Effect of compatibility of S-R mapping on reactions toward the stimulus source

This research was concerned with separating the effects of three varieties of S-R compatibility: reactions toward the stimulus source, compatibility of S-R mapping, and display-control arrangement correspondence. In experiments 1 and 2, subjects pressed a green or red key located on the left and right in response to the onset of a green or red stimulus presented in a left or right window. Half of the subjects pressed the key which corresponded to the color of the stimulus (compatible S-R mapping) while the other half pressed the alternate colored key (incompatible S-R mapping). In the compatible mapping task, reactions were faster when location of stimulus and response corresponded than when they did not while, in the incompatible task, reactions were faster when location of stimulus and response did not correspond. This apparent reversal in the tendency to react toward the stimulus source was attributed to display- control arrangement correspondence rather than to logical recoding of the directional cue. Experiment 3 established that faster reactions toward the stimulus source occured only under compatible mapping instructions.     

The contribution of music vs instructions in the Musical Mood Induction Procedure

The relative contribution of the instructions and the music to the effects of the Musical Mood Induction Procedure (MMIP) were investigated. Using an experimental procedure which minimised covert experimenter bias, subjects performed under both elation and depression mood inductions in one of four conditions: music present or absent by mood change instructions present or absent, using a crossover design. Results indicated that instructions were both necessary and sufficient to produce change on mood sensitive measures. Mood change effects were reduced by controlling for the effect of subjects who responded so as not to ‘louse-up’ the experiment. The MMIP seems to be much less musical than the name implies. Further research is needed to determine which aspects of the instructions contribute most to the changes on mood sensitive measures.     

Modeling semantic memory: Effects of presenting semantic information in different modalities

How is semantic information from different modalities integrated and stored? If related ideas are encountered in French and English, or in pictures and sentences, is the result a single representation in memory, or two modality-dependent ones? Subjects were presented with items in different modalities, then were asked whether or not subsequently presented items were identical with the former ones. Subjects frequently accepted translations and items semantically consistent with those presented earlier as identical, although not as often as they accepted items actually seen previously. The same pattern of results was found when the items were French and English sentences, and when they were pictures and sentences. The results can be explained by the hypothesis that subjects integrate information across modalities into a single underlying semantic representation. A computer model, embodying this hypothesis, made predictions in close agreement with the data.