Competing and Interfering Conflict: Insights from Decision-Making Tasks

Cognitive control, the most distinguishing characteristic of human behavior, is typically studied by conflict paradigms, in which conflicts are induced by goal-irrelevant stimuli (interfering conflict). We argue that competing conflict, where all stimuli need to be processed, is more basic and can also be measured using a decision-making task. In the current study, participants completed modified versions of the backward masking majority function task and the Flanker task to compare the two types of conflict in several dimensions, including reaction and resolving time, effects related to cognitive control (conflict adaption and error-related slowing), inter-stimuli distance, and uncertainty of the location. The results of these comparisons illustrate the unity and diversity of these two types of conflict. The potential application of the computational model in competing conflict is also discussed. The results will not only deepen our understanding of cognitive control and decision-making but also contribute to other areas like artificial intelligence.