Both cognitive conflict (e.g. Verguts & Notebaert, 2009) and reward signals (e.g. Waszak & Pholulamdeth, 2009) have been proposed to enhance task-relevant associations. Bringing these two notions together, we predicted that reward modulates conflict-based sequential adaptations in cognitive control. This was tested combining either a single…

Cognitive control is responsible for adapting information processing in order to carry out tasks more efficiently. Contrasting global versus local control accounts, it has recently been proposed that control operates in an associative fashion, that is, by binding stimulus-response associations after detection of conflict (Verguts & Notebaert,…

When comparing digits of different physical sizes, numerical and physical size interact. For example, in a numerical comparison task, people are faster to compare two digits when their numerical size (the relevant dimension) and physical size (the irrelevant dimension) are congruent than when they are incongruent. Two main accounts have been put…

A tight correspondence has been postulated between the representations of number and space. The spatial numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect, which reflects the observation that people respond faster with the left-hand side to small numbers and with the right-hand side to large numbers, is regarded as strong evidence for this…

Cognitive control adjusts information processing to momentary needs and task requirements. We investigated conflict adaptation when participants are performing two tasks, a Simon task and a SNARC task. The results indicated that one congruency effect (e.g., Simon) was reduced after conflict in the other task (e.g., SNARC), but only when both tasks…