Abstract
The Simon effect can be reversed, favoring spatially noncorresponding responses, when people respond to stimulus colors (e.g., green) by pressing a key labeled with the alternative color (i.e., red). This Hedge and Marsh reversal is most often attributed to transfer of logical recoding rules from the color dimension to the location dimension. A recent study showed that this transfer of logical recoding rules can occur not only within a single task but also across two separate tasks that are intermixed. The present study investigated the conditions that determine the transfer of logical recoding rules across tasks. Experiment 1 examined whether it occurs in a transfer paradigm, that is when the two tasks are performed separately, but provided little support for this possibility. Experiment 2 investigated the role of task-set readiness, using a mixed-task paradigm with a predictable trials sequence, which indicated that there is no transfer of task-defined rules across tasks even when they are highly active during the Simon task. Finally, Experiments 3 and 4 used a mixed-task paradigm, where trials of the two tasks were mixed randomly and unpredictably, and manipulated the amount of feature overlap between tasks. Results indicated that task similarity is a determining factor for transfer of task-defined rules to occur. Overall, the study provides evidence that transfer of logical recoding rules tends to occur across two tasks when tasks are unpredictably intermixed and use stimuli that are highly similar and confusable.
References
1994). Conditional and unconditional automaticity: A dual-process model of effects of spatial stimulus-response correspondence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 731–750.
(1975). The effect of irrelevant spatial correspondences on two-choice response time. Acta Psychologica, 39, 427–439.
(1990). Dimensional overlap: Cognitive basis for stimulus-response compatibility – A model and taxonomy. Psychological Review, 97, 253–270.
(2012). Instruction-based task-rule congruency effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 38, 1325–1335.
(1995). The influence of irrelevant location information on performance: A review of the Simon and spatial Stroop effects. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2, 174–207.
(2000). Mixing location-relevant and location-irrelevant choice-reaction tasks: Influences of location mapping on the Simon effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 1515–1533.
(2011). Between-task transfer of learning from spatial compatibility to a color Stroop task. Experimental Psychology, 58, 473–479.
(1993). Do the same stimulus-response relations influence choice reactions initially and after practice? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 19, 922–930.
(1999). Processing irrelevant location information: Practice and transfer effects in choice-reaction tasks. Memory & Cognition, 27, 63–77.
(2000). Mixing incompatibly mapped location-relevant trials with location-irrelevant trials: Effects of stimulus mode on the reverse Simon effect. Psychological Research, 64, 11–24.
(2011). Reaction-time distribution analysis of spatial correspondence effects. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 242–266.
(2010). Stimulus-response compatibility for mixed mappings and tasks with unique responses. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 320–340.
(2007). Transfer of noncorresponding spatial associations to the auditory Simon task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 245–253.
(2009). Influence of visual stimulus mode on transfer of acquired spatial associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 434–445.
(1995). Costs of a predictable switch between simple cognitive tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, 207–231.
(1990). The effects of an irrelevant directional cue on human information processing. In , Stimulus-response compatibility: An integrated perspective (pp. 31–86). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North-Holland.
(1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643–662.
(2000). The role of LTM links and STM links in the Simon effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 648–670.
(2010). Influence on Simon and SNARC effects of a nonspatial stimulus-response mapping: Between-task logical recoding. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 36, 1239–1254.
(2007). Influences on the Simon effect of prior practice with spatially incompatible mappings: Transfer within and between horizontal and vertical dimensions. Memory & Cognition, 35, 1463–1471.
(2009). Transfer of learning in choice reactions: Contributions of specific and general components of manual responses. Acta Psychologica, 130, 1–10.
(2011). Automaticity without extensive training: The role of memory retrieval in automatic implementation of task-defined rules. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 347–354.
(1995). A computational model of the Simon effect. Psychological Research, 58, 193–205.
(