On the automaticity of relational stimulus processing: The (extrinsic) relational Simon task

PLoS One

Jan De Houwer¹  Adriaan Spruyt¹ 

[1] Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

关键词: Semantics;    Reaction time;    Experimental design;    Priming (psychology);    Cognition;    Working memory;    Analysis of variance;    Statistical data;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.pone.0186606

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

We introduce the (extrinsic) relational Simon task as a tool for capturing automatic relational stimulus processing. In three experiments, participants responded to a perceptual relation between two stimuli. Results showed that participants were faster and more accurate to respond when the (task-irrelevant) conceptual relation between these stimuli was compatible (rather than incompatible) with the (extrinsic) relational meaning of the required responses. This effect was replicated irrespective of the type of stimulus materials used, irrespective of the similarity between the relational information that was task-relevant and the relational information that was task-irrelevant, and irrespective of the complexity of the task-irrelevant relational information. Our findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that relational stimulus processing can occur under conditions of automaticity.

【 授权许可】

CC BY