Abstract
The present report further investigates the proportion easy effect, a conflict-free version of the proportion congruent effect. In the proportion easy paradigm, it is observed that the difference in performance between easy (high contrast) and hard (low contrast) items is smaller in a task with mostly hard items relative to a task with mostly easy items. This effect has been interpreted as evidence for temporal learning: participants learn a faster pace (i.e., rhythm of responding) in the mostly easy context, which boosts the contrast effect, and a slower pace in the mostly hard context. In the present experiment, intervals between trials were either fixed or randomly varied from trial to trial. Interestingly, the proportion easy effect was still present with variable intervals. These data suggest that participants do not learn the regularity in timing from one response to the next (which was highly inconsistent with variable intervals). As one alternative, participants might be learning the intervals between stimulus onset and responses, which were not manipulated. They could then use this learned timing information to prepare for responding at the anticipated time, resulting in rhythmic responding. The results further imply that variable response-stimulus intervals are insufficient for controlling for rhythmic biases.
Highlights
Often when meaning to study cognitive processes that are responsive to the informational content of stimuli, researchers are accidentally studying rhythmic biases
The typical account of this proportion congruent effect is in terms of conflict adaptation (e.g., Cohen et al, 1990; Lindsay and Jacoby, 1994; Botvinick et al, 2001)
The experiment tests whether predictability in the timing of events plays a role in rhythmic responding
Summary
Often when meaning to study cognitive processes that are responsive to the informational content of stimuli, researchers are accidentally studying rhythmic biases (e.g., see Lupker et al, 1997; Grosjean et al, 2001). In the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935), participants respond to the print color of color words, and performance is worse on incongruent trials (e.g., the word “green” in red) relative to congruent trials (e.g., “red” in red). This congruency effect is smaller when trials are mostly incongruent (e.g., 75% incongruent, 25% congruent) relative to when trials are mostly congruent (e.g., 75% congruent, 25% incongruent). It is argued that when conflict is frequent, attentional control is increased, leading to a diminished effect of the word on performance. Informational conflict between the word and color leads to adjustments in attention
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