Distractor repetitions retrieve previous responses and previous targets: Experimental dissociations of distractor–response and distractor–target bindings.

Abstract

Even an irrelevant distractor stimulus is integrated into event files. Subsequently repeating the distractor triggers retrieval of the event file; however, an unresolved issue concerns the question of what is retrieved by the distractor. While recent studies predominantly assume that the distractor retrieves the previous response, it is also possible that distractor repetition triggers retrieval of the previous target stimulus. In 3 experiments, we dissociated distractor-response and distractor-target binding processes using a sequential distractor-to-distractor repetition paradigm. In Experiment 1, response relation and target relation were manipulated orthogonally; results yielded independent evidence for both mechanisms. Experiment 2 provided distinct evidence for distractor-target binding and retrieval by avoiding response repetitions of any kind. Experiment 3 provided distinct evidence for distractor-response binding and retrieval by eliminating target stimuli. We conclude that both distractor-target and distractor-response binding reflect independent processes in the service of behavior automatization.