Abstract
What is the relation between the identifiability of masked flankers and their ability to induce compatibility effects in a letter classification task? Using a within-subjects design (n=8), we first determined identification performance for two flankers (H or N) around an irrelevant target letter as a function of the time (stimulus onset asynchrony, or SOA) after which the flankers were masked. In a second condition, subjects classified the central letter of the same stimulus patterns irrespectively of the identity of the flankers. The compatibility effects increased with increasing identification performance as a function of SOA, and we found a significant compatibility effect even at an SOA at which the identifiability of the flankers did not differ significantly from zero. We discuss the statistical power of our design and an interpretation of our results in terms of a dissociation between perceptual processes and processes directly activating the motor system (direct parameter specification; cf. Neumann, 1990).
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andersen, G. J. (1990). Focused attention in three-dimensional space.Perception & Psychophysics,47, 112–120.
Bernstein, I. H., Amundson, V. E., &Schurman, D. L. (1973). Metacontrast inferred from reaction time and verbal report: Replication and comment on the Fehrer-Biederman experiment.Journal of Experimental Psychology,100, 195–201.
Bernstein, I. H., Bissonnette, V., Vyas, A., &Barclay, P. (1989). Semantic priming: Subliminal perception or context?Perception & Psychophysics,45, 153–161.
Cheesman, J., &Merikle, P. M. (1984). Priming with and without awareness.Perception & Psychophysics,36, 387–395.
Cohen, A., &Shoup, R. E. (1993). Orientation asymmetry in the flanker task.Perception & Psychophysics,53, 693–703.
Coles, M. G. H., Gratton, G., Bashore, T. R., Eriksen, C. W., &Donchin, E. (1985). A psychophysiological investigation of the continuous flow model of human information processing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,11, 529–553.
De Jong, R., Wierda, M., Mulder, G., &Mulder, L. J. W. (1988). The timing of response preparation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,14, 682–692.
Duncan, J. (1987). Attention and reading: Wholes and parts in shape recognition—A tutorial review. In M. Coltheart (Ed.),Attention and performance XII (pp. 39–61). Hove, U.K.: Erlbaum.
Eriksen, B. A., &Eriksen, C. W. (1974). Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task.Perception & Psychophysics,16, 143–149.
Eriksen, C. W., Coles, M. G. H., Morris, L. R., &O’Hara, W. P. (1985). An electromyographic examination of response competition.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,23, 165–168.
Eriksen, C. W., Pan, K., &Botella, J. (1993). Attentional distribution in visual space.Psychological Research,56, 5–13.
Eriksen, C. W., &Schulz, D. W. (1979). Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results.Perception & Psychophysics,25, 249–263.
Fehrer, E., &Raab, E. (1962). Reaction to stimuli masked by metacontrast.Journal of Experimental Psychology,63, 143–147.
Flowers, J. H., &Wilcox, N. (1982). The effect of flanking context on visual classification: The joint contribution of interactions at different processing levels.Perception & Psychophysics,32, 581–591.
Goodale, M. A., &Milner, D. A. (1992). Separate visual pathways for perception and action.Trends in Neurosciences,15, 20–25.
Gourevitch, V., &Galanter, E. (1967). A significance test for one parameter isosensitivity functions.Psychometrika,32, 25–33.
Graham, N. V. S. (1989).Visual pattern analyzers. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gratton, G., Coles, M. G. H., Sirevaag, E. J., Eriksen, C. W., &Donchin, E. (1988). Pre- and post-stimulus activation of response channels: A psychophysiological analysis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,14, 331–344.
Holender, D. (1986). Semantic activation without conscious perception in dichotic listening, parafoveal vision, and visual masking: A survey and appraisal.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,9, 1–23.
Jacoby, L. L., Toth, J. P., &Yonelinas, A. P. (1993). Separating con scious and unconscious influences of memory: Measuring recollection.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,122, 139–154.
Joordens, S., &Merikle, P. M. (1993). Independence or redundancy? Two models of conscious and unconscious influences.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,122, 462–467.
King-Smith, P. E., &Kulikowski, J. J. (1975). The detection of gratings by independent activation of line detectors.Journal of Physiology,247, 237–271.
King-Smith, P. E., &Kulikowski, J. J. (1981). The detection and recognition of two lines.Vision Research,21, 235–250.
LaBerge, D. (1994). Quantitative models of attention and response processes in shape identification tasks.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,38, 198–243.
LaBerge, D., Brown, V., Carter, M., Bash, D., &Hartley, A. (1991). Reducing the effects of adjacent distractors by narrowing attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,17, 65–76.
Lie, I. (1980). Visual detection and resolution as a function of retinal locus.Vision Research,20, 967–974.
Macmillan, N. A. (1986). The psychophysics of subliminal perception.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,9, 38–39.
Macmillan, N. A., &Creelman, C. D. (1991).Detection theory: A user’s guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mecklinger, A., Kramer, A. F., &Strayer, D. (1992). Event related potentials and EEG components in a semantic memory search task.Psychophysiology,29, 104–119.
Merikle, P. M. (1982). Unconscious perception revisited.Perception & Psychophysics,31, 298–301.
Miller, J. [O.] (1988). Discrete and continuous models of human information processing: Theoretical distinctions and empirical results.Acta Psychologica,67, 191–257.
Miller, J. O. (1990). Discreteness and continuity in models of human information processing.Acta Psychologica,74, 297–318.
Miller, J. [O.] (1991a). The flanker compatibility effect as a function of visual angle, attentional focus, visual transients, and perceptual load: A search for boundary conditions.Perception & Psychophysics,49, 270–288.
Miller, J. [O.] (1991b). Threshold variability in subliminal perception experiments: Fixed threshold estimates reduce power to detect subliminal effects.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,17, 841–851.
Neumann, O. (1990). Direct parameter specification and the concept of perception.Psychological Research,52, 207–215.
Neumann, O., Koch, R., Niepel, R., &Tappe, T. (1992). Reaktionszeit und zeitliches Reihenfolgeurteil: Übereinstimmung oder Dissoziation?Zeitschrift für experimentelle und angewandte Psychologie,39, 621–645.
Purcell, D. G., Stewart, A. L., &Stanovich, K. E. (1983). Another look at semantic priming without awareness.Perception & Psychophysics,34, 65–71.
Ratcliff, R. (1988). Continuous versus discrete information processing: Modeling accumulation of partial information.Psychological Review,95, 238–255.
Reingold, E. M., &Merikle, P. M. (1988). Using direct and indirect measures to study perception without awareness.Perception & Psychophysics,44, 563–575.
Rijdijk, J. P., Kroon, J. N., &van der Wildt, G. J. (1980). Contrast sensitivity as a function of position on the retina.Vision Research,20, 235–241.
Roberts, S., &Sternberg, S. (1992). The meaning of additive reaction-time effects: Tests of three alternatives. In D. E. Meyer & S. Kornblum (Eds.),Attention and performance XIV (pp. 611–653). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Schwarz, W. (1989). A new model to explain the redundant-signals effect.Perception & Psychophysics,46, 498–500.
Schwarz, W. (1990). Stochastic accumulation of information in discrete time: Comparing exact results and Wald-approximations.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,34, 229–236.
Schwarz, W. (1993). A diffusion model of early visual search: Theoretical analysis and experimental results.Psychological Research,55, 200–207.
Schweickert, R. (1992). Information, time, and the structure of mental events. In D. E. Meyer & S. Kornblum (Eds.),Attention and performance XIV (pp. 535–566). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Wolford, G., Marchak, F., &Hughes, H. (1988). Practice effects in backward masking.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,14, 101–112.
Yantis, S., &Johnston, J. C. (1990). On the locus of visual selection: Evidence from focused attention tasks.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,16, 135–149.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schwarz, W., Mecklinger, A. Relationship between flanker identifiability and compatibility effect. Perception & Psychophysics 57, 1045–1052 (1995). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03205463
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03205463