Rethinking the role of automaticity in cognitive control

Abstract

Behaviour that is assumed to be guided by strategy can, in fact, be based on the implicit learning of regularities in the environment. We demonstrate this point in the context of a Stroop experiment. It has been shown previously that performance on this measure of cognitive control varies as a function of the relative proportions of congruent and incongruent trials in a block. Here we provide evidence that this modulation of performance is largely based on implicit, rather than explicit, knowledge of these proportions. This result has important implications for our understanding of cognitive control.