The influence of visual noise in the binding of irrelevant features to responses

ABSTRACT

In order to efficiently control our actions, stimuli and responses made to them are stored and integrated into event files. This integration is not restricted to relevant stimuli. Even irrelevant stimuli or features that co-occur at responding can be integrated with the response. In the presence of only one irrelevant feature, binding effects for that feature are generally observed. In the presence of more than one irrelevant features, empirical evidence is inconsistent. The present experiments tested feature-response binding effects for irrelevant features when more than one irrelevant feature was present. In two experiments feature-response binding effects for three irrelevant features (colour, shape, and location) were tested in a block-wise manner. In each block one feature was orthogonally varied to the response while the others were held constant (Experiment 1) or always changed (Experiment 2). Significant binding effects were observed for each of three features when the other two were held constant (Exp. 1). However, when the other two features were varied, significant binding effects were only observed for colour and location, but not for shape (Exp. 2). The results suggest that strength of feature-response binding effects is influenced by the variation of simultaneously presented features.