Practice reduces set-specific capture costs only superficially

Contingent attentional capture costs are doubled or tripled under certain conditions when multiple attentional sets guide visual search (e.g., “search for green letters” and “search for orange letters”). Such “set-specific” capture occurs when a potential target that matches one attentional set (e.g., a green stimulus) impairs the ability to identify a temporally proximal target that matches another attentional set (e.g., an orange stimulus). In the present study, we examined whether these severe set-specific capture effects could be attenuated through training. In Experiment 1, half of participants experienced training consisting of mostly trials involving a set switch from distractor to target, while the other half experienced training consisting of mostly trials in which a set switch was not required. Upon test, participants trained on set switches produced greatly reduced set-specific capture effects compared to their own pretraining levels and compared to participants trained on trials without a set switch. However, in Experiments 2 and 3, we found that these training effects did not transfer to a new color context or even a single new target color, indicating that they were specific and involved low-level associative learning. We concluded that set-specific capture is pervasive and largely immutable, even with practice.

     

Is more always up? Evidence for a preference of hand-based associations over vertical number mappings

It has been argued that the association of numbers and vertical space plays a fundamental role for the understanding of numerical concepts. However, convincing evidence for an association of numbers and vertical bimanual responses is still lacking. The present study tests the vertical Spatio-Numerical-Association-of-Response-Codes (SNARC) effect in a number classification task by comparing anatomical hand-based and spatial associations. A mixed effects model of linear spatial-numerical associations revealed no evidence for a vertical but clear support for an anatomical SNARC effect. Only if the task requirements prevented participants from using a number-hand association due to frequently alternating hand-to-button assignments, numbers were associated with the vertical dimension. Taken together, the present findings question the importance of vertical associations for the conceptual understanding of numerical magnitude as hypothesised by some embodied approaches to number cognition and suggest a preference for ego- over geocentric reference frames for the mapping of numbers onto space.     

The influence of thought probes on performance: Does the mind wander more if you ask it?

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Mind-wandering has emerged in the past decade as a popular topic in many areas of psychological research. Numerous studies have demonstrated the potential costs...     

Interplay between action and movement intentions during social interaction

Observing the movements of another person influences the observer's intention to execute similar movements. However, little is known about how action intentions formed prior to movement planning influence this effect. In the experiment reported here, we manipulated the congruency of movement intentions and action intentions in a pair of jointly acting individuals (i.e., a participant paired with a confederate coactor) and investigated how congruency influenced performance. Overall, participants initiated actions faster when they had the same action intention as the coactor (i.e., when participants and the coactor were pursuing the same conceptual goal). Participants' responses were also faster when their and the coactor's movement intentions were directed to the same spatial location, but only when participants had the same action intention as the coactor. These findings suggest that observers use the same representation to implement their own action intentions that they use to infer other people's action intentions and also that a dynamic, multitiered intentional mechanism is involved in the processing of other people's actions.