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Spatial influences may be introduced to an experimental task by manipulations performed on the stimulus or the response or by virtue of the type of stimuli under study. Identification of spatial influences is especially pertinent in investigations of laterality, as isolation of processing to one hemisphere may inadvertently introduce spatial confounds. Because, however, space is not a relevant task feature, it may not always be obvious that it should be taken into consideration. Failure to anticipate these spatial influences can affect the conclusions drawn from results. The current work examines potential spatial influences in an experimental paradigm previously used to investigate perceptual asymmetries for duration estimation in which both stimulus presentation and response selection were lateralized. Potential spatial influences (including the spatial-temporal association of response codes - STEARC, spatial attention, and the Simon effect) are identified and systematically tested over 5 experiments. Results suggest that previously observed perceptual asymmetries in this experimental paradigm may be the result of a spatial confound, specifically, that of the Simon effect. Using vertical response options with the lateral stimulus presentation, however, mitigated the spatial influence. Altogether, the current work demonstrates the importance of carefully considering potential spatial confounds prior to commencement of laterality studies.

The PreRegistration of our upcoming study concerning the "Simon effect" with influence of the vestibular system.

In this repository all the materials regarding the study "Dancing Numbers: Exploring Dancers’ Space-Numbers Associations" are collected.

The PreRegistration of our upcoming study concerning the "Simon effect" with influence of the vestibular system and eccentricity.

The spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect showed that small/large numbers represented in the left/right space facilitated left/right responses, respectively. However, the processing stage (semantic representation or response selection) of the SNARC effect is still controversial. To investigate this issue, we adopted a modified magnitude comparison task in which the effects of SNARC, Stroop (semantic-representation stage), and Simon (response-selection stage) could be simultaneously induced. The processing stages of the SNARC effect were investigated by examining the interactions among these effects. According to the additive factor logic, if two effects are interactive, then they occur in the same stage; if two effects are additive, then they occur in different stages. Across two experiments, the SNARC effect interacted with the Stroop effect and with the Simon effect. These results suggested that the SNARC effect occurred in both the semantic-representation and response-selection stages and provided insight into that the SNARC effect might have two originating sources.

In recent years, some studies have started to explore the impact of individual general executive functions (EFs) on bilingual language control. To our knowledge, few studies have systematically examined various components of EFs on different levels of language control in bilinguals. In two experiments, we investigated the effects of two components of IC on different levels of bilingual language control. The language-switching task was used to tap into language control at different levels. The Simon task was used to measure interference suppression in Experiment 1, and a go/no-go task was used to measure response inhibition in Experiment 2. Experiment 1 found that the smaller the Simon effect was, the larger the asymmetry of switch costs was. Experiment 2 found that the shorter the go response time was, the larger the global slowing effect was. Taken together, these findings suggest that the interference suppression component of domain-general IC facilitates local level language control, while response inhibition impacts global level language control in bilinguals.

In most of our daily activities and in team sports, we interact with other individuals and do not act in isolation. Using a social variant of the standard two-choice Simon task, this study aims to test if competitive/cooperative processing modes (i.e., metacontrol states) change the degree of bodily self-other integration between two persons in joint action. In addition, and more exploratory the study tested if this effect depends on a shared group experience with the partner. Two participants shared a visual Simon task, so that each person basically performed complementary parts of the task, which transfers the paradigm into a go/no-go Simon task for each person. Before running this joint Simon task, we set both participants either in a competitive or a cooperative control state by means of a dyadic game, a manipulation aimed at testing possible goal transfer across tasks. We found significant joint Simon effects for participants who were in a competitive state and for participants who were in a cooperative state. The joint Simon effect for participants being in a competitive state was significantly smaller than for participants being in a cooperative state. When experiencing the goal induction together with the partner, the joint Simon effect was significantly decreased as when the induction was performed alone. Both effects (metacontrol state induction and shared experience) seem to be statistically independent of each other. In line with predictions of metacontrol state theory, our study indicated that abstract cognitive goal states can be transferred from one task to another task, able to affect the degree of bodily self-other integration across different task situations.

Many theories of numerical cognition assume that numbers and space share a common representation at the response level. For example, observers are faster to respond to small numbers with their left hand and large numbers with their right hand (the SNARC effect). There is also evidence that viewing numbers can produce spatial shifts of attention, suggesting that attention may play a role in the spatial representation of numbers. In the present study, we assessed whether shifts of attention can influence numerical processing. Participants viewed a leftward or rightward peripheral cue followed by a centrally presented number, then judged whether the number was odd or even. Participants responded faster and made fewer errors when the number magnitude and response side were compatible, revealing a response-based SNARC effect. Participants also responded faster when the cue direction and response side were compatible, revealing a Simon effect. However, participants did not respond faster when the cue direction and number magnitude were compatible. Similar findings were observed when the association between numbers and space was relatively explicit. Moreover, although we failed to observe a response-based SNARC effect when number magnitude was directly relevant to observers' task, we observed a large Simon effect. Together, these findings suggest that although numbers and space share a common representation at the response level, attention does not play a substantial role in the spatial representation of numbers.

Two experiments examined whether the location-based Simon effect and word- or arrow-based Simon effects, and their interaction, emerge in the same task situations by presenting location words 左 and 右 (left and right, Experiment 1) or single-headed arrows (left and right pointing, Experiment 2) in the left–right visual field. These tasks include two attributes of task-irrelevant location information, physical location and either location word (Experiment 1) or arrow direction (Experiment 2), when they vary jointly for a single stimulus. Moreover, the location-based Simon effect in these tasks was compared to that obtained in a pure location-based Simon task. Results showed that (1) the location-, word- and arrow-based Simon effects occurred on both mean RT and delta plots; (2) the word- and arrow-based Simon effects interacted with the location-based Simon effect on mean RT; (3) the Simon effect in the pure location-based Simon task differed little from the location-based Simon effect in the two joint Simon tasks. These results indicate that different task-irrelevant spatial attributes can influence responses in the same task, and that one of them can influence the effect of the other on responses. This latter result offers evidence that the different attributes do not provide separate sources of activation.

Evidence is currently mixed regarding the way in which cognitive conflict modulates the effect of emotion on task performance. The present study aimed to address methodological differences across previous studies and investigate the conditions under which interference from emotional stimuli can either be elicited or eliminated under high cognitive conflict. Four behavioural experiments were conducted with a university sample using a gender-discrimination stimulus-response compatibility task. In line with our previous findings, Experiment 1 found that when emotion and cognitive conflict conditions were blocked, emotional faces increased reaction time interference during response compatible trials (low conflict) but not response incompatible trials (high conflict). However, when conflict and emotion conditions were randomised in different configurations across Experiments 2 (all trials randomised), 3 (emotion blocked, compatibility randomised) and 4 (compatibility blocked, emotion randomised), emotion interfered with task performance across both high and low conflict trials. These results suggest that predictability of both compatibility and emotion is required in order to obtain reduced emotional interference under high cognitive conflict. Consistent with prior reports, a top-down anticipatory control mechanism seems to be engaged in the presence of negative emotion when there are incompatible stimulus-response mappings.

Earlier findings suggest that positions of power decrease self-other integration and increase psychological distance to others. Until now, however, evidence for this relation rests exclusively on subjective measures. The current research instead employed a vertical joint Simon task to measure self-other integration. This task assesses the extent to which people represent their own actions in reference to their co-actor's, also referred to as the joint Simon effect. Building on cultural associations between power and vertical elevation, we manipulated whether participants were in an elevated (high-power) or lower (low-power) seating position. Experiments 1a and 1b reanalyzed existing datasets and found that elevated (vs. lower) seating position decreased the joint Simon effect, consistent with predictions. Experiment 2 provides a high-powered replication of this finding. Yet, further analyses revealed that feelings of power – measured as a manipulation check and indeed demonstrating that the manipulation was successful – did not mediate or moderate the effect of seating position on the joint Simon effect. Therefore, it is possible that the effect of seating elevation was driven through other aspects of that manipulation than feelings of power. We discuss these and suggest ways to test these alternative explanations.

Research suggests that – particularly – the execution of precision-demanding far-aiming tasks necessitates an optimal coupling between perception and action. In this regard, the duration of the last fixation before initiating movement – i.e., the Quiet Eye (QE) – has been functionally related to subsequent motor performance. In the current study, we investigated potential mechanisms of QE by applying the Simon paradigm – i.e., cognitive interferences evoked by stimulus-effect incompatibilities over response selection. To this end, we had participants throw balls as precisely as possible, either with their left or right hand (hands condition, HC) or at left or right targets (targets condition, TC), respectively. Via monaural auditory stimuli, participants received information about the hand side and the target side, respectively, either with compatible (i.e., congruent stimulus-effect side) or incompatible (i.e., incongruent stimulus-effect side) stimulus-effect mappings. Results showed that participants reacted slower and showed later first fixation onsets at the target in incompatible vs. compatible trials, thus, replicating and extending the classical Simon effect. Crucially, in the HC, there were earlier QE onsets and longer QE durations in incompatible (vs. compatible) trials, suggesting an inhibition of cognitive interferences over response selection to preserve motor performance. These findings are in line with attentional explanations of QE, suggesting optimized attentional control with efficient management of limited cognitive resources (optimal-attentional-control explanation) or with the inhibition of alternative response parametrization (inhibition explanation).

The Simon effect, that is the advantage of the spatial correspondence between stimulus and response locations when stimulus location is task irrelevant, occurs even when the task is performed by two participants, each performing a go/no-go task. This effect, known as the joint Simon effect, does not emerge when participants sit outside each other's peripersonal space, thus suggesting that the presence of an active confederate in peripersonal space might provide a reference for response coding. The present study investigated whether this finding is due to the distance separating the participants and/or to the distance separating each participant and the other agent's response. In two experiments, pairs of participants performed a social detection task sitting outside each other's arm reach, with response keys located close to the participants or outside arm reach. When the response key was located outside the participant's arm reach, he/she could reach it by means of a tool. In Experiment 1, by means of a tool, participants could reach their response key only, while in Experiment 2, they could reach also their co-agent's response key. The joint Simon effect did not emerge when participants could not reach the co-actor's response, while it emerged when they could potentially reach the other participant's response using the tool, but only when turn taking was required. These results may be taken as evidence that the possibility to reach and act upon the co-actor's response key may be at the bases of compatibility effects observed in joint action contexts requiring complementary responses.

Although the joint Simon task (JST) has been investigated for more than a decade, its cause is still unclear. According to ideomotor views of action control, action effects are a commonly cited explanation. However, action effects are usually confounded with the actions producing such effects. We combined a JST with eye tracking and asked participants to respond by performing specific saccades. Saccades were followed by visual feedback (central vs. lateral feedback), serving as the action effect. This arrangement allowed us to isolate actions from action effects and, also to prevent each actor from seeing the reciprocal actions of the other actor. In this saccadic JST, we found a significant compatibility effect in the individual setting. The typical enhanced compatibility effect in the joint setting of the JST was absent with central action feedback and even when lateralized visual action feedback was provided. Our findings suggest that the perception of action effects alone might not be sufficient to modulate compatibility effects for eye movements. The presence of a compatibility effect in the individual setting shows the specific requirements of a saccadic compatibility task - the requirement to perform prosaccades to compatible and antisaccades to incompatible target locations. The lack of a difference between compatibility effects in joint and individual settings and the lack of a modulation of the compatibility effect through lateralized visual action feedback shows that the finding of a joint Simon effect that has frequently been reported for manual responses is absent for saccadic responses.

Deciding what information we attend to has implications on our ability to remain valuable and productive in our respective academic and economic domains. This study investigated if attentional switching due to information technology interruptions would deplete resources in a unique way and impair performance on a response inhibition task. Three groups (120 women, 57 men

According to the conflict monitoring theory (CMT), one of the most prominent theories of cognitive control, the exertion of cognitive control is triggered by the detection of conflicting response tendencies in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Recent research has challenged this emphasis of response conflicts and has debated whether in addition to shielding after incongruent trials the relaxation after congruent trials also contributes to the sequential adaptation of control. To investigate the functionality of facilitative congruent trials in sequential adaptation of control, we conducted two experiments using a visual (Experiment 1) and an auditory (Experiment 2, preregistered) Simon task with stimuli presented laterally to the left or right (creating response congruent and incongruent trials) or without any particular spatial information (creating neutral trials). Both experiments showed converging results: in the error and reaction time data, the Simon effect was smaller following incongruent trials, larger following congruent trials, and the Simon effect following neutral trials was in-between. Results thus suggest that sequential control adaptations can originate from two processes: Increased shielding in response to incongruent trials and relaxation in response to congruent trials. Argumentations for a functional role of congruent and incongruent trials in the sequential adaptation of control suggest a more general theory of fluency monitoring instead of mere conflict monitoring. In addition, such extensions of the CMT provide theoretical explanations of how control is ever relaxed in response conflict tasks after being enhanced by conflict in the first place. Last but not least, the results may also be taken as a further hint that congruent stimuli may provide a positive affective signal for control relaxation just it has already been shown for incongruent stimuli as aversive signals for the up-regulation of control (shielding).

Abstract. According to conflict-monitoring theory ( Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001 ), sequential adjustments in cognitive control indicate that encountering information-processing conflict engages cognitive-control mechanisms. With 20 participants in an event-related-potential (ERP) experiment, we found significant congruence-sequence effects (CSEs) for behavioral measures and for N2 amplitude, a negative-going ERP component established in previous work to be related to cognitive control. We also found an interaction between the Stroop-trajectory manipulation and a response-compatibility manipulation for behavioral measures and, to a lesser extent, for N2 amplitude, such that the Stroop-trajectory congruence effect was larger on response-compatible than on response-incompatible trials. This study is the first to identify N2 amplitude as a neural correlate of the CSE in a confound-minimized task. Accordingly, these results found N2 amplitude to be associated with adjustments in cognitive control as a function of sequential and response-facilitation effects while also validating the Stroop-trajectory task as a confound-minimized means of assessing neural correlates of CSEs.

Many models of the Simon effect assume that categorical spatial representations underlie the phenomenon. The present study tested this assumption explicitly in two experiments, both of which involv...

We investigated how operationalizing bilingualism affects the results on a Simon task in a population of monolingual and bilingual native English speakers (N = 166). Bilingualism was measured in different ways within participants, and the measurements were used both as dichotomous and continuous variables. Our results show that the statistical significance and effect size varied across operationalizations. Specifically, the Composite Factor Score (the Language and Social Background Questionnaire’s general score), showed a bilingual disadvantage on reaction times regardless of how it was used (dichotomously or continuously). When dividing participants into monolinguals and bilinguals based on the Nonnative Language Social Use score (a Language and Social Background Questionnaire subscore), differences in accuracy and reaction times were found between the groups, but the Nonnative Language Social Use score did not predict accuracy when used as a continuous variable (only reaction times). Finally, earlier age of acquisition predicted faster reaction times, but only when used on a continuum. Effect sizes were between the small and medium range. No differences on the Simon effect were found. Our results call for cautiousness when comparing studies using different types of measurements, highlight the need for clarity and transparency when describing samples, and stresses the need for more research on the operationalization of bilingualism.

Influential lines of research propose dual processes-based explanations to account for both the cognitive cost implied in lying and for that entailed in the resolution of the conflict posited by Simon tasks. The emergence and consistency of the Simon effect has been proved to be modulated by both practice effects and transfer effects. Although several studies provided evidence that the lying cognitive demand may vary as a function of practice, whether and how transfer effects could also play a role remains an open question. We addressed this question with one experiment in which participants completed a Differentiation of Deception Paradigm twice (baseline and test sessions). Crucially, between the baseline and the test sessions, participants performed a training session consisting in a spatial compatibility task with incompatible (condition 1) or compatible (condition 2) mapping, a non-spatial task (condition 3) and a no task one (condition 4). Results speak in favour of a modulation of individual performances by means of an immediate prior experience, and specifically with an incompatible spatial training.

Introduction Despite their popularity in Neuropsychology, reaction time analysis based on the subtraction and additive factors methods is critiqued for not paying adequate attention to the dynamical nature of cognition. Mouse-tracking methods aim to cater to this need by allowing researchers to explore response dynamics during cognitive tasks by recording mouse trajectories. Methods A mouse-tracking adaptation of the Simon task is developed to explore decision-making dynamics in different stimulus-response compatibility conditions. The study focuses on the effects of stimulus design decisions on mouse trajectories, including relocation of the choice buttons from the top corners to the bottom and the mid-session reversal of stimulus-response mapping on mouse responses. Results Consistent with previous studies, significant stimulus-response compatibility effects were observed, where contrasts over mouse-tracking measures had larger effect sizes than simple reaction time contrasts. Moreover, in the conflict trials, asymmetric response trajectories towards the left and right corners were observed. Moving the response buttons from top to bottom increased the degree of asymmetry between the mouse trajectories towards the bottom-left and bottom-right corners during the conflict condition. Finally, in the reverse Simon task, the switch to a new color-response mapping inflicted the largest effect on the average number of y-flips. Conclusion Mouse tracking provides measures suitable for exploring decision-making dynamics beyond classical reaction time analysis, provided asymmetries due to the starting position and response layout are considered during experiment design.

The Simon effect refers to the fact that, even though stimulus position is task-irrelevant, responses to a task-relevant stimulus dimension are faster and more accurate when the stimulus and response spatially correspond than when they do not. Although the Simon effect is a very robust phenomenon, it is modulated by practice or transfer from previous tasks. Practice refers to the modulation of the Simon effect as a function of number of trials. Transfer refers to the modulation of the Simon effect as a function of preceding tasks. The aim of the present study is to disentangle the role of practice and transfer in modulating the Simon effect and to investigate whether such modulation can be extended to a different response modality. Three experiments were conducted, which included three sessions: the Baseline session, the Inducer session and the Diagnostic session. The task performed in the Baseline and the Diagnostic sessions were comprised of location-irrelevant trials (i.e., they were Simon tasks). The task performed in the Inducer session required performing location-relevant trials (i.e., it was a spatial compatibility task with a compatible or an incompatible stimulus–response mapping). In the first and third experiments, participants were required to respond manually in all sessions. In the second experiment, the task performed in the Inducer session required manual response, while in the Baseline and Diagnostic sessions the tasks required ocular response. Results showed a reduced-Diagnostic Simon effect after both compatible and incompatible mapping in the Inducer session, regardless of whether response modality was the same or different. These results support the notion that the practice effect prevails over the transfer effect.

Published online: 7 October 2020 For as long as half a century the Simon task – in which participants respond to a nonspatial stimulus feature while ignoring its position – has represented a very popular tool to study a variety of cognitive functions, such as attention, cognitive control, and response preparation processes. In particular, the task generates two theoretically interesting effects: the Simon effect proper and the sequential modulations of this effect. In the present study, we review the main theoretical explanations of both kinds of effects and the available neuroscientific studies that investigated the neural underpinnings of the cognitive processes underlying the Simon effect proper and its sequential modulation using electroencephalogram (EEG) and event-related brain potentials (ERP), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Then, we relate the neurophysiological findings to the main theoretical accounts and evaluate their validity and empirical plausibility, including general implications related to processing interference and cognitive control. Overall, neurophysiological research supports claims that stimulus location triggers the creation of a spatial code, which activates a spatially compatible response that, in incompatible conditions, interferes with the response based on the task instructions. Integration of stimulus-response features plays a major role in the occurrence of the Simon effect (which is manifested in the selection of the response) and its modulation by sequential congruency effects. Additional neural mechanisms are involved in supporting the correct and inhibiting the incorrect response. This research was supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 program and by the Spanish State Research Agency through BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation SEV-2015-0490 This study was also funded by Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación (Spanish government; JC) and European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions 838536_BILINGUALPLAS; JC), by post-doctoral funding of the University of Bremen (DG; ZF 11/876/08), and by an ERC Advanced Grant (BH: ERC-2015-AdG-694722).

The aging process has been shown to impair cognitive functions subsumed by the frontal lobes, but this region is heterogeneous and functions can be subdivided into different categories. Previous research focuses on aging within functions associated with dorsolateral and orbital prefrontal regions. This study investigates functions associated with another region – the medial prefrontal cortex. Tasks which tap abilities associated with dorsolateral and orbital prefrontal regions were administered to older and younger adults to replicate previous observations. Additionally, tasks which tap medial prefrontal abilities were administered, and age effects examined. Age-related differences were found on dorsolateral but not orbital prefrontal abilities. Significant age effects were also observed on both medial prefrontal tasks. These preliminary results support a region-specific theory of cognitive aging whereby dorsolateral and medial functions are most susceptible to decline, with orbital prefrontal functions remaining relatively preserved.

Schlaghecken, F., Blagrove, E., Mantantzis, K., Maylor, E. A., & Watson, D. G. [(2017). Look on the bright side: Positivity bias modulates interference effects in the Simon task. Journal of Experim...

Two experiments examined whether practicing discrete key pressing sequences eventually leads to a disregard of the key-specific stimuli, as suggested by sequence learning models, or whether these stimuli continue to be relied upon because the associated luminance increase attracts visuospatial attention. Participants practiced two sequences by reacting to two fixed series of seven letter stimuli, each displayed at a location that did or did not correspond with the required response location. Stimulus use was indicated by a Simon effect in that key presses were slowed when stimulus and key locations did not correspond. Experiment 1 demonstrated that letter stimuli continued to be used as the Simon effect occurred with each sequence element, and this remained quite stable across practice and did not differ for familiar and unfamiliar sequences. Experiment 2 showed that the Simon effect remained present even with meaningless stimuli that were often even harmful. These findings suggest that even in motor sequences that can be executed without element-specific stimuli attention attraction enforces stimulus use. The data further supported the assumptions that S-R translation and sequencing systems are racing to trigger individual responses, and that explicit sequence representations include spatial and verbal knowledge.

The dimensional overlap (DO) theory categorizes various stimulus-response compatible effects (e.g., the manual Stroop, Simon, and SNARC effects) into two main types: stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) dimensional overlap effects. The S-S type effect (e.g., the manual Stroop) occurs in the semantic-representation stage, while the S-R type effect (e.g., Simon) occurs in the response-selection stage. However, the processing stage of the SNARC effect, which is also categorized as an S-R type, remains controversial. To investigate this issue, we adopted a modified numeral parity judgment task that could simultaneously induce manual Stroop, Simon, and SNARC effects. According to the additive-factor logic, two effects occur in the same processing stage if they are interactive. In our task, we checked the interaction among the three effects to identify the locus of the SNARC effect. In two experiments with different target numbers (exp1: 1, 2, 7, 8; exp2: 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9), the manual Stroop, Simon, and SNARC effects were all observed, showing longer response times and higher error rates in the incongruent conditions than in the congruent conditions. Most importantly, only the interaction between SNARC and Simon effects was observed in the two experiments. This result suggests that the SNARC effect, as an S-R type effect like the Simon effect, occurs in the response-selection stage. In addition, the noninteraction of the manual Stroop and Simon effects and the manual Stroop and SNARC effects in our study repeatedly verifies the independence of the S-S and S-R effects. Our results further support the classification of the DO theory.

The Simon effect is observed in spatial conflict tasks where the response time of subjects is increased if stimuli are presented in a lateralized manner so that they are incongruous with the response information that they represent symbolically. Previous studies have used fMRI to investigate this phenomenon, and while some have been driven by considerations of an underlying model, none have attempted to directly tie model and BOLD response together. It is likely that this is due to Simon models having been predominantly descriptive of the phenomenon rather than capturing the full spectrum of behavior at the level of individual subjects. Sequential sampling models (SSM) which capture full response distributions for correct and incorrect responses have recently been extended to capture conflict tasks.In this study we use our freely available framework for fitting and comparing non-standard SSM to fit the Simon effect SSM (SE-SSM) to behavioral data. This model extension includes specific estimates of automatic response bias and conflict monitoring based deployment of attention to individual subject behavioral data. We apply this approach in order to investigate whether our task specific model parameters have a correlate in BOLD response. Under the assumption that the SE-SSM reflects aspects of neural processing in this task, we go on to examine the BOLD correlates with the within trial expected decision-variable.We find that the SE-SSM captures the behavioral data and that our two conflict specific model parameters have clear across subject BOLD correlates, while other model parameters, as well as more standard behavioral measures do not. We also find that examining BOLD in terms of the expected decision-variable leads to a specific pattern of activation that would not be otherwise possible to extract.

Studies have widely captured the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect in the processing of various types of numbers in which small numbers are responded to faster with the left hand than with the right hand and larger numbers are responded to faster with the right hand than with the left hand. Although a few studies have explored Arabic numbers to further investigate the influence of number location on the SNARC effect, it remains unclear whether the influence of number location on the SNARC effect is moderated by numerical semantic processing difficulty and the task performed. This study explored traditional Chinese numerical words and rotated them to certain angles, which can increase numerical semantic processing difficulty, to further investigate the influence of the stimulus–response compatibility effect and Simon effect on the SNARC effect in a space classification task (Experiment 1), numerical magnitude classification task (Experiment 2), numerical parity classification task (Experiment 3), and color classification task (Experiment 4). The results indicated that (a) the stimulus–response compatibility effect, not the SNARC effect, prevailed in the numerical space classification task; (b) the SNARC effect, not the Simon effect, prevailed in the numerical magnitude and parity classification task; and (c) the Simon effect and the SNARC effect coexisted in the color classification task. These results suggested that the influence of number location on the SNARC effect was moderated by the task performed. Implications for the theory of the SNARC effect and Simon effect are discussed.

Simon tasks reveal implicit processing conflicts that arise when the abstract coding of stimulus position is incongruent with coding for location of the output response. Participants were tested with two versions of a Simon task in a counterbalanced order to examine a potential female bias for attending to object characteristics versus object location. Both tasks used a triangle pointing to the left or right. A simple version presented the triangle in an inner or outer position relative to central fixation. A more complex version included a frame surrounding the inner-outer triangle presentation area in order to introduce additional visual elements for left/right visual processing. When the No Frame version was the first presented, there were no sex differences in the Simon effect in either version, which is consistent with results from other studies that did not provide feedback regarding accuracy. When the initial test was the Frame version, we observed a reverse Simon effect for incongruent triangles presented in the left inner position, with females faster than males to identify the incongruent condition versus the congruent (-59 vs -5 msec). In the No Frame condition that followed, females showed a carryover effect from the previous Frame condition, exhibiting positive Simon effects that were two fold larger than males for identifying incongruent stimuli presented in the left and right outer positions. Similar to previous Simon studies, females showed longer overall reaction times than males (~15%). The difference was not related to the Simon effect and is also found in other types of tasks involving early visual processing of objects with location. Based on sex differences in the Simon effect that emerged following initial experience of the triangle adjoining the frame, the present results support a female bias toward broader integration of objects within the context of location.

Attention control is a core element of cognitive aging, but the specific mechanisms that differ with age are unclear. Here we used a novel auditory spatial attention task to evaluate stimulus processing at the level of early attention capture, later response selection, and the lingering effects of attention capture across trials in young and older adults. We found that the shapes of spatial attention capture gradients were remarkably similar in young and older adults, but only the older group had lingering effects of attention capture on the next trial. Response selection for stimulus-response incompatibilities took longer in older subjects, but primarily when attending to the midline location. The results suggest that the likelihood and spatial tuning of attention capture is comparable among groups, but once attention is captured, older subjects take longer to disengage. Age differences in response selection were supported, but may not be a general feature of cognitive aging.

Spatial location is an intrinsic characteristic of the stimulus that influences the execution of the correct response in various tasks. The effect is named Stimulus-Response Compatibility, with the Spatial Compatibility, Simon, and Spatial Stroop tasks being examples of this phenomenon. The Simon effect is modulated if participants perform a previous incompatible spatial compatibility task. This modulation, called transfer-of-learning effect, has been attributed to issociations between long-term memory and short-term memory. It had not yet studied whether this incompatible practice modulates the spatial Stroop effect. In this work, we tested 32 volunteers in an experimental design that allows us to study and separate the Simon and spatial Stroop effects in the same task and test the hypothesis of a generalized transfer-of-learning effect by an incompatible practice. The results indicate that a previous incompatible task modulates only the Simon effect, contradicting the hypothesis of the generalized transfer of learning after an incompatible practice.

In modern digital applications, users often interact with virtual representations of themselves or others, called avatars. We examined how these avatars and their perspectives influence stimulus-response compatibility in a Simon task. Participants responded to light/dark blue stimuli with left/right key presses in the presence of a task-irrelevant avatar. Changes in stimulus-response compatibility were used to quantify changes in the mental representation of the task and perspective taking toward this avatar. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that perspective taking for an avatar occurred in orthogonal stimulus-response mappings, causing a compatibility effect from the avatar's point of view. In the following two experiments we introduced a larger variety of angular disparities between the participant and avatar. In Experiment 3, the Simon effect with lateralized stimulus positions remained largely unaffected by the avatar, pointing toward an absence of perspective taking. In Experiment 4, after avatar hand movements were added in order to strengthen the participants' sense of agency over the avatar, a spatial compatibility effect from the avatar's perspective was observed again, and hints of the selective use of perspective taking on a trial-by-trial basis were found. Overall, the results indicate that users can incorporate the perspective of an avatar into their mental representation of a situation, even when this perspective is unnecessary to complete a task, but that certain contextual requirements have to be met.

Bruce Bridgeman and colleagues reported the first experiments providing evidence of two functionally distinct visual-processing systems. We summarize that work and subsequent research that resulted in modifications of this view. Then, we describe studies of stimulus-response correspondence effects that provide evidence for distinct representations of responses. More recently, Bridgeman and colleagues examined whether "action affects perception", concluding that the phenomena can be more accurately construed as "information affects memory". Although unconvinced about claims of action-affects-perception and embodied cognition, Bridgeman and colleagues concluded that processing of visual information in hand-space is facilitated and cited a phenomenon as supporting evidence. We discuss findings indicating that this phenomenon is due to general spatial coding principles. We think that all researchers should proceed in the manner of Bridgeman of developing novel explanations, devising critical tests between them and alternative possible explanations, and accepting the explanation that best conforms to the results, even if that explanation is a "less dramatic" option.

Effective social interactions rely on humans’ ability to attune to others within social contexts. Recently, it has been proposed that the emergence of shared representations, as indexed by the Joint Simon effect (JSE), might result from interpersonal coordination (Malone et al., 2014). The present study aimed at examining interpersonal coordination in cooperative and competitive joint tasks. To this end, in two experiments we investigated response coordination, as reflected in instantaneous cross-correlation, when co-agents cooperate (Experiment 1) or compete against each other (Experiment 2). In both experiments, participants performed a go/no-go Simon task alone and together with another agent in two consecutive sessions. In line with previous studies, we found that social presence differently affected the JSE under cooperative and competitive instructions. Similarly, cooperation and competition were reflected in co-agents response coordination. For the cooperative session (Experiment 1), results showed higher percentage of interpersonal coordination for the joint condition, relative to when participants performed the task alone. No difference in the coordination of responses occurred between the individual and the joint conditions when co-agents were in competition (Experiment 2). Finally, results showed that interpersonal coordination between co-agents implies the emergence of the JSE. Taken together, our results suggest that shared representations seem to be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for interpersonal coordination.

Both short and long-term video-game play may result in superior performance on visual and attentional tasks. To further these findings, we compared the performance of experienced male video-game players (VGPs) and non-VGPs on a Simon-task. Experienced-VGPs began playing before the age of 10, had a minimum of 8 years of experience and a minimum play time of over 20 h per week over the past 6 months. Our results reveal a significantly reduced Simon-effect in experienced-VGPs relative to non-VGPs. However, this was true only for the right-responses, which typically show a greater Simon-effect than left-responses. In addition, experienced-VGPs demonstrated significantly quicker reaction times and more balanced left-versus-right-hand performance than non-VGPs. Our results suggest that experienced-VGPs can resolve response-selection conflicts more rapidly for right-responses than non-VGPs, and this may in part be underpinned by improved bimanual motor control.

Different features of objects can be associated with different responses, so that their concurrent presence results in conflict. The Simon effect is a prominent example of this type of response conflict. In two experiments, we ask whether it is modulated by the anatomical or spatial relation between responses. Predictions were derived from an extended variant of the leaky, competing accumulator (LCA) model proposed by Usher and McClelland (Psychological Review, 108, 550-592, 2001). The relation between responses was represented by the lateral-inhibition parameter of the model. For the anatomical distance between responses the expectations were largely confirmed, but not for spatial distance. First, the Simon effect was stronger when responses were performed with two fingers of the same hand than with different hands. Second, the Simon effect was larger only for responses with different hands at short reaction times and disappeared at long ones, whereas for responses with fingers of the same hand, the Simon effect was essentially the same for shorter and longer reaction times. This difference resulted in smaller variability of reaction times in noncorresponding than in corresponding conditions. The dependence of decision processes, as modelled by the LCA model, on the anatomical relation between responses supports the broad hypothesis that the accumulation of evidence on the state of the world is intricately linked with the activation of response codes, that is, the selection of the appropriate actions.

The location-, word-, and arrow-based Simon effects are usually attributed to the result of a direct route (the spatially corresponding stimulus-response association, activated automatically) that interferes with an indirect route (the association of task-relevant information and response, activated in accordance with the instructed stimulus-response mapping). We examined whether and how distinct direct routes (stimulus-location-response position and location word-response position or arrow direction-response position associations) affect responding on the basis of the same indirect route (a stimulus color-response association) in a Simon-like task. For this task, left-right keypresses were made to indicate the ink colors of location words or left- or right-pointing arrows, presented eccentrically in left or right locations. The location-based Simon effect occurred at the levels of mean reaction time (RT) and RT distribution in the word Simon-like task, whereas the word-based Simon effect only occurred at the level of RT distribution. In the arrow Simon-like task, the location-based Simon effect did not occur at the level of mean RT, but did at the level of RT distribution, whereas the opposite pattern occurred for the arrow-based Simon effect. These results could imply that one direct route influences the effects of the other direct route on the responses, depending on the task context.

Abstract. In the social Simon task, two participants perform a spatial compatibility task together, each of them responding to only one stimulus (e.g., one participant reacts to red, the other to green stimuli). Participants show joint spatial compatibility effects (SCEs), that is, they respond faster when their go-stimulus appears on their half of the screen. Effects are absent when the same go/no-go task is performed without a coactor. Joint SCEs were originally explained in terms of shared task representations, but recent research suggests that effects result from spatial response coding: in joint go/no-go tasks, participants perceive themselves as the right/left participant operating a right/left response key. While previous research showed that the spatial alignment of keys and seats influences the effect, the present research demonstrates that merely instructing participants to be the right/left participant operating a right/left response key instead of labeling participants and keys with arbitrary numbers substantially increases joint SCEs.

Inhibition of irrelevant and conflicting information and responses is crucial for goal-directed behaviour and adaptive functioning. In the Simon task, for example, responses are slowed if their mappings are spatially incongruent with stimuli that must be discriminated on a nonspatial dimension. Previous work has shown that practice with incongruent spatial mappings can reduce or even reverse the Simon effect. We asked whether such practice transfers between the manual and oculomotor systems and if so to what extent this occurs across a range of behavioural tasks. In two experiments, one cohort of participants underwent anti-saccade training, during which they repeatedly inhibited the reflexive impulse to look toward a briefly presented target. Additionally, two active-control training groups were included, in which participants either trained on Pro-saccade or Fixation training regimens. In Experiment 1, we probed whether the Simon effect and another inhibitory paradigm, the Stroop task, showed differential effects after training. In Experiment 2, we included a larger battery of inhibitory tasks (Simon, Stroop, flanker and stop-signal) and noninhibitory control measures (multitasking and visual search) to assess the limits of transfer. All three training regimens led to behavioural improvements in the trained-upon task, but only the anti-saccade training group displayed benefits that transferred to the manual response modality. This transfer of training benefit replicated across the two experiments but was restricted to the Simon effect. Evidence for transfer of inhibition training across motor systems offers important insights into the nature of stimulus-response representations and their malleability.

Previous studies observed compatibility effects in different interference paradigms such as the Simon and flanker task even when the task was distributed across two co-actors. In both Simon and flanker tasks, performance is improved in compatible trials relative to incompatible trials if one actor works on the task alone as well as if two co-actors share the task. These findings have been taken to indicate that actors automatically co-represent their co-actor's task. However, recent research on the joint Simon and joint flanker effect suggests alternative non-social interpretations. To which degree both joint effects are driven by the same underlying processes is the question of the present study, and it was scrutinized by manipulating the visibility of the co-actor. While the joint Simon effect was not affected by the visibility of the co-actor, the joint flanker effect was reduced when participants did not see their co-actors but knew where the co-actors were seated. These findings provide further evidence for a spatial interpretation of the joint Simon effect. In contrast to recent claims, however, we propose a new explanation of the joint flanker effect that attributes the effect to an impairment in the focusing of spatial attention contingent on the visibility of the co-actor.

Sharing tasks with other persons can simplify our work and life, but seeing and hearing other people's actions may also be very distracting. The joint Simon effect (JSE) is a standard measure of referential response coding when two persons share a Simon task. Sequential modulations of the joint Simon effect (smJSE) are interpreted as a measure of event-file processing containing stimulus information, response information and information about the just relevant control-state active in a given social situation. This study tested effects of physical (Experiment 1) and virtual (Experiment 2) separation of shared workspaces on referential coding and event-file processing using a joint Simon task. In Experiment 1, participants performed this task in individual (go-nogo), joint and standard Simon task conditions with and without a transparent curtain (physical separation) placed along the imagined vertical midline of the monitor. In Experiment 2, participants performed the same tasks with and without receiving background music (virtual separation). For response times, physical separation enhanced event-file retrieval indicated by an enlarged smJSE in the joint Simon task with curtain than without curtain (Experiment1), but did not change referential response coding. In line with this, we also found evidence for enhanced event-file processing through physical separation in the joint Simon task for error rates. Virtual separation did neither impact event-file processing, nor referential coding, but generally slowed down response times in the joint Simon task. For errors, virtual separation hampered event-file processing in the joint Simon task. For the cognitively more demanding standard two-choice Simon task, we found music to have a degrading effect on event-file retrieval for response times. Our findings suggest that adding a physical separation optimizes event-file processing in shared workspaces, while music seems to lead to a more relaxed task processing mode under shared task conditions. In addition, music had an interfering impact on joint error processing and more generally when dealing with a more complex task in isolation.

We examined the possible dissociation between two modes of valence: affective valence (valence of e emotional response) and semantic valence (stored knowledge about valence of an object or event). In Experiment 1, 50 participants viewed affective pictures that were repeatedly presented while their facial electromyography (EMG) activation and heart rate response were continuously recorded. Half of the participants provided self-report ratings about the valence of their feelings and half about the valence of the stimulus. Next, all participants performed an affective Simon task. In Experiment 2, 30 new participants performed the affective Simon task with the repeated exposure embedded within the task. The results showed that measures related to affective valence (feelings-focused self-reports, heart rate, and facial EMG activations) attenuated with repeated exposure to pleasant and unpleasant pictures, whereas measures related to semantic valence (knowledge-focused self-reports and congruency effect of affective Simon task) did not. These findings strongly suggest that affective and semantic valence represent two distinct psychological constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record

In a break from the tradition of investigating human cognition in isolated individuals, there is an increasing tendency in cognitive science to consider social influences on cognitive processes, especially in situations in which people jointly perform the same task (Knoblich, Butterfill, & Sebanz, 2011). A typical Simon effect refers to the interference that people experience when there is a stimulus-response (S-R) conflict in a spatial compatibility and incompatibility task (Liu, Banich, Jacobson, & Tanabe, 2004). Although the stimulus location is entirely task-irrelevant, stimuli more or less automatically activate spatially corresponding responses, which speeds up reaction times in trials with spatial S-R correspondence, and slows down reaction times in trials with noncorrespondence (Dolk, Hommel, Prinz, & Liepelt, 2014).Unlike the Simon task that involves stimulus spatial location, the flanker task (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974) is an optimal experimental paradigm in cognitive psychology. In the flanker task, target categorization response times are affected by the combination of flankers and target (Schmitz, Wentura, & Brinkmann, 2014). In the Eriksen flanker task (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974), for example, a target stimulus is centrally positioned with interference stimuli (flankers) on either side, and participants are required to respond to the target without being distracted by the flankers. In congruent trials, the flankers correspond to the same response as the target, whereas in incongruent trials the flankers correspond to the opposite response, resulting in interference for participants. Only when participants are aware of instructed S-R mappings, can the flankers stimulate a response. The flanker task is, thus, optimally suited for investigating whether or not coactors take into account each other's task rules (Atmaca, Sebanz, & Knoblich, 2011).The Simon effect is widely described as a response selection phenomenon caused by the automatic activation of a response that spatially corresponds to a stimulus location (Ferraro, Iani, Mariani, Milanese, & Rubichi, 2011). The joint Simon task (Sebanz, Knoblich, & Prinz, 2003) is used to measure whether or not individuals integrate coactors' actions into their own action system. Atmaca et al. (2011) demonstrated that, in a joint flanker task, actors incorporated the actions of coactors into their own action system in collaborative conditions. We were interested that other researchers (Iani, Anelli, Nicoletti, Arcuri, & Rubichi, 2011; Ruys & Aarts, 2010) have also shown that shared action representations may occur in competitive conditions. Some researchers have departed from an interdependency perspective to predict the activation of shared action representations even in hostile competitive situations as a result of attending to the intentions of the coactor (Ruys & Aarts, 2010). We consider that the crucial question is whether or not a shared action will be carried out when people are convinced that they are performing the task with a competitor.When individuals are engaged in joint action, they must integrate their partner's actions with their own (Meyer, Hunnius, van Elk, van Ede, & Bekkering, 2011). Thus, we hypothesized that activation of shared action representations would occur when actors take into consideration their coactor's intentions. This is more likely to happen when actor and coactor are interdependent. Therefore, we predicted that individuals would integrate the actions of others into their action system not only in friendly, cooperative situations, but also in a more hostile, competitive context, in which actors often dislike the other actor (Ruys & Aarts, 2010).However, in real life, competitors are not always physically present in competitions, such as those held online. Thus, we conducted two studies to examine whether or not the joint flanker effect would still occur in an online context. …

In Simon-type interference tasks, participants are asked to perform a 2-choice reaction on a stimulus dimension while ignoring the stimulus position. Commonly, robust congruency effects are found; that is, reactions are faster when the relevant stimulus attribute and the assigned response match the location of the stimulus. Simon congruency effects are regularly attributed to a fast, nonverbal processing route. In 3 experiments, we tested the importance of verbal representations in the Simon effect by manipulating the format of representations (verbal vs. nonverbal) with stimulus material (i.e., words vs. gratings) and stimulus arrangement (i.e., horizontally vs. vertically). Results of the first experiment point to a modulation of the Simon effects by both factors when they were manipulated between subjects, up to an inversion of the Simon effect for words presented in vertical arrangement. We replicated the inverse congruency effect for verbal material in vertical arrangement when a within-participant design was used (Experiment 2) and when the impact of reading processes was ruled out (Experiment 3). One cause for this inversion might be the construction of language-based representations that counteract automatic processing given the stimulus arrangement. To investigate this, we assessed individual differences in the use of inner speech for self-instruction. Using hierarchical linear modeling analysis, we found that self-rated evaluative and motivational inner speech processes accounted for a significant portion of the Simon effect. This supports claims that individual differences predict performance even in simple cognitive tasks such as the Simon task and highlights the flexibility of basic cognitive processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Although domain-specificity is prevalent in models of human cognition, its presence is not always easy to verify. For example, according to one prominent model, experiencing conflict from an incongruent distractor in a Stroop-like task triggers an upregulation of domain-specific control that facilitates the resolution of the same, but not a different, type of conflict in the next trial. The only evidence for this view, however, comes from tasks wherein confounds can mimic the effects of domain-specific control. In the present study, I report that Stroop-incongruent and Simon-incongruent distractors in a hybrid Stroop-Simon task trigger selective reductions of the Stroop and Simon effects in the next trial (i.e., distractor-specific congruency sequence effects [CSEs]), regardless of whether confounds are absent (Experiment 1) or present (Experiment 2). However, I also report that the Stroop and Simon effects interact when confounds are absent (Experiment 1) and in trials with slow reaction times when confounds are present (Experiment 2). These within-trial interactions suggest that the Stroop and Simon effects index overlapping conflicts, rather than independent conflicts. Thus, they prevent one from drawing any conclusions about whether the distractor-specific CSEs index domain-specific (i.e., conflict-specific) or domain-general (i.e., conflict-general) control. This outcome challenges prior data suggesting domain-specific control in the hybrid Stroop-Simon task. However, it fits with recent findings suggesting independent within- and across-trial conflict control processes. It also fits with an emerging view wherein across-trial conflict control processes engender CSEs by retrieving an episodic memory of previous-trial control settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

International audience; This study seeks to investigate whether users activate cognitive representations of their partner’s action when they are involved in tactile collaborative tasks. The social Simon effect is a spatial stimulus–response interference induced by the mere presence of a partner in a go/nogo task. It has been extensively studied in the visual and auditory sensory modalities, but never before in the tactile modality. We compared the performances of 28 participants in three tasks: (1) a standard Simon task where participants responded to two different tactile stimuli applied to their fingertips with either their left or right foot, (2) an individual go/nogo task where participants responded to only one stimulus and (3) a social go/nogo task where they again responded to only one stimulus, but were partnered with another person who responded to the complementary stimulus. The interference effect due to spatial incongruence between the side where participants received the stimulus and the foot used to answer increased significantly in the standard Simon task compared to the social go/nogo task. Such a difference was not observed between the social and individual go/nogo tasks. Performances were nevertheless enhanced in the social go/nogo task, but irrespectively of the stimulus–response congruency. This study is the first to report a negative result for the social Simon effect in the tactile modality. Results suggest that cognitive representation of the co-actor is weaker in this modality.

The avatar-Simon task demonstrates that even task irrelevant avatars cause compatibility effects from their point of view, a result that can be interpreted within the frameworks of spontaneous spatial perspective taking and referential coding. In the present study, we used an avatar-Simon task with rapidly changing avatar positions and with simultaneous and non-simultaneous presentations to investigate the time course of this phenomenon. The results showed that participants took the avatar's perspective into account even when the avatar's position was randomized on a trial-by-trial basis. This avatar-compatibility effect was also observed when avatar and stimulus were presented simultaneously, even though the participants had no time to adopt the avatar's perspective in advance. However, the effect was much more pronounced when a delay between avatar and stimulus presentation was in place.

To elucidate the working mechanism behind anthropomorphism, this study investigated whether human participants would anthropomorphize a robot more if they move synchronously versus non-synchronously with it, and whether this is affected by which of the two initiates the movements. We tested two competing hypotheses. The feature-overlap hypothesis predicts that moving in synchrony would increase perceived self-other feature overlap, which in turn might spread activation to codes of features related to humans—which should increase anthropomorphization. In contrast, the autonomy hypothesis predicts that unpredictability increases anthropomorphization, and thus that whenever the robot initiates movements, or when the human initiates movements to which the robot moves non-synchronously, there is an increased perception of the robot as a more human-like, intentionally acting creature, which in turn should increase anthropomorphization. We performed a study with synchrony as within-subjects factor, and initiator (robot or human) as between-subjects factor. To study the impact of synchrony on self-other overlap and perception of human likeness, participants completed two tasks that served as implicit measures of state anthropomorphization, and two questionnaires that served as explicit measures of state anthropomorphization toward the robot. The two implicit measures were the joint Simon task and one-shot Dictator Game. Additionally, participants filled in a trait anthropomorphization questionnaire, to enable correction for baseline tendencies to anthropomorphize. The synchrony manipulation did not affect the joint Simon effect, although there was an effect on average reaction time (RT), where in the group in which the robot initiated the movement, RTs were slower when the human and robot moved non-synchronously. The Dictator Game offer and the state anthropomorphization questionnaires were not affected by the synchrony manipulation. There was, however, a positive correlation between current anthropomorphization of the robot and amount of money offered to it. Given that most measures were not systematically affected by our manipulation, it appears that either our design was suboptimal, or that synchronization does not affect the anthropomorphization of a robot.