Shifts in target modality cause attentional reset: Evidence from sequential modulation of crossmodal congruency effects

Abstract

Reduced congruency effects after a preceding incongruent trial suggest a conflict-monitoring process, which reactively triggers the recruitment of attentional control in subsequent trials. In the present study, we assessed this sequential modulation of crossmodal congruency effects separately in two different tasks. Participants performed a location judgment task and a numerical judgment task in a block-wise fashion in a modality-switching paradigm. Stimuli were presented simultaneously in two modalities and were either congruent or incongruent (e.g., left visual object, right sound) with each other. The target modality was indicated by a cue, so that the target modalities either repeated or switched in successive trials. For both tasks, the results indicated reduced congruency effects after an incongruent trial only for modality repetitions, but not for switches. This finding suggests that modality switches induce a shift in episodic context, which in turn leads to an attentional reset. This reset eliminates the sequential modulation of congruency effects.