Influence on Simon and SNARC effects of a nonspatial stimulus-response mapping: between-task logical recoding

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human Information Processing
• Experimental Psychology

Background:

• The logical-recoding rule describes how task rules apply to relevant dimensions.
• Previous research explored task-specific rule application and its limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether task rules generalize to irrelevant dimensions across different tasks.
• To examine how response mapping in one task influences cross-task effects.

Main Methods:

• Four experiments intermixed trials with relevant color, shape, or parity judgments.
• Manipulated response mapping in color-relevant trials.
• Measured Simon and spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effects in shape- and parity-relevant trials.

Main Results:

• The logical-recoding rule generalized to irrelevant dimensions.
• Color-based response mapping modulated Simon and SNARC effects.
• Same-color mapping produced standard effects; alternate-color mapping led to disappearance or reversal.

Conclusions:

• Between-task transfer effects do not require shared representations or common stimulus features.
• Response mapping is a critical factor in cross-task generalization of cognitive rules.