Cooperative interaction between statistical learning and inhibitory control

In an ever-changing environment, synchronizing automatic and controlled behaviors is essential for successful adaptation. Yet, the relationship between these behaviors is often debated, partly due to the diverse approaches used to investigate it. The current study set out to untangle how statistical learning of environmental regularities – a process that facilitates automatic behaviors – and inhibitory control interact when both operate concurrently. Participants completed a visual four-choice reaction time paradigm that combined a statistical learning task with the Eriksen flanker task. In this novel paradigm, a central target stimulus, surrounded by flanker stimuli, was either predictable or unpredictable based on the statistical regularities induced by the sequence of target stimuli. Statistical learning was indexed by the performance difference between predictable and unpredictable trials. Inhibitory control was reflected by the flanker congruency effect, i.e., the performance difference between congruent and incongruent trials. According to our results, statistical learning and inhibitory control interacted in a cooperative way: Statistical learning was improved in the incongruent condition, and the flanker congruency effect was reduced on predictable relative to unpredictable trials. Altogether, our results suggest that reliance on environmental regularities can ease control demands, while conflict-driven control processes may, in turn, enhance the acquisition of predictive regularities.