Challenging Listening Conditions Promote Sequential Adaptations of Cognitive Control in an Auditory Flanker Task

Flanker tasks are popular tools for studying executive function, notably conflict resolution – the suppression of an incorrect response in order to produce the correct one. Applying sequence analyses additionally reveals the time course of this cognitive control process. While such effects have been widely explored in visual tasks, very few studies have examined them in the auditory modality. Further, the influence of perceptually challenging conditions is unknown. The present report explores both of these effects using the data from a recent study that validated our auditory Directional Command Flanker Task. One hundred and forty two healthy participants (aged 18–24) completed three different configurations of a masking version of the task, with a small (32.1 Hz), medium (93.1 Hz), or large (122.8 Hz) vocal separation. Another 62 healthy adults (aged 18–59) completed an abbreviated task with the largest vocal separation, as well as a visual flanker. The sequence effects observed in the abbreviated auditory task were qualitatively similar to the visual task, and both were nullified when target repetitions were omitted from the analysis. The masking version of the task revealed modulation by perceptual difficulty, wherein the least spectral separation invoked significant slowing after incongruent trials. Moderate vocal separation revealed an interaction between current and previous trial types. Eliminating target repetitions simplified these results such that only slowing following incongruent trials was observed, for one voice under the smallest separation, and one under the medium separation. Interestingly, these effects were only observed versus masking on the previous trial, suggesting adaptive changes in perception or selective attention. These results might support a hybrid view of sequence effects involving both memory associations and changes in cognitive control.