Changing internal constraints on action: The role of backward inhibition.

TLDR

Flexible action control depends on the ability to disengage from prior goals or task sets. The study tested whether intentional task‑set shifts involve backward inhibition, predicting longer response times when switching to a recently abandoned set. Across six experiments, the authors found a robust backward inhibition effect on abstract perceptual task sets, distinct from negative priming, linked to top‑down sequential control, partially explaining residual shift costs, and present even in preplanned task‑set sequences.

Abstract

Flexible control of action requires the ability to disengage from previous goals or task sets. The authors tested the hypothesis that disengagement during intentional shifts between task sets is accompanied by inhibition of the previous task set (backward inhibition). As an expression of backward inhibition the authors predicted increased response times when shifting to a task set that had to be abandoned recently and, thus, suffers inhibition. The critical backward inhibition effect on the level of abstractly defined perceptual task sets was obtained across 6 different experiments. In addition, it was shown that backward inhibition can be differentiated from negative priming (Experiment 2), that it is tied to top-down sequential control (Experiment 3), that it can account at least partially for residual shift costs in set-shifting experiments (Experiment 4), and that it occurs even in the context of preplanned sequences of task sets (Experiment 5).