A suppressing effect of response selection on immediate arousal in a choice reaction task

A clear conflict exists between experiments showing either additive or interactive effects of foreperiod duration and S-R compatibility on choice reaction time. It is hypothesized that in principle S-R compatibility and foreperiod duration have additive effects but that the effect of foreperiod duration is reduced in conditions where a signal is immediately arousing and where the S-R relations are highly compatible. In the case of low S-R compatibility the effect of immediate arousal is supposed to be ineffective.This hypothesis is tested and confirmed in an experiment in which the combined effects of foreperiod duration and S-R compatibility were studied with either loud (85 dBA) or weak (45 dBA) auditory signals. As predicted, additive effects were found in the latter case, while an interaction was observed with 85 dBA signals.     

Parallel patterns of spatial compatibility and spatial congruence…as long as you don't look too closely

The effects of spatial compatibility and spatial congruence have both been explained in terms of a dual-route model under which spatial information about the stimulus, regardless of task relevance, is directly passed from perception to action. Recently, however, some alternatives to the dual-route model of the Simon Effect have been proposed (or re-introduced) as viable explanations. The present experiment compared the magnitudes of the effects of spatial compatibility and spatial congruence across a range of tasks that varied in their dimensional overlap. The results exhibited a remarkable parallel between the two phenomena when viewed only in terms of the interaction between stimulus set and response set. This could be taken as new evidence for a common origin. However, when the entire pattern of results was examined, a large difference between compatibility and congruence were also seen, which implies that there is at least one important difference between the two phenomena.     

The way irrelevant dimensions are processed depends on what they overlap with: The case of Stroop- and Simon-like stimuli

Summary According to the dimensional-overlap model (Kornblum, 1992), irrelevant dimensions that overlap with a stimulus dimension (e. g., Stroop-type stimuli) are processed by a different stage than those that overlap with the response (e. g., Simon-type stimuli). We show that the effects of these two types of overlap are additive, thus supporting the model's hypothesis. We also show that the time course of facilitation and interference is different for these two types of overlap.     

Spatial compatibility of signal-response position in pointing

Two experiments are reported in which, by means of a pointing task, we studied the stimulus-position effect, i.e. the inverted U-shape form of the reaction-time function in relation to stimulus position in tasks in which stimuli and/or responses are arranged in a horizontal array. The response consisted of aiming the index finger from a central starting point at a target area on a screen. Reaction time was the main dependent variable. The spatial relation between the position of the imperative signal and the position of the response was manipulated by varying the spatial S-R compatibility and physical distance that separated the positions of stimulus and response. The stimulus-position effect was shown to depend on the compatibility of the S-R relation (Exp. 1). In Exp. 2 it was found that the modulation of the stimulus-position effect by spatial compatibility disappeared completely when the distance between the positions of stimulus and response was reduced. None of the experiments revealed that the stimulus position effect depended on signal discriminability, which renders an interpretation of this effect in terms of perceptual processes unlikely. We argue that the attentional model of spatial coding provides the most reasonable explanation of the obtained reaction-time patterns.     

Selective effects of barbiturate and amphetamine on information processing and response execution

In a 3 × 2 × 2 factoral experiment, 12 subjects carried out a choice reaction task with reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) as response measures.Independent variables were drug treatment (amphetamine, barbiturate, placebo), visual stimulus degradation and S-R compatibility. Visual stimulus degradation and S-R compatibility showed additive effect on the RT, but did not affect the MT. This confirms that stimulus encoding, response selection and response execution represent independent processing stages. The two drugs had selective effects on the RT and the MT. Barbiturate (as compared to placebo) had no effect on the MT, but it lengthened the RT, and this effect was additive with the effects of S-R compatibility but showed an interaction with the effects of stimulus degradation. Amphetamine (as compared to placebo) shortened the MT, but there was no significant main effect of amphetamine on the RT although the interaction with the effect of S— compatibility was significant. These results suggest that barbiturate affects stimulus encoding whereas amphetamine affects response-related processes..     

Dissociable yet tied inhibitory processes: The structure of inhibitory control

Cognitive and neural models have proposed the existence of a single inhibitory process that regulates behavior and depends on the right frontal operculum (rFO). The aim of this study was to make a contribution to the ongoing debate as to whether inhibition is a single process or is composed of multiple, independent processes. Here, within a single paradigm, we assessed the links between two inhibitory phenomena—namely, resistance to involuntary visual capture by abrupt onsets and resolving of spatial stimulus–response conflict. We did so by conducting three experiments, two involving healthy volunteers (Exps. 1 and 3), and one with the help of a well-documented patient, R.J., with selectively weakened inhibition following a lesion of the rFO. The results suggest that resistance to capture and stimulus–response conflict are independent, because (a) additive effects were found (Exps. 1 and 3), (b) capture did not correlate with compatibility effects (Exp. 1), (c) dual tasking affected the two phenomena differently (Exp. 3), and (d) a dissociation was found between the two in patient R.J. (Exp. 2). However, the results also show that these two phenomena may share some processing components, given that (a) both were affected in patient R.J., but to different degrees (Exp. 2), and (b) increasing the difficulty of dual tasking produced an increasingly negative correlation between capture and compatibility (Exp. 3), which suggests that when resources are withdrawn from the control of the former, they are used to control the latter.     

歧义句意义选择中的刺激-反应相容性效应

两个实验以汉语歧义句为材料,探讨了前后刺激语义线索在不同相容条件下歧义句意义选择的过程。结果表明(1)在歧义句意义选择中存在刺激刺激间和刺激反应间的语义线索相容性效应;(2)在刺激刺激语义线索相容条件下,刺激刺激维度会产生维度冗余增益效应并对反应维度产生增益,而在不相容或冲突条件下,在刺激刺激维度上出现知觉竞争现象,产生的侵扰或分心阻碍了对反应维度的加工;(3)只有刺激刺激维度的良好重合才有可能出现刺激反应维度上的相容性效应。     

TRoPICALS: a computational embodied neuroscience model of compatibility effects

Perceiving objects activates the representation of their affordances. For example, experiments on compatibility effects showed that categorizing objects by producing certain handgrips (power or precision) is faster if the requested responses are compatible with the affordance elicited by the size of objects (e.g., small or large). The article presents a neural-network architecture that provides a general framework to account for compatibility effects. The model was designed with a methodological approach (computational embodied neuroscience) that aims to provide increasingly general accounts of brain and behavior (4 sources of constraints are used: neuroscientific data, behavioral data, embodied systems, reproduction of learning processes). The model is based on 4 principles of brain organization that we claim underlie most compatibility effects. First, visual perception and action are organized in the brain along a dorsal neural pathway encoding affordances and a ventral pathway encoding goals. Second, the prefrontal cortex within the ventral pathway gives a top-down bias to action selection by integrating information on stimuli, context, and goals. Third, reaction times depend on dynamic neural competitions for action selection that integrate bottom-up and top-down information. The congruence or incongruence between affordances and goals explains the different reaction times found in the experiments. Fourth, as words trigger internal simulations of their referents, they can cause compatibility effects as objects do. We validated the model by reproducing and explaining 3 types of compatibility effects and showed its heuristic power by producing 2 testable predictions. We also assessed the explicative power of the model by comparing it with related models and showed how it can be extended to account for other compatibility effects.     

Action plans produce separate Simon effects for picking up and transporting objects

A common type of interaction with the environment is reaching to move an object from one location to another. We investigated the influence of spatial stimulus–response (S–R) compatibility effects on the planning of such multi-reach actions. Participants responded to a cue on their left or right side by picking up a bean (initial reach) and then placing it in a container (goal reach). In three experiments, the initial reach and the goal reach were varied so that both reaches were to opposite sides (Exp 1), the initial reach was neutral (Exp 2), and both the initial and goal reaches were on the same side (Exp 3). The participants’ reaction time to begin the initial reach was measured. Results showed that the spatial compatibility between the cue and both the initial and goal reaches contribute to the reaction time, with the relation between the cue and the initial reach playing a dominant role.     

Stimulus intensity effects on auditory and visual reaction processes.

Literature on the effect of stimulus intensity on reaction processes was reviewed. It was shown that there is no agreement as to whether intensity effects are limited to encoding or whether they are extended to later processing stages. The situation can be characterized as an asymmetry between modalities: vision is consistent with the first alternative and audition with the second.Chronometric analysis was used to bear on the question. It was shown that the effects of visual intensity and foreperiod (FP) are additive in a simple RT situation both for constant and mixed blocks FP. Auditory intensity and FP interact in both simple and two-choice situations. In a control experiment visual intensity and S-R compatibility were found to be additive. The asymmetry was accounted for by auditory alerting, previously discussed by several authors.The framework of stimulus intensity research utilizing RT measures was briefly evaluated.     

Processing linguistic and perceptual dimensions of speech: interactions in speeded classification.

Performance on selective-attention and divided-attention tasks shows strong and consistent interactions when participants rapidly classify auditory stimuli whose linguistic and perceptual dimensions (the words low vs. high, low and high pitch, low and high position in space) share common labels. Compared with baseline performance, response times were greater when one or two irrelevant dimensions varied (Garner interference) and when combinations of attributes were incongruent rather than congruent (congruence effects). Performance depended only on the congruence relationships between the relevant dimension and each of the irrelevant dimensions and not on the congruence relationships between the irrelevant dimensions themselves. In selective attention, an additive multidimensional model accounts well for the patterns of both Garner interference and congruence effects.     

Undoing suggestive influence on memory: The reversibility of the eyewitness misinformation effect

Presenting inconsistent postevent information about a witnessed incident typically decreases the accuracy of memory reports concerning that event (the misinformation effect). Surprisingly, the reversibility of the effect (after an initial occurrence) has remained largely unexplored. Based on a memory conversion theoretical framework and associated refined assessment strategy, we report three experiments to demonstrate that suggestive influence can be completely undone. Initially established misinformation effects were eliminated - even after a period of 5weeks (Exp. 3) - through (a) an enlightenment procedure ensuring an adequate representation of the memory task as a search for potentially two contradictory items (instead of "the" single "correct" answer) and (b) using a memory state test that unconfounds the performance contributions of item and source memory by assessing them separately. Specifically, memory for original event details that were the target of misinformation was restored to the level of non-misled control performance, and even beyond (Exp. 3). This remarkable reversibility of misinformation influence highlights the central role of memory conversion processes in the misinformation effect (but does not principally exclude the contribution of traditional interference processes). We discuss the compatibility of our findings with previous research and make suggestions for real-world eyewitness interrogation.     

An additive factor analysis of the effects of sleep loss on reaction processes

Two experiments are reported on the mutual relations between the effects of sleep loss and those of signal degradation, S-R compatibility, stimulus intensity and signal modality (auditory vs. visual) on reaction time. Additional variables were time-on-task and time-of-test. The results show a pronounced interaction between the effects of sleep loss and of signal degradation, while additive effects were observed of sleep loss, S-R compatibility, intensity and modality. The interaction was especially pronounced in the afternoon session and increased also as a function of time-on-task. These results suggest that the effects of sleep loss are specifically related to the nature of ongoing cognitive operations rather than affecting a general state of arousal. Furthermore the mutual relations among the reaction variables did not change after sleep loss which argues in favor of the robustness of these relations, and, consequently, of the applicability of linear stage models to reaction processes.     

Effects of frequency on visual word recognition tasks: where are they?

Compared the effect of frequency on lexical decision time (LDT) with that on reaction time (RT) in four other tasks, for the same words and subjects. Exp. 1 yielded an effect on semantic categorization RT (person vs. thing) similar in size and form to the effect on LDT. Exp. 2 yielded a substantial effect for syntactic categorization (noun vs. adjective), although weaker than the effect on LDT. In Exp. 3, the effect on naming RT for stress-final disyllabic words was identical to that on LDT, whereas the effect for stress-initial words was weaker. Exp. 4 showed no effect of frequency on delayed naming RT. The data undermine recent arguments for a (mainly) postidentification task-specific locus of frequency effects but are compatible with the older assumption (also characteristic of new PDP learning models) that lexical identification is a major locus of frequency effects (perhaps together with retrieval of meaning or phonology). But effects at that locus may be masked or diluted by other processes.     

Role of serial order in the impact of talker variability on short-term memory: testing a perceptual organization-based account

In two experiments, we examined the impact of the degree of match between sequential auditory perceptual organization processes and the demands of a short-term memory task (memory for order vs. item information). When a spoken sequence of digits was presented so as to promote its perceptual partitioning into two distinct streams by conveying it in alternating female (F) and male (M) voices (FMFMFMFM)—thereby disturbing the perception of true temporal order—recall of item order was greatly impaired (as compared to recall of item identity). Moreover, an order error type consistent with the formation of voice-based streams was committed more quickly in the alternating-voice condition (Exp. 1). In contrast, when the perceptual organization of the sequence mapped well onto an optimal two-group serial rehearsal strategy—by presenting the two voices in discrete clusters (FFFFMMMM)—order, but not item, recall was enhanced (Exp. 2). The results are consistent with the view that the degree of compatibility between perceptual and deliberate sequencing processes is a key determinant of serial short-term memory performance. Alternative accounts of talker variability effects in short-term memory, based on the concept of a dedicated phonological short-term store and a capacity-limited focus of attention, are also reviewed.     

Interference effects in an auditory Stroop task: congruence and correspondence

Two auditory Stroop experiments are reported in which subjects responded vocally to the gender of the speaker of stimulus words. The interference effects found were broadly similar to those of a manual-response auditory Stroop paradigm although response-set effects appeared to operate in the data. In all experimental conditions responses were slower to stimulus words which named potential responses than to those words which did not. Such effects have not been found in previous manual-response experiments and it is suggested that the relatively high degree of S-R and of ideomotor compatibility in the vocal response task, compared with the manual task, may be responsible for this difference between the paradigms.The second experiment enabled a comparison to be made between the effects of congruence between relevant and irrelevant elements of the Stroop stimulus and the effects of correspondence between the response and the irrelevant aspect of the stimulus. A predominant influence of congruence was found when the subject responded using words semantically related to speaker gender, but an effect of correspondence was obtained when an arbitrary pairing of response word and speaker gender was required.     

Stimulus congruence and the Simon effect

Summary A standard experimental procedure was implemented with novel response requirements to assess the hypothesis that the Simon effect is attributable not to the irrelevant stimulus-response relationship, but to the congruence between stimulus attributes. The stimulus ensemble consisted of the words LEFT and RIGHT, one of which was presented on each trial to the left or right of a central fixation point. The distinctive feature of the task is that subjects were asked to respond, by laterally placed keys, whether or not the stimulus word was in accord (i. e., congruent) with its location on the display. Asking subjects to judge stimulus congruence directly enables the effect of congruence to be assessed, as well as independent estimates of the two irrelevant S-R relationships that apply in the task — that is, between the response location and (1) the stimulus location (the Simon effect) and (2) the stimulus word (the reverse Simon effect). Marked effects were obtained in all three cases. Stimulus congruence remains in contention as a factor in the explanation of the Simon effect, but the strong effects of irrelevant S-R factors suggest that a more comprehensive account of the Simon effect is needed. An explanation in terms of stimulus salience, based on an interactive activational model, is briefly discussed.     

An information-processing approach to attribution of responsibility

The research literature on defensive attribution of responsibility is reviewed within the framework of a nonmotivational information-processing model which proposes that attributed responsibility is a function of the difference between the perceived contingent probability (congruence) of an outcome, given a perpertrator's behavior, and the noncontingent probability (prior expectancy) of that outcome. Results of previous research on effects of the characteristics of outcomes, perpetrator, and victim on responsibility ratings are reinterpreted in terms of the influence these factors have on estimates of congruence and prior expectancy. Secondary analyses of data from a recent study of causal reasoning resulted in a correlation of .78 between attribution of responsibility and a simple additive model of estimated contingent and prior probabilities of an accident.     

Audiovisual interactions depend on context of congruency

In this study, we addressed how the particular context of stimulus congruency influences audiovisual interactions. We combined an audiovisual congruency task with a proportion-of-congruency manipulation. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that the perceived duration of a visual stimulus is modulated by the actual duration of a synchronously presented auditory stimulus. In the following experiments, we demonstrated that this crossmodal congruency effect is modulated by the proportion of congruent trials between (Exp. 2) and within (Exp. 4) blocks. In particular, the crossmodal congruency effect was reduced in the context with a high proportion of incongruent trials. This effect was attributed to changes in participants' control set as a function of the congruency context, with greater control applied in the context where the majority of the trials were incongruent. These data contribute to the ongoing debate concerning crossmodal interactions and attentional processes. In sum, context can provide a powerful cue for selective attention to modulate the interaction between stimuli from different sensory modalities.