Influence of preparatory schema on the speed of responses to spatially compatible and incompatible stimuli

Abstract

We investigated the inhibitory regulation of perceptual–motor processing streams in a task that switched between spatially compatible and incompatible stimulus–response mappings. Thirty male and female college‐aged participants performed a reaction time (RT) task in which the response was either spatially compatible or not depending on a cue immediately preceding the stimulus. The cue‐to‐stimulus interval (CI) was either 50 or 500 ms. Incompatible mapping yielded the typical slower responses than compatible mapping at 500 ms, but not at 50 ms. Changes in cardiac interbeat interval (IBI) and performance suggested that automatic responses to compatible stimuli were suppressed at 50 ms. Both performance and IBI changes as well as individual differences in these measures suggested a precue preparatory schema or set biased toward suppressing the compatible mapping. An alternate hypothesis of a cue‐induced suppression was questioned. The results illustrate the operation of different supervisory processes in the anticipatory and online control of action.