Effects of laterality and pitch height of an auditory accessory stimulus on horizontal response selection: the Simon effect and the SMARC effect.

Full Abstract

In the present article, we investigated the effects of pitch height and the presented ear (laterality) of an auditory stimulus, irrelevant to the ongoing visual task, on horizontal response selection. Performance was better when the response and the stimulated ear spatially corresponded (Simon effect), and when the spatial-musical association of response codes (SMARC) correspondence was maintained-that is, right (left) response with a high-pitched (low-pitched) tone. These findings reveal an automatic activation of spatially and musically associated responses by task-irrelevant auditory accessory stimuli. Pitch height is strong enough to influence the horizontal responses despite modality differences with task target.

Author information

Author/s: Nishimura, Akio (A); Yokosawa, Kazuhiko (K);

Affiliation: University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Psychonomic bulletin & review (Psychon Bull Rev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Aug; vol 16 (issue 4) : pp 666-70

Dates: Created 2009/08/03; Completed 2009/10/13;

PMID: 19648450, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/13/2009, IMS Date: )

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