The influence of peripheral precues on the tendency to react towards a lateral relevant stimulus with multiple-item arrays.
Responses are faster when the side of the stimulus and response correspond than when they do not correspond. This has been ascribed to the influence of a spatial code on response selection. Regarding the origin of this code, three hypotheses were proposed that all assume that spatial codes decay as a function of time: the attention shift hypothesis, the static reference hypothesis, and the dynamic reference hypothesis. Arrays (a target among five distractors) requiring left or right responses, were preceded by peripheral cues indicating either the target position, the side of the target, or all array positions. Reaction times (RT), proportions correct, the response-locked lateralized readiness potential (LRP), and RT distributions were examined. A correspondence effect was present on RTs when all positions or the relevant side were cued, independently of response speed. No correspondence effect was found when the cue indicated the target position. The LRP results indicate that the correspondence effect is at least partially due to an effect at the level of motor preparation. The results favor the attention shift hypothesis which assumes that spatial codes are generated whenever there is a shift of attention.
Van der Lubbe
R H
RH
Cognitive Psychology, Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. lubbe_r@neuro.mu-luebeck.de
Woestenburg
J C
JC
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*