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.