Control over speeded actions: a common processing locus for micro- and macro-trade-offs?

Cognitive control processes associated with long- and short-term adjustments of human behaviour have attracted much interest recently. It is still unclear, however, whether the mechanisms underlying these adjustments share a common locus within the chain of stimulus-response processing. In order to address this issue, the present study employed a speed-accuracy instruction producing a macro-trade-off, whereas micro-trade-off was studied by means of posterror slowing in reaction time (RT). Participants performed a spatially compatible or incompatible four-stimuli-to-two-response alternative choice RT task. Reliable variations in micro-and macro-trade-off as well as effects of spatial compatibility were found in RT and error rate. Most importantly, posterror slowing was larger when instruction stressed accuracy rather than speed, an effect being independent of spatial compatibility. Because the influence of speed-accuracy instruction and posterror slowing on performance was strongest for response alternations, together present findings suggest that the mechanisms underlying micro- and macro-trade-offs have one common locus at the level of motor processing. Additional influences of macro-trade-off on premotoric processing are likely.