Conflicts During Response Selection Affect Response Programming: Reactions Toward the Source of Stimulation

In the Simon effect, participants make a left or right keypress in response to a nonspatial attribute (e.g., color) that is presented on the left or right. Reaction times (RTs) increase when the response activated by the irrelevant stimulus location and the response retrieved by instruction are in c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 2009-06, Vol.35 (3), p.816-834
Main Authors: Buetti, Simona, Kerzel, Dirk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity levels. Psychomotricity
Attention
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Choice Behavior
Cognitive Processes
College Students
Color Perception
Conflict
Deviation
Discrimination Learning
Distractibility
Experimental Psychology
Foreign Countries
Functional Laterality
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Human Body
Humans
Inhibition (Psychology)
Movement
Orientation
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Programming
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychophysics
Reaction Time
Response Parameters
Response selection
Response time
Signals
Simon Effect
Stimulation
Stimuli
Stimulus
Stimulus Parameters
Switzerland
Task Analysis
Time course
Universities
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Summary:In the Simon effect, participants make a left or right keypress in response to a nonspatial attribute (e.g., color) that is presented on the left or right. Reaction times (RTs) increase when the response activated by the irrelevant stimulus location and the response retrieved by instruction are in conflict. The authors measured RTs and movement parameters (MPs) of pointing responses in a typical Simon task. Their results show that the trajectories veer toward the imperative stimulus. This bias decreased as RTs increased. The authors suggest that the time course of trajectory deviations reflects the resolution of the response conflict over time. Further, time pressure did not affect the size of the Simon effect in MPs or its time course, but strongly reduced the Simon effect in RTs. In contrast, response selection before the onset of a go signal on the left or right did not affect the Simon effect in RTs, but reduced the Simon effect in MPs and reversed the time course. The authors speculate about independent Simon effects associated with response selection and programming.
ISSN:0096-1523
1939-1277
DOI:10.1037/a0011092