Lengthing the duration of response execution does not modulate blindness to action-compatible stimuli.

Action-compatible blindness refers to the finding that target stimuli are perceived less frequently if they are presented during the planning or execution of a compatible action (e.g., a left arrow presented during a left manual key press) than during an incompatible action (J. Müsseler and B. Hommel, 1997 a, b). We investigated the effect of lengthening the response execution phase in the action-compatible blindness paradigm by requiring subjects to tap a response key once or three times on the assumption that tapping three times would increase the duration of the execution phase of the response. Prior research (e.g., B. Stevanovski et al (2002); P. Wühr and J. Müsseler, [2001]) has shown that larger blindness effects are observed for targets presented during the execution phase of a response than after the response has been made. We investigated whether a larger blindness effect would be observed in the three-tap condition than in the one-tap condition, or whether lengthening the duration of the response would extend the time course of the blindness effect. Neither of these possibilities was supported by the data irrespective of whether the number of taps to be made was blocked or mixed within a block of trials. The results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can blindness to response-compatible stimuli be observed in the absence of a response?

Blindness to response-compatible stimuli is the finding that targets are identified less accurately when presented during the planning or execution of a congruent response (e.g., right arrow presented during a right keypress) versus an incongruent response (e.g., right arrow presented during a left keypress). Accounts of this effect suggest the planning and execution of a response are critical to its observation. Five experiments investigated whether a blindness effect would be observed in the absence of a planned response. Results suggest that a planned response is not necessary to observe a content-specific blindness effect and that the blindness effect may actually comprise both an action-related component and a symbolic component that is distinct from the action-planning system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blinded by headlights.

Abstract Target identification is impaired when targets are presented during the planning or execution of a compatible response (e.g., right-pointing arrow during a right keypress) relative to an incompatible response (J. Müsseler and B. Hommel, 1997 a, b). Examinations of this blindness to response-compatible stimuli have typically used arrowheads as targets. The importance of the target symbol was examined by manipulating subjects' (aged 18-30 yrs) interpretation of that symbol. Targets were presented at varying times during the planning or execution of a response in order to examine the time-course of the effect. Results showed that the interpretation, and not the physical identity, of the target was important for the blindness effect. Although the blindness effect was largest during the planning and execution of a response, it was not always confined to that temporal interval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blindness to response-compatible stimuli.

This contribution is devoted to the question of whether action-control processes may be demonstrated to influence perception. This influence is predicted from a framework in which stimulus processing and action control are assumed to share common codes, thus possibly interfering with each other. In 5 experiments, a paradigm was used that required a motor action during the presentation of a stimulus. The participants were presented with masked right- or left-pointing arrows shortly before executing an already prepared left or right keypress response. We found that the identification probability of the arrow was reduced when the to-be-executed reaction was compatible with the presented arrow. For example, the perception of a right-pointing arrow was impaired when presented during the execution of a right response as compared with that of a left response. The theoretical implications of this finding as well as its relation to other, seemingly similar phenomena (repetition blindness, inhibition of return, psychological refractory period) are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does attention affect visual feature integration?

Investigated whether (1) the integration of color and shape information is affected by attending to the stimulus location and (2) attending to a stimulus location enhances the perceptual representation of the stimulus or merely affects decision processes. In 3 experiments with 39 Ss (aged 16–38 yrs), Ss were briefly presented with colored letters. On most trials, Ss were precued to the stimulus location (valid cue); on some trials, a nonstimulus location was cued (invalid cue). Ss were less likely to combine colors and letter shapes incorrectly following a valid cue. The attentional facilitation afforded by the cue was not limited to feature integration but also affected the registration of features; however, when the amount of feature information was strictly controlled, attention still affected feature integration. It is suggested that orienting attention to the location of the cue affects the quality of the perceptual representation for features and their integration. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selecting a response in task switching: Testing a model of compound cue retrieval.

How can a task-appropriate response be selected for an ambiguous target stimulus in task-switching situations? One answer is to use compound cue retrieval, whereby stimuli serve as joint retrieval cues to select a response from long-term memory. In the present study, the authors tested how well a model of compound cue retrieval could account for a complex pattern of congruency effects arising from a procedure in which a cue, prime, and target were presented on each trial. A comparison of alternative models of prime-based effects revealed that the best model was one in which all stimuli participated directly in the process of retrieving a response, validating previous modeling efforts. Relations to current theorizing about response congruency effects and models of response selection in task switching are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related deficits in guided search using cues.

The ability of young and older adults to engage in guided conjunction search was tested in 2 experiments. In the cued condition, a picture of the target was presented before the search. In the noncued condition, there was no picture of the target. In Experiment 1, the cue was presented for 200 ms; the magnitude of the cuing effect (noncued response time - cued response time) was greater for the young than for the older observers. In Experiment 2 (older observers only), the cue duration was doubled, and older observers had a larger magnitude of cuing effect than found in Experiment 1 but not as large as what would be expected under generalized slowing. The results indicated that older observers had difficulty with interpreting the cue and setting search parameters when the target varied across trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibition of return: Sensitivity and criterion as a function of response time.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 32(5) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance (see record 2006-12344-017). On page 912, there are typographical errors in Table 1. On page 915, the last line of the left column incorrectly states that the mean response frequencies for Experiment 2 are presented within Table 2. The corrected information for both pages is presented in the erratum.] Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a mechanism that results in a performance disadvantage typically observed when targets are presented at a location once occupied by a cue. Although the time course of the phenomenon--from the cue to the target--has been well studied, the time course of the effect--from target to response--is unknown. In 2 experiments, the effect of IOR upon sensitivity and response criterion under different levels of speed stress was examined. In go/no-go and choice reaction time tasks, IOR had at least 2 distinct effects on information processing. Early in target processing, before sufficient target information has accrued, there is a bias against responding to cued targets. Later, as target information is allowed to accrue, IOR reduces sensitivity to the target's nonspatial feature. Three accounts relating to the early bias effect of IOR and the late effect of IOR on sensitivity are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The status of rapid response learning in aging.

Strong evidence exists for an age-related impairment in associative processing under intentional encoding and retrieval conditions, but the status of incidental associative processing has been less clear. In 2 experiments, we examined the effects of age on rapid response learning—the incidentally learned stimulus–response association that results in a reduction in priming when a learned response becomes inappropriate for a new task. Specifically, we tested whether priming was equivalently sensitive in both age groups to reversal of the task-specific decision cue. Experiment 1 showed that cue inversion reduced priming in both age groups with a speeded inside/outside classification task, and in Experiment 2, cue inversion eliminated priming on an associative version of this task. Thus, the ability to encode an association between a stimulus and its initial task-specific response appears to be preserved in aging. These findings provide an important example of a form of associative processing that is unimpaired in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How Much Attention Does an Event File Need?

Attentional requirements for the spontaneous integration of stimulus and response features were analyzed. In line with previous findings, carrying out a prepared response to the onset of a stimulus created bindings between the response and the features of that stimulus, thereby impairing subsequent performance on mismatching stimulus-response combinations. Findings demonstrate that a stimulus gets bound to a response even if its presence is neither necessary nor useful for the task at hand, it follows rather than precedes the response in time, it competes with a task-relevant stimulus, and if the response is suppressed-but only if the stimulus appears close to the response's eventual execution or abandonment. A multiple-integration model is suggested that assumes that the integration of stimulus features in perception and of response features in action planning are local processes that are independent of stimulus-response integration, which presumably is triggered by the success of the perception-action episode. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Inhibition of Return: Sensitivity and Criterion as a Function of Response Time": Correction to Ivanoff and Klein (2006).

Reports an error in the original article, "Inhibition of Return: Sensitivity and Criterion as a Function of Response Time" by Jason Ivanoff and Raymond M. Klein (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2006 Aug, Vol 32[4], 908-919). On page 912, there are typographical errors in Table 1. On page 915, the last line of the left column incorrectly states that the mean response frequencies for Experiment 2 are presented within Table 2. The corrected information for both pages is presented here. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2006-09006-009.) Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a mechanism that results in a performance disadvantage typically observed when targets are presented at a location once occupied by a cue. Although the time course of the phenomenon--from the cue to the target--has been well studied, the time course of the effect--from target to response--is unknown. In 2 experiments, the effect of IOR upon sensitivity and response criterion under different levels of speed stress was examined. In go/no-go and choice reaction time tasks, IOR had at least 2 distinct effects on information processing. Early in target processing, before sufficient target information has accrued, there is a bias against responding to cued targets. Later, as target information is allowed to accrue, IOR reduces sensitivity to the target's nonspatial feature. Three accounts relating to the early bias effect of IOR and the late effect of IOR on sensitivity are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibitory effects of repeating color and shape: Inhibition of return or repetition blindness?

There is a current debate regarding whether attention is influenced by stimulus attributes other than location. The present article replicates and extends previous findings that repeating the nonspatial attribute of color leads to a delay in target detection (M. B. Law, J. Pratt, & R. A. Abrams, 1995). Repetition disadvantage effects were found for the stimulus attributes of both color and shape, as well as for location. However, the nonspatial repetition disadvantage disappeared if the stimuli were presented in peripheral locations (Experiments 3a, 3b, and 4) or the cue was presented for 50 ms (Experiment 6). Moreover, the magnitude of the repetition disadvantage tended to decline as the cue–target stimulus-onset asynchrony increased (Experiments 5a, 5b, and 6). These results suggest that a repetition blindness mechanism may underlie the repetition disadvantage effects of nonspatial features, rather than an inhibition of return mechanism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional processing and the independence of color and orientation.

Judgments of the color and shape of a stimulus specified by a cue indicating its location demonstrate stochastic independence. Evidence for the independence of color and orientation was obtained when the cue followed stimulus offset immediately, the cue followed stimulus offset by 2 sec, and when either a central or peripheral precue focused attention on the cued stimulus at the time of its presentation. It appears that an object's color and orientation are represented independently even following the attentional focusing thought to support feature integration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhanced negative priming in Parkinson's disease.

In the ignored repetition paradigm, negative priming (NP) is defined as the increase in response time that occurs when the current target stimulus served as a distractor stimulus in the previous trial. In this study, 25 Parkinson's disease (PD) participants and 17 age-matched healthy controls (HCs) were tested using a touchscreen version of the ignored repetition task that allowed response time to be partitioned into response initiation and response execution segments. In both groups, NP effects were stronger in the response execution than in the response initiation segments. The most striking result was that the PD group showed larger NP effects overall than the HC group. In PD, clinical ratings of bradykinesia, but not tremor, were related to larger NP effects. Results indicate that in PD, disruption of dopamine neuromodulation diminishes response efficiency when action must be directed toward previously ignored information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response selection and response execution in task switching: Evidence from a go-signal paradigm.

The present study used a go/no-go signal delay (GSD) to explore the role of response-related processes in task switching. A go/no-go signal was presented at either 100 ms or 1,500 ms after the stimulus. Participants were encouraged to use the GSD for response selection and preparation. The data indicate that the opportunity to select and prepare a response (i.e., long GSD) resulted in a substantial reduction of task-shift costs (Experiment 1) and n-2 task-repetition costs (i.e., backward inhibition; Experiment 2) in the current trial. These results suggest that interference from the preceding trial can be resolved during response selection and preparation. Furthermore, the shift costs and the n-2 repetition costs after no-go trials with long GSD (i.e., response selection but no execution) were markedly smaller than after go trials. These findings suggest that the interference that gives rise to shift costs and n-2 repetition costs is related not solely to response selection but also to response execution. Thus, the present study demonstrates dissociable contributions of response selection and response execution to interference effects in task switching. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Flexible serial response learning by pigeons (Columba livia) and humans (Homo sapiens).

Experimental tasks designed to involve procedural memory are often rigid and unchanging, despite many reasons to expect that implicit learning processes can be flexible and support considerable variability. A version of the serial response time (SRT) task was developed, in which the locations of targets were probabilistically determined. Targets appeared in locations according to both a structured sequence and a cue validity parameter, and the time to respond to each target was measured. Pigeons (Columba livia) and humans (Homo sapiens) both showed response time facilitation at the highest tested value for cue validity, and the magnitude of that facilitation gradually weakened as cue validity was decreased. Both species showed evidence that response times were largely determined by the local predictabilities of individual cue locations. In addition, humans showed some evidence that explicit knowledge of the sequence affected response times, specifically when cue validity was 100%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A common-coding account of the bidirectional evaluation–behavior link.

Three experiments tested the influence of approach- and avoidance-related lever movements on the perception of masked affectively positive and negative stimuli. A motivational account of the bidirectional evaluation–behavior link predicted an enhanced detection of response-compatible stimuli, whereas a common-coding model predicted a reduced evaluative sensitivity toward such stimuli due to feature binding conflicts. The results consistently supported the common-coding explanation. In Experiment 1, detection (d′) of positive and negative stimuli was selectively impaired by the generation of congruent approach- and avoidance-related lever movements, respectively. This effect, referred to as action-valence blindness, was replicated in Experiment 2 and shown to depend on the evaluative meaning of the generated movement rather than on the movement per se. Experiment 3 revealed that action-valence blindness depends on a temporal overlap between movement generation and stimulus evaluation. A common-coding link between evaluation and motor behavior is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal stimulus–response compatibility.

The study of element-level stimulus–response compatibility (SRC) has predominantly focused on spatial and symbolic relationships and has involved measures of response time and (dichotomous) error rate. This article explores a new form of SRC that is observed when duration is the relevant feature of both the stimulus and the response, using a more extensive analysis of performance accuracy and variability. The results indicate that element-level SRC generalizes to situations involving time as the relevant dimension of stimuli and responses. Evidence of this was found in all of the extracted measures of performance; however, temporal SRC was shown to have independent effects on when and how accurately a response was made. Implications for SRC research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cuing and priming of cognitive operations.

The effect on performance of advance information about the specific cognitive operations to be performed on a stimulus was investigated in two experiments using cues (information useful and necessary for performance) and primes (information useful but not necessary for performance). In the first experiment, a cue presented prior to a digit stimulus indicated whether the digit was to be classified as odd or even, or low (less than 6) or high (greater than 5). Results showed that performance improved with increasing time between cue and digit and with practice. A Stroop-like asymmetric interference of the low–high operation on the odd–even operation was also observed. In the second experiment, a prime that matched the cue, mismatched it, or was neutral was presented before the cue. Results showed facilitatory and inhibitory priming effects, as well as a distance effect based on the position of a digit relative to the boundary between 5 and 6. The results of both experiments were discussed in terms of a model based on relative processing speeds of the two relevant properties of the digits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reconfiguration of processing mode prior to task performance.

Participants performed choice reaction time (RT) tasks on 2-dimensional stimuli such that each task was based on 1 stimulus dimension. A cue preceded the target stimulus and instructed the participant about which (randomly selected) task to perform. Shifting between tasks was associated with an RT cost, which was larger when the (randomly varying) cue–target interval was short as opposed to when it was long. Cue–target interval was not confounded with the remoteness from the previous trial. Hence, it affected the task-shift cost through preparation rather than by allowing carryover effects to dissipate. Similar results were obtained for 2 location tasks and for the object-based tasks (color and shape discrimination). They indicate a time-effort consuming process that operates after a task shift, precedes task execution, and presumably reflects the advance reconfiguration of processing mode. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)