People respond more slowly in two-choice tasks when either a previous stimulus feature or the previous response repeats in partial repetition trials than when (a) both repeat in complete repetition trials or (b) both alternate in complete alternation trials. The binding account posits that such partial repetition costs index a memory-retrieval conflict, which occurs because partial repetition trials trigger the retrieval of a previous stimulus feature or response that conflicts with a current stimulus feature or response. However, such costs may additionally reflect a simple decision-making heuristic that uses the repetition or alternation of a previous stimulus feature as a “signal” to bias response selection toward a repetition or an alternation of the previous response. To determine whether signaling contributes to partial repetition costs, we employed a four-choice task. Here, a stimulus feature repetition still signals a response repetition, but a stimulus feature alternation does not signal which of the three remaining responses to make. Consistent with an influence of signaling, we sometimes observed complete repetition advantages without complete alternation advantages. Exploratory analyses further revealed that partial repetition costs measured more broadly were smaller in the four-choice task than in a matched two-choice task. These findings suggest that partial repetition costs index a mixture of binding and signaling.

当先前的刺激特征或先前的反应在部分重复试验中重复时，人们在双选任务中的反应比（a）在完全重复试验中重复或（b）在完全交替试验中交替出现时更慢。有约束力的帐户假定这种部分重复成本索引记忆检索冲突，这是因为部分重复试验触发了与当前刺激特征或反应冲突的先前刺激特征或反应的检索。然而，这样的成本可能还反映了一种简单的决策启发式方法，它使用先前刺激特征的重复或交替作为“信号”，使反应选择偏向于先前反应的重复或交替。为了确定信号是否会导致部分重复成本，我们采用了四项选择任务。在这里，刺激特征重复仍然表示响应重复，但刺激特征交替并不表示要做出剩余三个响应中的哪一个。与信号的影响一致，我们有时会观察到完全的重复优势而没有完全的交替优势。探索性分析进一步表明，在更广泛地测量的部分重复成本中，四选择任务比匹配的二选择任务更小。这些发现表明，部分重复成本指数结合和信号的混合。