Spatial stimulus-response compatibility and negative priming

According to Kornblum's (1992) dimensional overlap model, when an incongruent response to a stimulus is required, automatic activation of the congruent response must first be inhibited. Shiu and Kornblum (1996a) provided evidence for such inhibition in an incongruent symbolic negative priming task. Reaction time was longer when a trial's correct response was the name of the stimulus from the previous trial than when it was not. We report three experiments that test this inhibition hypothesis for spatial stimuli and responses. In Experiment 1, which used a spatial mapping analogous to the symbolic mapping used by Shiu and Kornblum (1996a), a similar negative priming effect was found. However, in Experiments 2 and 3, which used mappings that were conducive to simple transformational rules, a positive priming effect was obtained. The results suggest that inhibition in response selection may depend on the complexity of the relations between the stimuli and responses.     

Stimulus-set location does not affect orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility

In two-choice tasks for which stimuli and responses vary along orthogonal dimensions, one stimulus-response mapping typically yields better performance than another. For unimanual movement responses, the hand used to respond, hand posture (prone or supine), and response eccentricity influence this orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect. All accounts of these phenomena attribute them to response-related processes. Two experiments examined whether manipulation of stimulus-set position along the dimension on which the stimuli varied influences orthogonal SRC in a manner similar to the way that response location does. The experiments differed in whether the stimulus dimension was vertical and the response dimension horizontal, or vice versa. In both experiments, an advantage of mapping up with right and down with left was evident for several response modes, and stimulus-set position had no influence on the orthogonal SRC effect. The lack of effect of stimulus-set position is in agreement with the emphasis that present accounts place on response-related processes. We favor a multiple asymmetric codes account, for which the present findings imply that the polarity of stimulus codes does not vary across task contexts although the polarity of response codes does.     

Transfer effects of incompatible location-relevant mappings on a subsequent visual or auditory Simon task

Two experiments investigated the influence of practice with an incompatible mapping of left and right stimuli to keypress responses on performance of a subsequent Simon task, for which stimulus location was irrelevant, after a delay of 5 min or 1 week. In Experiment 1, the visual Simon effect was eliminated when the practice modality was auditory and reversed to favor noncorresponding responses when it was visual, and there was no significant effect of delay interval. In Experiment 2, significant auditory Simon effects were obtained that did not vary as a function of practice modality, with delay having only a marginal effect on the magnitude of the Simon effect. The elimination of the visual Simon effect in the transfer session is most likely due to the short-term stimulus-response associations defined for the incompatible spatial mapping remaining active during the transfer session. Because the auditory Simon effect is stronger than the visual one, more practice with the incompatible mapping may be necessary to produce reliable transfer effects for it.     

The role of instructions,practice, and stimulus-hand correspondence on the Simon effect

Numerous studies of two-choice reaction tasks, including auditory and visual Simon tasks (i.e., tasks in which stimulus location is irrelevant) and visual compatibility tasks, have found that only spatial stimulus-response (S-R) correspondence affected S-R compatibility. Their results provided no indication that stimulus-hand correspondence was a significant factor. However, Wascher et al. (2001) suggested that hand coding plays a role in visual and auditory Simon tasks when the instructions are in terms of the finger/hand used for responding. The present experiments examined whether instructing subjects in terms of response locations or fingers/hands influenced the Simon effect for visual and auditory tasks. In Experiments 1-3, only spatial S-R correspondence contributed significantly to the Simon effect, even when the instructions were in terms of the fingers/hands. However, in Experiment 4, which used auditory stimuli and finger/hand instructions, the contribution of stimulus-hand correspondence increased with practice.     

The Simon effect with wheel-rotation responses

The authors examined clockwise and counterclockwise wheel-rotation responses to high- or low-pitched tones presented in participants' (N = 96, Experiment 1; N = 48, Experiment 2; N = 48, Experiment 3) left and right ears. In Experiment 1, a Simon effect (fastest responding when tone location and direction of wheel turn corresponded) was obtained when participants' hands were at the top or middle of the wheel but not at the bottom. With the bottom hand placement, a Simon effect was induced by instructions emphasizing hand movements but not by instructions emphasizing wheel movements (Experiment 2), and by a visual cursor controlled by the wheel but not one triggered by the response (Experiment 3). The results of the experiments showed that the nature of the task and the instructed action goal influence the direction of the Simon effect.     

Processing irrelevant location information: Practice and transfer effects in choice-reaction tasks

Left or right keypresses to a relevant stimulus dimension are faster when the stimulus location, although irrelevant, corresponds with that of the response than when it does not. This phenomenon, called the Simon effect, persisted across 1,800 trials of practice, although its magnitude was reduced. Practice with the relevant stimulus dimension presented at a centered location had little influence on the magnitude of the Simon effect when irrelevant location was varied subsequently, and practice with location irrelevant prior to performing with location relevant slowed responses. After practice responding to stimulus location with an incompatible spatial mapping, the Simon effect was reversed (i.e., responses were slower when stimulus location corresponded with response location) when location was made irrelevant. When the response keys were labeled according to the relevant stimulus dimension (the Hedge and Marsh [1975] task variation), this reversal from practice with a spatially incompatible mapping was found for both the congruent and the incongruent relevant stimulus-response mappings. Thus, task-defined associations between stimulus location and response location affect performance when location is changed from relevant to irrelevant, apparently through producing automatic activation of the previously associated response.     

The effects of sex and sex-role concept on self-disclosure

Socialization into traditional sex-role concepts has been offered as an explanation of sex differences in self-disclosure. The present experiment tested a derivation of this hypothesis: Androgynous males would self-disclose more intimately than sex-typed males. A 2×2×2×2 factorial design was used with sex of subject, sex-role concept of subject, sex of target person, and disclosure level of target person as the independent variables. The results failed to demonstrate an overall difference between androgynous and sex-typed males, while significant sex differences and a strong reciprocity effect were obtained. With both male and female subjects, androgynous subjects did disclose more than sex-typed subjects when the target person had exhibited high disclosure. The findings are discussed in terms of two hypotheses: (1) compliance to a social norm regarding male disclosure to strangers; (2) flexibility of the disclosing behavior of androgynous subjects.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., March 1978. The authors are indebted to two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions concerning this article.     

Imaginal correlates of self-reported fear and avoidance behavior

Two analogue studies explored the relationship between the content of subjects' imagery and both behavioral avoidance and self-reports of fear. In the first study, reports of aversive imagery in a fearful situation were much more frequent among high- as compared to low-avoidance subjects. Reports of aversive imagery were found significantly associated with both fear and avoidance behavior. In the second study, findings were extended, indicating that imagery content is associated with fear and avoidance when subjects imagine themselves in a fearful situation as well as when they are actually in one. This suggested some degree of functional equivalence between imagined and real situations. However, no relationship was found between image clarity and either fear or avoidance. Since imagery appears to play an important role in mediating fearful behavior, manipulation of imagery might serve as an effective treatment strategy.     

Escalating schedules of incentives increase physical activity with no differences between deposit and no-deposit groups: A systematic replication

Physical inactivity has increasingly affected public health in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic as it is associated with chronic diseases such as arthritis, cancer, and heart disease. Contingency management has been shown to increase physical activity. Therefore, the present study sought to evaluate the effects of an escalating schedule of monetary reinforcement with a reset contingency on physical activity, as compared between 2 counterbalanced groups in which a monetary deposit of $25 was either required (deposit group) or not (no-deposit group). Twenty-five adults wore Fitbit accelerometers to monitor step counts. An ABA reversal design was used; in the 2 baseline phases, no programmed contingencies were in place for step counts. During intervention, step goals were set using a modified 70^th percentile schedule with a 7-day window: Reaching the first goal would result in $0.25, and incentives increased by $0.25 for each subsequent day in which the goal was met. Failure to reach a goal resulted in a reset of the monetary incentive value to $0.25. Ten out of 12 participants from the deposit group were determined to be responders to intervention, whereas 8 out of 13 participants from the no-deposit group were determined to be responders to intervention. Overall, there were no significant differences between the groups' step counts. However, the deposit group's intervention was cheaper to implement, which suggests that deposit contracts are a viable modification for physical activity interventions.     

A deficit in older adults' effortful selection of cued responses

J. J. Adam et al. (1998) provided evidence for an "age-related deficit in preparing 2 fingers on 2 hands, but not on 1 hand" (p. 870). Instead of having an anatomical basis, the deficit could result from the effortful processing required for individuals to select cued subsets of responses that do not coincide with left and right subgroups. The deficit also could involve either the ultimate benefit that can be attained or the time required to attain that benefit. The authors report 3 experiments (Ns = 40, 48, and 32 participants, respectively) in which they tested those distinctions by using an overlapped hand placement (participants alternated the index and middle fingers of the hands), a normal hand placement, and longer precuing intervals than were used in previous studies. The older adults were able to achieve the full precuing benefit shown by younger adults but required longer to achieve the maximal benefit for most pairs of responses. The deficit did not depend on whether the responses were from different hands, suggesting that it lies primarily in the effortful processing required for those subsets of cued responses that are not selected easily.