop effect was observed in both age groups and on both context- and transfer items. The interaction between Proportion Congruent location (Mostly Congruent vs Mostly Incongruent) and status of transfer trials (Incongruent vs. Congruent) did not reach significance suggesting a possible lack of contextual adjustment overall. However, considering individual patterns, there was an unusually high proportion of participants distributed in both age groups (28%) that presented a reversed Stroop effect in the MC location as if they wrongly expected more conflicts to come after encountering a majority of congruent trials. When considering, the other subgroup (72%), the expected CSPCE pattern was obtained independently of age (cf. Figure 1).
Altogether, the present findings reveal school-aged children’s abilities at extracting contextual control settings and biasing the processing of conflicts on new items. Important individual differences however blur the picture: Although CSPCE does not vary with age, it may depend on children’s overall approach of the task. Possible mechanisms underlying these differences will be discussed.

Authors

• Agnes Blaye, Aix-Marseille University & CNRS
  Presenting Author

• Joanna Lucenet, Bordeaux University
  Non-Presenting Author