Effects of proactive control and reward incentives on the inhibition of sequentially linked motor actions.
- 1Department of Psychology, University of Exeter, Washington Singer Building, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK. [email protected].
- 2Department of Psychology, University of Exeter, Washington Singer Building, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK.
Abstract
Effects of proactive control on response inhibition have previously been studied using tasks such as the stop signal task in which participants are required to inhibit a single, isolated motor response. However, skilled, coordinated behavior often involves the execution of learned sequences of motor actions in which each action triggers the next with a degree of automaticity. Across three experiments, we investigated the effects of proactive control and reward incentives on the frequency of errors in a motor sequence learning task that requires inhibition of sequentially triggered motor actions. We observed graded effects of proactive control on inhibition success. Although cues indicating an upcoming stop trial led to a marked reduction in the frequency of slips-of-action, errors continued to occur despite significant cue-induced proactive slowing. When cues were combined with incentives for successful stopping, proactive control increased further, with an additional reduction in frequency of slips-of-action. These findings show that the effectiveness of proactive control in suppressing automatically triggered actions within learned sequences is jointly determined by the depth of proactive slowing and the motivational context.
Related
- Notch-independent Her6 contributes to control of neural stem cell maintenance by shifting Notch signaling from lateral inhibition towards lateral induction mode
- A multivalent docking platform and Rcn1-mediated inhibition control the extent of calcineurin recruitment to the cell division site for the dephosphorylation of multiple cytokinetic proteins
- Multipotent radial glia sequentially deploy fate-restricted intermediate progenitors to diversify cortical interneurons
- Effects of Sequentially Removing Low-Abundance Taxon Records from Community Matrices on Aquatic Insect Community Evaluation in Mountain Streams.
- Threat imminence and estimates of agency dictate proactive and reactive defensive behaviors in active place avoidance
BibTeX
@article{dodds2026effects,
title = {{Effects of proactive control and reward incentives on the inhibition of sequentially linked motor actions.}},
author = {Chris M Dodds and Lidia Falcon-Hernandez and Jessica Wilson},
journal = {Psychological research},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1007/s00426-026-02407-1},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42905172},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Effects of proactive control and reward incentives on the inhibition of sequentially linked motor actions.
AU - Chris M Dodds
AU - Lidia Falcon-Hernandez
AU - Jessica Wilson
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Psychological research
DO - 10.1007/s00426-026-02407-1
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42905172
AB - Effects of proactive control on response inhibition have previously been studied using tasks such as the stop signal task in which participants are required to inhibit a single, isolated motor response. However, skilled, coordinated behavior often involves the execution of learned sequences of motor actions in which each action triggers the next with a degree of automaticity. Across three experiments, we investigated the effects of proactive control and reward incentives on the frequency of errors in a motor sequence learning task that requires inhibition of sequentially triggered motor actions. We observed graded effects of proactive control on inhibition success. Although cues indicating an upcoming stop trial led to a marked reduction in the frequency of slips-of-action, errors continued to occur despite significant cue-induced proactive slowing. When cues were combined with incentives for successful stopping, proactive control increased further, with an additional reduction in frequency of slips-of-action. These findings show that the effectiveness of proactive control in suppressing automatically triggered actions within learned sequences is jointly determined by the depth of proactive slowing and the motivational context.
SN - 0340-0727
SN - 1430-2772
ER -