Beyond boundaries: conflict processing mechanisms in mental imagery across disparate locations

The conflict processing mechanisms in mental imagery within one spatial location have been conceptualized by the dual-stage two-phase model. However, it remains unclear whether the imagery conflict can arise across disparate spatial locations and how these models can account for decision-making across such locations. Our study addresses these questions by introducing a novel mental-rotation flanker task, comprising both a central gaze judgment task and a flanking gaze judgment task. As expected, we found a decreased imagery conflict effect with increasing mental rotation, even between different spatial locations. Interestingly, our cross-experimental analysis revealed enhanced processing of stimuli in the fovea compared to the peripheral visual field, alongside modulation of processing advantages in central vision by rotation angles. Furthermore, we successfully fitted three conflict drift-diffusion models to the experimental data using a hierarchical Bayesian method, revealing a two-phase conflict processing mechanism in mental imagery for both tasks. Specifically, in the central task, the model-based analysis revealed a reduced duration of non-decision process for small rotations, a more conservative response strategy, and enhanced processing of imagery conflict in the decision process. Conversely, in the flanking task, participants adopted a similar response strategy across various rotations, accompanied by a decreased rate of evidence accumulated rate in the second phase for small rotations. Overall, our results suggested that angle-related conflict processing across disparate spatial locations was driven by both decisional and non-decisional components. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research on the cognitive intricacies of mental rotation and conflict tasks.