In the Stroop task, congruency effects are typically larger for
color words presented mainly in their congruent color than for
color words presented mainly in incongruent colors.
However, the nature of this item-specific proportion
congruent (ISPC) effect is debated: It might be produced by
either conflict-adaptation processes (e.g., focus attention to
task-relevant information when the word BLUE appears)
and/or a more general contingency-learning process (e.g.,
anticipate a green response when the word BLUE appears).
We re-examined the role of conflict-adaptation processes in
this paradigm in two experiments. In both experiments, a
conflict-adaptation effect emerged on stimuli matched on
contingency. Further, in Experiment 2, we found separate
effects of adaptation to the frequency of conflict specific to
the color and word dimensions of individual stimuli. These
results challenge the contingency-learning account of the
ISPC effect and suggest that conflict-adaptation processes in
this paradigm may depend on both task-relevant and task-
irrelevant information.