Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Bindings for Action: Bridging the Gap Between Theories of Procedural Working Memory and Action Control Research Cover

Bindings for Action: Bridging the Gap Between Theories of Procedural Working Memory and Action Control Research

Open Access
|Feb 2026

References

  1. Baddeley, A. (2012). Working Memory: Theories, Models, and Controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 63(1), 129. 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100422
  2. Benini, E., Koch, I., Mayr, S., Frings, C., & Philipp, A. M. (2022). Binding of task-irrelevant contextual features in task switching. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 17470218221128546. 10.1177/17470218221128546
  3. Cowan, N. (2005). Working memory capacity. Psychology Press. 10.4324/9780203342398
  4. Creem-Regehr, S. H., & Kunz, B. R. (2010). Perception and action. WIREs Cognitive Science, 1(6), 800810. 10.1002/wcs.82
  5. Dignath, D., Johannsen, L., Hommel, B., & Kiesel, A. (2019). Reconciling cognitive-control and episodic-retrieval accounts of sequential conflict modulation: Binding of control-states into event-files. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 45(9), 12651270. 10.1037/xhp0000673
  6. Dignath, D., Pfister, R., Eder, A. B., Kiesel, A., & Kunde, W. (2014). Representing the hyphen in action–effect associations: Automatic acquisition and bidirectional retrieval of action–effect intervals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(6), 17011712. 10.1037/xlm0000022
  7. Eder, A. B. (2023). A perceptual control theory of emotional action. Cognition and Emotion, 37(7), 11671184. 10.1080/02699931.2023.2265234
  8. Formica, S., González-García, C., & Brass, M. (2020). The effects of declaratively maintaining and proactively proceduralizing novel stimulus-response mappings. Cognition, 201, 104295. 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104295
  9. Frings, C. (2011). On the decay of distractor-response episodes. Experimental psychology, 58(2), 125131. 10.1027/1618-3169/a000077
  10. Frings, C., Beste, C., Benini, E., Möller, M., Dignath, D., Giesen, C. G., Hommel, B., Kiesel, A., Koch, I., Kunde, W., Mayr, S., Mocke, V., Moeller, B., Münchau, A., Parmar, J., Pastötter, B., Pfister, R., Philipp, A. M., Qiu, R., … Schmalbrock, P. (2024). Consensus definitions of perception-action-integration in action control. Communications Psychology, 2(1), 15. 10.1038/s44271-023-00050-9
  11. Frings, C., Foerster, A., Moeller, B., Pastötter, B., & Pfister, R. (2023). The relation between learning and stimulus-response binding. Psychological review. 10.1037/rev0000449
  12. Frings, C., Hommel, B., Koch, I., Rothermund, K., Dignath, D., Giesen, C., Kiesel, A., Kunde, W., Mayr, S., Moeller, B., Möller, M., Pfister, R., & Philipp, A. (2020). Binding and Retrieval in Action Control (BRAC). Trends in cognitive sciences, 24(5), 375387. 10.1016/j.tics.2020.02.004
  13. Frings, C., Moeller, B., Beste, C., Münchau, A., & Pastötter, B. (2022). Stimulus decay functions in action control. Scientific reports, 12(1), 20139. 10.1038/s41598-022-24499-6
  14. Frings, C., & Möller, B. (2010). Binding targets’ responses to distractors’ locations: Distractor response bindings in a location-priming task. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 72(8), 21762183. 10.3758/BF03196693
  15. Frings, C., Rothermund, K., & Wentura, D. (2007). Distractor repetitions retrieve previous responses to targets. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 60(10), 13671377. 10.1080/17470210600955645
  16. Exner, S. (1879). Physiologie der Grosshirnrinde. In L. Herrmann (Ed.), Handbuch der Physiologie, (vol. 2, pp. 189350). Vogel.
  17. Giesen, C., Frings, C., & Rothermund, K. (2012). Differences in the strength of distractor inhibition do not affect distractor–response bindings. Memory & Cognition, 40(3), 373387. 10.3758/s13421-011-0157-1
  18. Giesen, C., & Rothermund, K. (2014). Distractor repetitions retrieve previous responses and previous targets: Experimental dissociations of distractor-response and distractor-target bindings. Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 40(3), 645659. 10.1037/a0035278
  19. Giesen, C. G., Schmidt, J. R., & Rothermund, K. (2020). The Law of Recency: An Episodic Stimulus-Response Retrieval Account of Habit Acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2927. 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02927
  20. Goodale, M. A., & Milner, A. D. (1992). Separate visual pathways for perception and action. Trends in Neurosciences, 15(1), 2025. 10.1016/0166-2236(92)90344-8
  21. Haazebroek, P., Raffone, A., & Hommel, B. (2017). HiTEC: A connectionist model of the interaction between perception and action planning. Psychological Research, 81(6), 10851109. 10.1007/s00426-016-0803-0
  22. Hommel, B. (1998). Event Files: Evidence for Automatic Integration of Stimulus-Response Episodes. Visual Cognition, 5(1–2), 183216. 10.1080/713756773
  23. Hommel, B. (2000). The Prepared Reflex: Automaticity and Control in Stimulus-Response Translation. In J. Driver & S. Monsell (Hrsg.), Control of cognitive processes: Attention and performance XVIII (S. 247273). MIT Press. 10.7551/mitpress/1481.003.0019
  24. Hommel, B. (2004). Event files: Feature binding in and across perception and action. Trends in cognitive sciences, 8(11), 494500. 10.1016/j.tics.2004.08.007
  25. Hommel, B. (2019). Theory of Event Coding (TEC) V2.0: Representing and controlling perception and action. Attention, perception & psychophysics, 81(7), 21392154. 10.3758/s13414-019-01779-4
  26. Hommel, B., & Frings, C. (2020). The disintegration of event files over time: Decay or interference? Psychonomic bulletin & review. 10.3758/s13423-020-01738-3
  27. Hommel, B., Müsseler, J., Aschersleben, G., & Prinz, W. (2001). The Theory of Event Coding (TEC): A framework for perception and action planning. The Behavioral and brain sciences, 24(5), 849878. 10.1017/s0140525x01000103
  28. Hommel, B., Proctor, R. W., & Vu, K.-P. L. (2004). A feature-integration account of sequential effects in the Simon task. Psychological research, 68(1), 117. 10.1007/s00426-003-0132-y
  29. James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. Henry Holt and Company. 10.1037/11059-000
  30. Kaup, B., Ulrich, R., Bausenhart, K. M., Bryce, D., Butz, M. V., Dignath, D., Dudschig, C., Franz, V. H., Friedrich, C., Gawrilow, C., Heller, J., Huff, M., Hütter, M., Janczyk, M., Leuthold, H., Mallot, H., Nürk, H.-C., Ramscar, M., Said, N., … Wong, H. Y. (2024). Modal and amodal cognition: An overarching principle in various domains of psychology. Psychological Research, 88(2), 307337. 10.1007/s00426-023-01878-w
  31. Kiesel, A. (2009). Unbewusste Wahrnehmung: Handlungsdeterminierende Reizerwartungen bestimmen die Wirksamkeit subliminaler Reize. Psychologische Rundschau, 60(4), 215228. 10.1026/0033-3042.60.4.215
  32. Koch, I., Frings, C., & Schuch, S. (2018). Explaining response-repetition effects in task switching: Evidence from switching cue modality suggests episodic binding and response inhibition. Psychological research, 82(3), 570579. 10.1007/s00426-017-0847-9
  33. Kowialiewski, B., & Oberauer, K. (2025). Semantic representations in working memory: A computational model. Psychological Review. 10.1037/rev0000562
  34. Kunde, W. (2001). Response-effect compatibility in manual choice reaction tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(2), 387394. 10.1037//0096-1523.27.2.387
  35. Kunde, W., Hoffmann, J., & Zellmann, P. (2002). The impact of anticipated action effects on action planning. Acta psychologica, 109(2), 137155. 10.1016/S0001-6918(01)00053-1
  36. Kunde, W., Weller, L., & Pfister, R. (2018). Sociomotor action control. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(3), 917931. 10.3758/s13423-017-1316-6
  37. Liefooghe, B., Wenke, D., & De Houwer, J. (2012). Instruction-based task-rule congruency effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(5), 13251335. 10.1037/a0028148
  38. Logan, G. D. (1978). Attention in character-classification tasks: Evidence for the automaticity of component stages. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 107(1), 3263. 10.1037/0096-3445.107.1.32
  39. Logan, G. D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of automatization. Psychological Review, 95(4), 492527. 10.1037/0033-295X.95.4.492
  40. Logan, G. D. (1990). Repetition priming and automaticity: Common underlying mechanisms? Cognitive Psychology, 22(1), 135. 10.1016/0010-0285(90)90002-L
  41. Ma, W. J., Husain, M., & Bays, P. M. (2014). Changing concepts of working memory. Nature Neuroscience, 17(3), 347356. 10.1038/nn.3655
  42. Mayr, U., & Kliegl, R. (2000). Task-set switching and long-term memory retrieval. Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 26(5), 11241140. 10.1037//0278-7393.26.5.1124
  43. Meiran, N., & Cohen-Kdoshay, O. (2012). Working memory load but not multitasking eliminates the prepared reflex: Further evidence from the adapted flanker paradigm. Acta Psychologica, 139(2), 309313. 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.008
  44. Memelink, J., & Hommel, B. (2013). Intentional weighting: A basic principle in cognitive control. Psychological research, 77(3), 249259. 10.1007/s00426-012-0435-y
  45. Miller, G. A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K. H. (1960). The integration of plans. In G. A. Miller, E. Galanter, & K. H. Pribram, Plans and the structure of behavior. (S. 95102). Henry Holt and Co. 10.1037/10039-007
  46. Mocke, V., Benini, E., Parmar, J., Schiltenwolf, M., & Kunde, W. (2023). What is behind partial repetition costs? Event-files do not fully occupy bound feature codes. Psychonomic bulletin & review. 10.3758/s13423-023-02253-x
  47. Moeller, B., & Frings, C. (2014). Attention meets binding: Only attended distractors are used for the retrieval of event files. Attention, perception & psychophysics, 76(4), 959978. 10.3758/s13414-014-0648-9
  48. Moeller, B., & Frings, C. (2021). Response–response bindings do not decay for 6 seconds after integration: A case for bindings’ relevance in hierarchical action control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 47(4), 508517. (2021-07871-001). 10.1037/xhp0000897
  49. Moeller, B., Frings, C., & Pfister, R. (2016). The structure of distractor-response bindings: Conditions for configural and elemental integration. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 42(4), 464479. 10.1037/xhp0000158
  50. Monsell, S. (2003). Task switching. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), 134140. 10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00028-7
  51. Moutsopoulou, K., Yang, Q., Desantis, A., & Waszak, F. (2015). Stimulus–classification and stimulus–action associations: Effects of repetition learning and durability. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(9), 17441757. 10.1080/17470218.2014.984232
  52. Oberauer, K. (2009). Chapter 2 Design for a Working Memory. In The Psychology of Learning and Motivation (S. 45100). Elsevier. 10.1016/S0079-7421(09)51002-X
  53. Oberauer, K. (2010). Declarative and Procedural Working Memory: Common Principles, Common Capacity Limits? Psychologica Belgica, 50(3–4), 277. 10.5334/pb-50-3-4-277
  54. Oberauer, K. (2013). The focus of attention in working memory—From metaphors to mechanisms. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7. 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00673
  55. Oberauer, K. (2020). Towards a Theory of Working Memory: From Metaphors to Mechanisms. In R. H. Logie, V. Camos, & N. Cowan (Eds.), Working memory: State of the science (S. 116149). Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oso/9780198842286.003.0005
  56. Oberauer, K., Lewandowsky, S., Farrell, S., Jarrold, C., & Greaves, M. (2012). Modeling working memory: An interference model of complex span. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19(5), 779819. 10.3758/s13423-012-0272-4
  57. Oberauer, K., Souza, A. S., Druey, M. D., & Gade, M. (2013). Analogous mechanisms of selection and updating in declarative and procedural working memory: Experiments and a computational model. Cognitive psychology, 66(2), 157211. 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2012.11.001
  58. Pfeuffer, C. U., Aufschnaiter, S., Thomaschke, R., & Kiesel, A. (2020). Only time will tell the future: Anticipatory saccades reveal the temporal dynamics of time-based location and task expectancy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 46(10), 11831200. 10.1037/xhp0000850
  59. Pfeuffer, C. U., Moutsopoulou, K., Pfister, R., Waszak, F., & Kiesel, A. (2017). The power of words: On item-specific stimulus-response associations formed in the absence of action. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 43(2), 328347. 10.1037/xhp0000317
  60. Qiu, R., Möller, M., Koch, I., Frings, C., & Mayr, S. (2023). The influence of event segmentation by context on stimulus-response binding. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 49(3), 355369. 10.1037/xhp0001093
  61. Qiu, R., Möller, M., Koch, I., & Mayr, S. (2022). Saliency determines the integration of contextual information into stimulus-response episodes. Attention, perception & psychophysics, 84(4), 12641285. 10.3758/s13414-021-02428-5
  62. Rothermund, K., Wentura, D., & Houwer, J. (2005). Retrieval of incidental stimulus-response associations as a source of negative priming. Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 31(3), 482495. 10.1037/0278-7393.31.3.482
  63. Schiltenwolf, M., Dignath, D., & Hazeltine, E. (2024). Binding of response-independent task rules. Psychonomic bulletin & review. 10.3758/s13423-024-02465-9
  64. Schmalbrock, P., Laub, R., & Frings, C. (2021). Integrating salience and action – Increased integration strength through salience. Visual Cognition, 29(2), 91104. 10.1080/13506285.2020.1871455
  65. Schmidt, J. R., Houwer, J., & Rothermund, K. (2016). The Parallel Episodic Processing (PEP) model 2.0: A single computational model of stimulus-response binding, contingency learning, power curves, and mixing costs. Cognitive psychology, 91, 82108. 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2016.10.004
  66. Schmidt, J. R., & Liefooghe, B. (2016). Feature Integration and Task Switching: Diminished Switch Costs after Controlling for Stimulus, Response, and Cue Repetitions. PloS one, 11(3), 0151188. 10.1371/journal.pone.0151188
  67. Schmidt, J. R., Liefooghe, B., & Houwer, J. (2020). An Episodic Model of Task Switching Effects: Erasing the Homunculus from Memory. Journal of Cognition, 3(1), 22. 10.5334/joc.97
  68. Shin, Y. K., Proctor, R. W., & Capaldi, E. J. (2010). A review of contemporary ideomotor theory. Psychological bulletin, 136(6), 943974. 10.1037/a0020541
  69. Souza, A. S., Oberauer, K., Gade, M., & Druey, M. D. (2012). Processing of representations in declarative and procedural working memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(5), 10061033. 10.1080/17470218.2011.640403
  70. Spapé, M. M., & Hommel, B. (2008). He said, she said: Episodic retrieval induces conflict adaptation in an auditory Stroop task. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 15(6), 11171121. 10.3758/PBR.15.6.1117
  71. Stock, A., & Stock, C. (2004). A short history of ideo-motor action. Psychological Research, 68(2–3), 176188. 10.1007/s00426-003-0154-5
  72. Stoet, G., & Hommel, B. (1999). Action planning and the temporal binding of response codes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 25(6), 16251640. 10.1037/0096-1523.25.6.1625
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.488 | Journal eISSN: 2514-4820
Language: English
Submitted on: Sep 15, 2025
|
Accepted on: Jan 28, 2026
|
Published on: Feb 12, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2026 Gidon T. Frischkorn, Isabel Courage, Hannah Dames, David Dignath, Christina U. Pfeuffer, Moritz Schiltenwolf, Andrea Kiesel, Klaus Oberauer, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.