Can blindness to response-compatible stimuli be observed in the absence of a response?
Blindness to response-compatible stimuli is the finding that targets are identified less accurately when presented during the planning or execution of a congruent response (e.g., right arrow presented during a right keypress) versus an incongruent response (e.g., right arrow presented during a left keypress). Accounts of this effect suggest the planning and execution of a response are critical to its observation. Five experiments investigated whether a blindness effect would be observed in the absence of a planned response. Results suggest that a planned response is not necessary to observe a content-specific blindness effect and that the blindness effect may actually comprise both an action-related component and a symbolic component that is distinct from the action-planning system.
Stevanovski
Biljana
B
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Oriet
Chris
C
Jolicoeur
Pierre
P
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008606:Mental Processes; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012718:Set, Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*