Abstract
Binding theories assume that features of stimuli and executed responses can be integrated together in one event file (Hommel, Visual Cognition, 5, 183–216, 1998; Hommel, Cognitive Sciences, 8, 494–500, 2004). Every reencounter with one or more of the stored features leads to an automatic retrieval of the previously constructed event file and hence of the response—even the repetition of a task-irrelevant distractor stimulus can retrieve a previously encoded response. This so-called distractor–response binding effect is typically investigated using a sequential prime-probe design that allows the orthogonal variation of response relation (response repetition vs. resporrevertnse change) and distractor relation (distractor repetition vs. distractor change), while probe response times and error rates are measured as dependent variable. Previous research has shown that task-relevant stimuli can be represented at different levels (e.g., perceptual and conceptual; see Henson et al., Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18, 376–384, 2014), yet it is not clear at which level of representation distractor stimuli are processed. In the present study, we focused on the level of representation of response-irrelevant distractor stimuli. To this end, a crossmodal distractor–response binding paradigm was used that enables the differentiation between the perceptual and conceptual representation of the distractor by allowing the systematic repetition and change of conceptual distractor features independent of perceptual repetitions. The results suggest that the repetition of perceptual distractor features is indispensable for the initiation of the retrieval process while the sole repetition of conceptual distractor features is not sufficient to start the retrieval process.
Highlights
Binding theories assume that features of stimuli and executed responses can be integrated together in one event file (Hommel, Visual Cognition, 5, 183–216, 1998; Hommel, Cognitive Sciences, 8, 494–500, 2004)
The distractor–response binding effect arises in the interaction of the factors distractor relation and response relation: Repeating a distractor in the probe enhances performance in case of response repetition, while performance is impaired if a different response is required in the probe
Trials shorter than 100 ms or longer than 1.5 interquartile ranges above the third quartile of the reaction time (RT) distribution of each participant (Tukey, 1977) were not included in analysis. This resulted in a total of 13.87% of the data being excluded from the RT analysis: 5.03% of the trials were excluded because of erroneous responses in the prime, 4.45% of the trials were excluded because of erroneous responses in the probe, and 4.39% due to the RT outlier criteria
Summary
Binding theories assume that features of stimuli and executed responses can be integrated together in one event file (Hommel, Visual Cognition, 5, 183–216, 1998; Hommel, Cognitive Sciences, 8, 494–500, 2004). One of the interesting research questions in the binding literature is whether stimulus features can be encoded and retrieved at different levels of representation (e.g., perceptual or abstract/semantic; Henson et al, 2014; Horner & Henson, 2011) This question arises for the representation of response-relevant target stimuli and for the representation of response-irrelevant distractor stimuli (that is, in the context of the present study, distractors that are never mapped to a response and are completely task irrelevant). The authors observed that the repetition of a distractor at a conceptual level could retrieve a previously executed response, the perceptual distractor features changed (i.e., repeating the identity of the animal in a different modality). The existing evidence is not clear about whether distractor-based retrieval can operate at the level of conceptual distractor representations, without additional assumptions like an attentional set that comprises the distractor modality
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