Cognitive representations as a measure of present and future behavior

Anytime we perform any action or ponder any thought, neural representations of those thoughts and actions must be constructed. Even performing a simple task, such as opening your front door, involves the generation and implementation of multiple neural representations – the external situation (your house & door), your own actions (insert/twist key & twist knob), and the results you expect/observe (door opens). Humans purportedly combine these lower representations into higher-order, conjunctive representations, which denote the entire series of cognitive processes (opening my front door). Conjunctive representations have the advantage of being more specific to a particular setting and can be retrieved from long-term memory at later times to facilitate the same thoughts and behaviors (think how automatic unlocking an opening your front door has become). However, it has also been proposed that these conjunctive representations are activated when the situation or context is similar but not identical, which can result in the preparation or execution of inappropriate actions (reaching for your own key at your friend’s front door). Using EEG recordings, we can successfully measure the strength of past conjunctive representations during their formation and have shown that behavioral slowing associated with repeated, but not identical behaviors (partial repetitions), are directly related to the strength of these outdated representations. Additionally, we have demonstrated that introducing a surprising stimulus can inhibit or facilitate binding/retrieval of these conjunctions, depending on how and when these surprises take place.