Backward-compatibility effects with irrelevant stimulus-response overlap: the case of the SNARC effect

In 3 dual-task experiments, the relationship between primary-task response (R1) and secondary-task response (R2) was varied. In general, R1-left responses were faster when followed by the word one, and right responses were faster when followed by the word two. This backward-compatibility (BWC) effec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of general psychology 2004-10, Vol.131 (4), p.411-425
Main Authors: Caessens, Bernie, Hommel, Bernhard, Reynvoet, Bert, van der Goten, Koen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention
Cognitive models
Experiments
Eyes & eyesight
Female
Humans
Male
Mathematics
Mental Processes
Parity
Response time
Sensory perception
Space Perception
Task Performance and Analysis
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Summary:In 3 dual-task experiments, the relationship between primary-task response (R1) and secondary-task response (R2) was varied. In general, R1-left responses were faster when followed by the word one, and right responses were faster when followed by the word two. This backward-compatibility (BWC) effect indicated (a) that activation of R2 was not delayed until R1 selection was completed, and (b) that activation of the vocal responses was accompanied by the automatic activation of magnitude codes, known to be associated with spatial left-right codes (spatial-numerical association of response codes [the SNARC effect]). These findings supported the hypotheses (a) that BWC effects persist even with irrelevant R1-R2 overlap, (b) that the SNARC effect is based on associations between magnitude and spatial representations underlying response processing, and (c) that the production and perception of magnitudes relies on common codes.
ISSN:0022-1309
1940-0888