Stimulus-response compatibility and the Simon effect: Toward a conceptual clarification.

Abstract

The current view that the Simon effect (Simon & Small, 1969) reflects stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) is questioned. Previous accounts of the Simon effect have overlooked stimulus congruity (SC), the correspondence relation borne by the two simultaneous aspects of the stimulus, a factor inevitably confounded in the Simon paradigm with irrelevant spatial S-R correspondence. The Hedge and Marsh (1975) reversal effect, replicated in Experiment 1, is reinterpreted as decisive evidence that the Simon effect is entirely accounted for by SC. Furthermore, in Experiment 2 irrelevant S-R correspondence was manipulated in the absence of any variation of SC, and the Simon effect vanished. It is concluded that the Simon effect, contrary to current opinion, represents a spatial variant of the Stroop effect and is irrelevant to the SRC issue. The view that mental operations proceed automatically at the stage of response determination loses one of its strongest empirical arguments.

Cited by (12)

1. Development of cognitive control and executive functions from 4 to 13 years: Evidence from manipulations of memory, inhibition, and task switching.
   Davidson, Matthew C., Amso, Dima, Anderson, Loren Cruess, Diamond, Adele · 2006 · Neuropsychologia
2. The influence of irrelevant location information on performance: A review of the Simon and spatial Stroop effects
   Lu, Chen-hui, Proctor, Robert W. · 1995 · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
3. Compatibility between observed and executed finger movements: comparing symbolic, spatial, and imitative cues
   Brass, Marcel, Bekkering, Harold, Wohlschläger, Andreas, Prinz, Wolfgang · 2000 · Brain and Cognition
4. Automatic stimulus-response translation in dual-task performance.
   Hommel, Bernhard · 1998 · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
5. Spontaneous decay of response-code activation
   Hommel, Bernhard · 1994 · Psychological Research

See all 163