TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of saccades and response type on the simon effect
T2 - If you look at the stimulus, the Simon effect may be gone
AU - Buetti, Simona
AU - Kerzel, Dirk
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence should be addressed to Simona Buetti, Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Éducation, Université de Genève, 40 Boulevard du Pont d’Arve, CH-1205 Genève, Switzerland. E-mail: [email protected] D. Kerzel was supported by the Swiss National Foundation (SNF 10011–107768/1 and PDFM1–114417/1).
PY - 2010/11
Y1 - 2010/11
N2 - The Simon effect has most often been investigated with key-press responses and eye fixation. In the present study, we asked how the type of eye movement and the type of manual response affect response selection in a Simon task. We investigated three eye movement instructions (spontaneous, saccade, and fixation) while participants performed goal-directed (i.e., reaching) or symbolic (i.e., finger-lift) responses. Initially, no oculomotor constraints were imposed, and a Simon effect was present for both response types. Next, eye movements were constrained. Participants had to either make a saccade toward the stimulus or maintain gaze fixed in the screen centre. While a congruency effect was always observed in reaching responses, it disappeared in finger-lift responses. We suggest that the redirection of saccades from the stimulus to the correct response location in noncorresponding trials contributes to the Simon effect. Because of eye-hand coupling, this occurred in a mandatory manner with reaching responses but not with finger-lift responses. Thus, the Simon effect with key-presses disappears when participants do what they typically do-look at the stimulus.
AB - The Simon effect has most often been investigated with key-press responses and eye fixation. In the present study, we asked how the type of eye movement and the type of manual response affect response selection in a Simon task. We investigated three eye movement instructions (spontaneous, saccade, and fixation) while participants performed goal-directed (i.e., reaching) or symbolic (i.e., finger-lift) responses. Initially, no oculomotor constraints were imposed, and a Simon effect was present for both response types. Next, eye movements were constrained. Participants had to either make a saccade toward the stimulus or maintain gaze fixed in the screen centre. While a congruency effect was always observed in reaching responses, it disappeared in finger-lift responses. We suggest that the redirection of saccades from the stimulus to the correct response location in noncorresponding trials contributes to the Simon effect. Because of eye-hand coupling, this occurred in a mandatory manner with reaching responses but not with finger-lift responses. Thus, the Simon effect with key-presses disappears when participants do what they typically do-look at the stimulus.
KW - Attention
KW - Reaching movements
KW - Saccades
KW - Simon effect
KW - Symbolic responses
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U2 - 10.1080/17470211003802434
DO - 10.1080/17470211003802434
M3 - Article
C2 - 20526979
AN - SCOPUS:78149269657
SN - 1747-0218
VL - 63
SP - 2172
EP - 2189
JO - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
JF - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
IS - 11
ER -