Dynamics of facilitation and interference in cue-priming and Simon tasks

Abstract

In examining the selective suppression of responses activated by task-irrelevant stimulus attributes, such as in spatial conflict tasks, two different approaches have pointed to similar conclusions. In one approach (involving cue-priming procedures), variations of the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) between task-irrelevant cues and subsequent target stimuli disclosed that the cues elicit activation of the congruent response, but this activation is subsequently suppressed. In another approach, a series of studies with the Simon task led to the formulation of the activation-suppression hypothesis. Analysis of RT distributions (in particular delta plots) disclosed that the task-irrelevant stimulus location elicits activation of the spatially corresponding response, but this activation is subsequently suppressed. The strength or efficiency of selective response suppression is expressed in the slope of the delta plot. In the present study, we combined these two approaches and found that the effects of SOA manipulation and the results of the distributional analysis converged and were positively correlated, suggesting that they involve a common mechanism of response activation followed by the selective suppression of that activation.