While a lot of research has investigated the cognitive mechanisms for lying, its associated affect is often overlooked. Here, we show that honesty and dishonesty cause short-lived, transient affect: honesty triggers relatively more positive affect than dishonesty. To investigate this, participants first performed several specific activities. After that, they answered questions regarding these (and other) activities in an affective priming paradigm. This required participants to first respond honestly or dishonestly to simple yes/no Prime questions, and afterwards to categorise positive or negative Probe words. Results show that participants were slower and more error prone when lying compared to responding honestly in the Prime task, replicating previous findings that it is cognitively more demanding to lie than to tell the truth. Most importantly, we found that telling the truth sensitises for subsequent positive stimuli, and it does more so than lying. Further, emotional habituation seems to take place, lessening the overall affective evaluation of self-produced actions over time. We discuss the functional role that affect may play in the generation and production of dishonesty-based behaviour in the framework of action control.

Cognition and affect are closely intertwined: identifying a task-relevant object can elicit positive affect, and successfully solving the associated task can enhance it further. Beyond stimulus-driven processing, theories of proactive control and predictive coding suggest that task-related cognition already unfolds before stimulus onset. We propose that such preparatory processes shape affective responses to task completion. In preregistered Experiment 1, participants categorized digit pairs as either “match” (e.g., 3 and 3) or “sequence” (e.g., 3 and 4). Affective responses were assessed via affective priming. Surveys indicated that most participants prepared for matches (“match seekers”), thus implicitly recoding sequences to “no match.” As predicted, correct responses to matches were faster and more positively valenced than responses to sequences. This pattern reversed for the subsample that prepared for sequences (“sequence seekers”). When participants were asked to categorize digits by color—which rendered preparatory processing for matches or sequences task-irrelevant—no affective differences emerged. In Experiment 2, we manipulated preparatory processing via instructions and response categories. Again, match seekers showed an affective advantage for matches, sequence seekers for sequences. Taken together, our findings imply that to understand affective responses to task completions, it is imperative to understand the preparatory processes the performer engaged in.

Predictable action outcomes are central to goal-directed behavior. Prior research has shown that expected action effects confer performance advantages. Yet the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain debated. Across six preregistered online experiments (N = 702), we examined whether the expectancy of an action effect shapes the affective evaluation of corresponding action-effect episodes. In each study, participants responded to stimuli by clicking on buttons that produced effects with either high (stimulus-congruent) or low (stimulus-incongruent) expectancy. Induced affect was assessed using both implicit (affective priming) and explicit (valence ratings) measures. Overall, high-expectancy episodes elicited relatively more positive affect than low-expectancy episodes. For our implicit measure, this effect persisted unless correspondence among all task events (stimulus, response, and effect) was simultaneously reduced (Experiments 2 + 3). Furthermore, this outcome could not be attributed to mere visual mismatch between stimulus and effect (Experiment 4) and was observed even when stimulus-congruent effects were less likely to occur than stimulus-incongruent ones (Experiments 5 + 6). These findings suggest that expected action outcomes elicit positive affect, thus offering a parsimonious explanation for performance advantages previously attributed to more complex mechanisms like ideomotor accounts or response monitoring. More broadly, we propose that affective evaluation of action-effect episodes represents a fundamental mechanism governing behavior across multiple psychological domains, from basic action control to complex behavior in various settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

BACKGROUND:Chocolate is the most craved energy-dense food. Yet, most individuals can limit their chocolate consumption. Here, we investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying chocolate consumption in a chocolate bogus taste test in a cross-sectional experimental design. METHOD:High chocolate cravers abstained from chocolate for a week, followed by a virtual reality chocolate exposure with biometric trajectory recordings of their stopping responses and an ad-libitum bogus taste test of spontaneous chocolate intake. A single-target implicit association task and a computerised stop-signal task served as unstandardised control tasks 1-2 days before chocolate intake. RESULTS:Associations of parameters from all tasks with chocolate intake were small (|r| < 0.23). Elastic net models misestimated food intake by min. 160 kcal (generalisation: 180 kcal) and feature selection was only possible with L1 penalty. At the group level, participants showed a more controlled and delayed movement towards chocolate relative to neutral cues, evidenced by lower peak acceleration and peak velocity and faster stopping latency. DISCUSSION:The findings demonstrate the complex cognitive-behavioural underpinnings of food intake, food craving and abstinence.

Mouse tracking and the recording of movement trajectories have become powerful tools to investigate cognitive processes. Dedicated analysis software for this type of data is now readily available to empirical researchers, promising a substantial simplification of the required data processing tasks. However, existing solutions are designed for specific recording software or analysis workflows, thus lacking the flexibility to adapt analyses to individual needs. The R package mousetRajectory addresses this gap. By placing strong emphasis on code clarity and modularity, it facilitates customization for researchers, especially those favoring a modern tidyverse programming style. Here, we provide example analyses that explain the essential preprocessing tools, such as time normalization or resampling, and key functions for computing trajectory markers. These markers include classic spatial metrics such as area under the curve and maximum absolute deviation along with more advanced measures such as sample entropy. In summary, mousetRajectory offers a toolkit for researchers seeking a lightweight and easily adaptable foundation for custom analyses of 2D movement trajectory data.

Rules are often stated in a negated manner ("no trespassing") rather than in an affirmative manner ("stay in your lane"). Here, we build on classic research on negation processing and, using a finger-tracking design on a touchscreen, we show that following negated rather than affirmative rules is harder as indicated by multiple performance measures. Moreover, our results indicate that practice has a surprisingly limited effect on negated rules, which are implemented more quickly with training, but this effect comes at the expense of reduced efficiency. Only affirmative rules are thus put into action efficiently, highlighting the importance of tailoring how rules are communicated to the peculiarities of the human mind.

Modality-compatible stimulus-response mappings (e.g., responding vocally to an auditory stimulus and manually to a visual stimulus) are often easier to perform than modality-incompatible sets (reversed modality mappings). Here, we investigate sequential, trial-to-trial, modulations of modality compatibility effects. By reanalyzing a previous experiment and conducting two specifically tailored, new experiments, we demonstrate robust within-task sequential modulations. Furthermore, we test for between-task adaptations by intermixing the modality switching task with a Simon task. Results show reliable sequential adaptations within the modality switching task, but no transfer of adaptation between tasks in either direction. We discuss how a combination of prominent theoretical accounts such as conflict adaptation and episodic binding can serve as the cognitive underpinnings of the observed sequential adaptations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

In contrast to traditional dualistic views of cognition, visual stimulus processing appears not independent of bodily factors such as hand positioning. For example, reduced crosstalk between two temporally overlapping tasks has been observed when the hands are moved into the attentional window alongside their respective stimuli (i.e., establishing global stimulus-hand proximity). This result indicates that hand-specific attentional processing enhancements support a more serial rather than parallel processing of the two tasks. To further elucidate the nature of these processing modulations and their effect on multitasking performance, the present study consisted of three interrelated crosstalk experiments. Experiment 1 manipulated global stimulus-hand proximity and stimulus-effect proximity orthogonally, with results demonstrating that hand proximity rather than effect proximity drives the crosstalk reduction. Experiment 2 manipulated the physical distance between both hands (i.e., varying local stimulus-hand proximity), with results showing weak evidence of increased crosstalk when both hands are close to each other. Experiment 3 tested opposing influences of global and local stimulus-hand proximity as observed in Experiment 1 and 2 rigorously within one experiment, by employing an orthogonal manipulation of these two proximity measures. Again, we observed slightly increased crosstalk for hands close to each other (replicating Experiment 2); however, in contrast to Experiment 1, the effect of global stimulus-hand proximity on the observed crosstalk was not significant this time. Taken together, the experiments support the notion of hand-specific modulations of perception-action coupling, which can either lead to more or less interference in multitasking, depending on the exact arrangement of hands and stimuli.

The present study explored whether dual-task performance is affected by deviations from the expected time point of a secondary task. In two psychological refractory period experiments, participants responded to two tasks, separated by either a short or long delay. In contrast to traditional dual-tasking studies, however, the identity of Task 1 probabilistically predicted the delay after which Task 2 would occur. Violations of these expectations impaired performance in both Task 2 and Task 1. For Task 2, this effect was more pronounced when Task 2 occurred unexpectedly early, while for Task 1, it was more pronounced when Task 2 occurred unexpectedly late. The results are consistent with the notion that processing resources can be shared, and that even in the absence of Task 2, some resources are withheld from Task 1, based on early available Task 1 features. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

To act successfully, agents must monitor whether their behavior reached predicted effects. As deviations from predicted effects can result from own behavior (response-errors) or from circumstantial unreliability (effect-errors), both the own efferent activities and the accomplished environmental outcomes must be monitored. In three experiments, we examined response monitoring and effect monitoring using a dual-task setup. Task 1 consisted of a three-choice flanker task and effects were displayed after the response. Crucially, in some of the trials, an incorrect effect was displayed after a correct response, whereas in other trials, a correct effect was displayed after an incorrect response. This disentangled response-errors and effect-errors. Task 2 was a simple discrimination task and served to measure the monitoring process. Task 2 responses slowed down after both response-errors and effect-errors in Task 1. These influences were additive, suggesting two independent monitoring processes: one for responses, capturing errors in efferent activities, and one for response effects, checking for environment-related irregularities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

When telling a lie, humans might engage in stronger monitoring of their behavior than when telling the truth. Initial evidence has indeed pointed towards a stronger recruitment of capacity-limited monitoring processes in dishonest than honest responding, conceivably resulting from the necessity to overcome automatic tendencies to respond honestly. Previous results suggested monitoring to be confined to response execution, however, whereas the current study goes beyond these findings by specifically probing for post-execution monitoring. Participants responded (dis)honestly to simple yes/no questions in a first task and switched to an unrelated second task after a response–stimulus interval of 0 ms or 1000 ms. Dishonest responses did not only prolong response times in Task 1, but also in Task 2 with a short response–stimulus interval. These findings support the assumption that increased monitoring for dishonest responses extends beyond mere response execution, a mechanism that is possibly tuned to assess the successful completion of a dishonest act.

Our actions cause manifold environmental changes. Monitoring these action effects serves at least two vital functions: While the validation of currently relevant effects assesses goal-achievement, screening for currently irrelevant effects accumulates knowledge about potential action-effect relationships. However, monitoring the perceptual consequences of our actions presumably impairs performance in concurrent tasks. Here, we investigated how effect relevance modulates monitoring costs by manipulating instructions in three dual-task experiments. We found performance decreases not only after validation of goal-relevant action effects but to a smaller extent also after screening of goal-irrelevant action effects. These results suggest that effect monitoring is a rather fundamental limitation of dual tasking.

Cue-specific inhibitory control is assumed to support balanced food intake, but previous studies with established measures showed inconsistent results. We developed a novel kinematic stop task in virtual reality (VR) and report results from trajectory recordings. The primary objective of this explorative study was to assess the interrelationships between validated measures of food-related inhibitory control and novel measures from the VR task. We hypothesized that healthy female participants show worse inhibitory control when grasping attractive virtual chocolate, compared to non-edible color-and-shape matched objects. We further aimed to quantify the construct validity of kinematic measures (e.g., reaching extent/spatial displacement, movement time after stop-signal, velocity) with established measures of inhibitory control in a keyboard-based adaptive stop-signal task (SST). In total, 79 females with varying levels of chocolate craving participated in an experimental study consisting of self-report questionnaires, subjective chocolate craving, the conventional SST and the kinematic task in VR. Results showed superior stopping ability to chocolate in both tasks. In VR, participants successfully interrupted an initiated approach trajectory but terminated slightly closer to chocolate targets. Stop-signal delay (SSD) was adapted relative to movement onset and appeared later in chocolate trials, during which participants still stopped faster, as was also confirmed by shorter stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) in the conventional task. Yet, SSRT did not correlate with stopping in VR. Moreover, SSRT was related to depressive symptoms whereas measures from VR were related to chocolate craving and subjective hunger. Thus, VR stopping can provide deeper insights into healthy weight individuals’ capacity to inhibit cue-specific approach behavior towards appetitive stimuli in simulated interactions. Furthermore, the results support a multi-faceted view of food-specific inhibitory control and behavioral impulsivity.

The perceived compression of the interval between a voluntary action and a subsequent consequence is termed temporal binding and serves as an implicit measure for sense of agency. In everyday life, oftentimes multiple actions are required for goal attainment, i.e., a multi-step sequence of actions has to be performed to evoke the desired effect. However, present-day research mainly assesses the sense of agency for single actions and effects. Preliminary research on the sense of agency in longer action-event sequences is inconclusive. To fill this gap, we studied temporal binding in multi-step action-event sequences. In two experiments (free and forced choice), we employed a temporal binding paradigm in which participants had to press two keys to evoke the corresponding effects. Overall compression of the interval between actions and effects was driven by strong effect binding for both effects, while there was no significant action binding in either of the experiments.

Performance is typically superior with modality-compatible stimulus-response sets (e.g., responding vocally to auditory stimuli and manually to visual stimuli) than with modality-incompatible sets (e.g., responding vocally to visual stimuli and manually to auditory stimuli). Here we studied the information-processing stage at which these modality compatibility effects arise. In three experiments using a dual-task setup, we demonstrated that these compatibility effects arose (at least partly) prior to a capacity-limited central stage that is commonly believed to be the origin of dual-task costs. We suggest that demands to employ a specific effector system bias perceptual processing toward effector-compatible stimulus modalities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Voluntary actions and causally linked sensory stimuli are perceived to be shifted towards each other in time. This so-called temporal binding is commonly assessed in paradigms using the Libet Clock. In such experiments, participants have to estimate the timing of actions performed or ensuing sensory stimuli (usually tones) by means of a rotating clock hand presented on a screen. The aforementioned task setup is however ill-suited for many conceivable setups, especially when they involve visual effects. To address this shortcoming, the line of research presented here establishes an alternative measure for temporal binding by using a sequence of timed sounds. This method uses an auditory timer, a sequence of letters presented during task execution, which serve as anchors for temporal judgments. In four experiments, we manipulated four design factors of this auditory timer, namely interval length, interval filling, sequence predictability, and sequence length, to determine the most effective and economic method for measuring temporal binding with an auditory timer.

The notion that impaired performance in the past increases motivational vigor in the future is central to many modern theories. The conflict monitoring model predicts that conflict between incompatible responses reduces susceptibility to upcoming conflict. Recently, this conflict-adaptation effect has been reframed in terms of motivational control: Conflict in the past elicits negative affect, which can be reduced by increasing control, thereby alleviating future conflict and associated negative affect. While evidence supports that conflict adaptation serves a motivational purpose (e.g., affect regulation), it remains unclear whether conflict adaptation is actually triggered by motivational mechanisms. The present research tested this hypothesis of a motivational conflict-adaptation effect. We recorded continuous finger movements toward target stimuli and away from distractor stimuli. Motivational conflict was instigated by assigning reward and penalty to stimuli that functioned either as targets or distractors. To index motivational vigor and increased precision due to motivation, we measured initiation times and spatial deviation from the shortest path to the target. Both a reanalysis of published data and data from a new replication study established a motivational conflict-adaptation effect. Together, the results extend a motivational control framework, showing that motivational dynamics (i.e., motivational conflicts) can be the driving force of control.

Monitoring the perceptual effects of body movements is supposed to be a capacity-limited process that can interfere with processing of a concurrent task. Here we studied the contribution of feature binding to such effect monitoring interference. In three experiments, we varied the possibility of feature overlap between responses and effects in a primary task and responses in a secondary task. We show that responses in a secondary task are delayed when they partially, rather than completely, alternate or repeat features of responses/effects of a primary task. Yet, these partial feature repetition/alternation costs are small, and they occur on top of other factors that lengthen the critical effect monitoring process, such as the spatial compatibility of responses and effects in the primary task. The results thus show that feature binding contributes to, but cannot fully account for, delays in a secondary task caused by monitoring effects of a primary task.