Automatic response activation of implicit spatial information: Evidence from the SNARC effect

Abstract

In the present paper, we focus on how irrelevant implicit spatial information is processed. By irrelevant we mean information that is not required to fulfill the task and by implicit we mean information that is not directly available in the external stimulus. A good example of a task in which such information exists is the SNARC task [Dehaene, S., Bossini, S., & Giraux, P. (1993). The mental representation of parity and number magnitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 371–396]. The SNARC effect shows that the magnitude of a number, although irrelevant to the task, activates spatial codes that may interfere with the task-related response. These spatial associations exist both for the horizontal and the vertical direction. In Experiment 1, response keys were discriminating in the vertical or the horizontal direction. It is shown that the impact of the numerical spatial codes on overt behavior, although automatic, depends on the response discrimination of the horizontal or the vertical dimension. In Experiment 2, response keys were assigned such that both the horizontal and the vertical direction of the response were discriminating. In this case, the horizontal and the vertical dimension of the irrelevant numerical spatial codes were shown to interact. In general, the results are in line with the response-discrimination account [Ansorge, U., & Wühr, P. (2004). A response-discrimination account of the Simon effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 30, 365–377].