The forced-response method: Urgency rediscovered

Lee et al. (2025) presented their "forced-response method", in which performance in a cognitive control task is assessed as a function of the time a target stimulus is visible (within a reaction time), in a situation with time pressure for responding. In the existing literature, this experimental approach has been referred to as the compelled-response paradigm or the urgent paradigm. Replicating earlier findings by also applying the method to the flanker task of cognitive control, Lee et al. found that urgency opens up a time window in which stimulus-driven processing overtakes cognitively controlled processing and leads to actions against current intentions (as per task instructions). Taken together, this demonstrates how the method captures the temporal evolution of performance in high resolution, providing a window into the dynamics of cognitive processing in cognitive control tasks. However, urgency may induce a specific mental state, akin to phasic alertness as a state of response and perceptual readiness. Therefore, it is an open question how the method differs from standard assessments of cognitive control and in what way it provides a better alternative.