title: Control-display alignment determines the prevalent compatibility effect in two-dimensional stimulus-response tasks.
abstract: Responses are faster and more accurate when they are spatially compatible with a stimulus than when they are incompatible (the stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect). In studies using two-dimensional (2-D) stimulus and response sets in which stimuli and responses have both vertical (top-bottom) and horizontal (right-left) spatial relations, SRC effects are generally larger along the horizontal dimension, an effect called right-left prevalence. Several accounts have been posited to explain this asymmetry, including frames of reference to the body and spatio-anatomical constraints. We propose a new account of the right-left prevalence effect in which prevalence effects are largely determined by the spatial alignment between elements on the stimulus display and response locations on the control panel--the control-display alignment (CDA). For example, when responses are aligned below a display, 2-D stimulus and response sets share a common vertical midline that emphasizes a right-left distinction. When responses are to the right or left of the display, the shared midline is horizontal, emphasizing the top-bottom distinction and should instead lead to top-bottom prevalence effects. Participants completed two-choice, 2-D SRC tasks in four control-display configurations with a response panel centered above, below, left, and right of a projected display. As hypothesized, right-left prevalence was elicited using vertical CDA and top-bottom prevalence was elicited using horizontal CDA. The findings demonstrate that CDA largely determines prevalence effects and should be taken into account when using multidimensional stimulus and response sets.
authors.affiliation: California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA. jmiles@csulb.edu.|Psychology Department, California State University, 1250 N Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA, 90840, USA. jmiles@csulb.edu.
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.affiliation: California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kim-Phuong L
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Vu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Motor planning/programming; Spatial cognition; Stimulus-response compatibility