The conflict monitoring account posits that globally high levels of conflict trigger engagement of top-down control; however, recent findings point to the mercurial nature of top-down control in high conflict contexts. The current study examined the potential moderating effect of associative learning on conflict-triggered top-down control…

Decision-makers effortlessly balance the need for urgency against the need for caution. Theoretical and neurophysiological accounts have explained this tradeoff solely in terms of the "quantity" of evidence required to trigger a decision (the "threshold"). This explanation has also been used as a benchmark test for evaluating…

Five reaction time experiments explored word frequency effects in word-nonword decision tasks and in pronunciation and memory tasks. Analysis of the response latencies using Sternberg's additive-factors approach indicates that frequency effects consist of both effects in encoding and in retrieval from memory. (Editor/RK)

A study is reported in which the time it takes to access permanent memory and retrieve name-words for visual objects was measured by picture-naming reaction time. (Author/RM)

In three immediately succeeding trials, 45 young adults named 50 pictures of objects as rapidly as possible; word retrieval latencies were measured for each item. Before each trial, one experimental group was given information as to the word frequency (WF) level of the items' names. The other experimental group was given information as to the…