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Influences of response-activating stimuli and passage of time on the Simon effect

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Abstract.

Two possible explanations for an interaction between the Simon effect and the flanker-congruence effect (Hommel, 1997) were tested: (1) Direct contributions by the locations of the response-activating flankers to the Simon effect, and (2) the passage of time since the target's onset. In three experiments, little evidence for both explanations was observed. The data confirmed an assumed origin of the Simon effect at the stage of response selection. Further, the results are in line with the assumption that context stimuli contribute indirectly to the Simon effect of the target (i.e., by changing the target's relative position), and extend previous findings to show that the assumption holds for clearly response-activating context stimuli, too. Finally, the results suggest that Simon effects follow different time courses depending on whether they are induced by observer-relative or context-relative target positions.

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Notes

  1. What might have caused the growth of the congruence effect with increasing response speed is not clear. In previous studies, the strength of the congruence effect was an inverted u-shaped function of the RT: It was strongest among intermediate RT, and was decreasing among slower and faster responses (Grice, Boroughs, & Canham, 1984). However, an RT function of the congruence effect similar to that of the present study was obtained by Hommel (1997). Hommel noted that at least the growth rate of the congruence effect was decreasing with increasing RT, and the current results resembled those of Hommel in this respect, too.

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Acknowledgements.

Supported by Grant No. Ne 366/6–1 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to Odmar Neumann. Thanks to Bernhard Hommel, Robert Proctor, Marc Brysbaert, Heike Hartwig-Jakobs, Manfred Heumann, Werner Klotz, and Odmar Neumann for helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, P.O. Box 100131, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany

    Ulrich Ansorge

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  1. Ulrich Ansorge
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Correspondence to Ulrich Ansorge.

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Ansorge, U. Influences of response-activating stimuli and passage of time on the Simon effect. Psychological Research 67, 174–183 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-002-0115-4

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