Learning through instructions vs. learning through practice: flanker congruency effects from instructed and applied S-R mappings.
We compared flanker congruency effects (FCE) for flanker stimuli that were part of merely instructed S-R mappings or S-R mappings that had already been practiced. Four new S-R mappings were instructed before each block of trials. In applied flanker blocks, each instructed stimulus could appear as target and as flanker. In merely instructed flanker blocks, two stimuli only served as targets, whereas the other two exclusively appeared as flankers. Significant FCEs were observed for both flanker conditions even though the instruction-based FCE was (a) smaller than the FCE from applied mappings and (b) decreased with task practice. These results suggest that instructions alone can induce S-R associations that lead to automatic response activation when instructed stimuli appear as flankers. Execution of instructed rules seems to strengthen the instructed associations, leading to increased response conflict.
Department of Psychology, Humboldt University Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489, Berlin, Germany. dorit.wenke@hu-berlin.de.
Dorit
D
Wenke
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Jan
J
De Houwer
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Jeffrey
J
De Winne
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Baptist
B
Liefooghe
D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001332:Automatism; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D017145:Models, Educational; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult