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Target-flanker discriminability affects conflict size but not sustained suppression
Peter Zeischka1, Daphné Coomans, Natacha Deroost
1Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. peter.zeischka@vub.ac.be
Acta Psychologica
|December 28, 2010
Summary
Repetitions of irrelevant information reduce congruency effects, but this effect does not depend on conflict size. Sustained-suppression may not be caused by large conflicts in visual attention tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Experimental psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Repetitions of irrelevant information typically reduce congruency effects.
- The sustained-suppression hypothesis posits that suppressed information on one trial carries over to the next.
- This modulation is often linked to spatial features and large conflict sizes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the congruency modulation depends on the size of the conflict.
- To test the sustained-suppression hypothesis by manipulating conflict magnitude.
Main Methods:
- Two arrow flanker experiments were conducted.
- Experiment 1 manipulated target saliency.
- Experiment 2 manipulated flanker saliency to alter conflict size.
Main Results:
- Manipulations successfully altered the size of the conflict.
- Neither experiment demonstrated an influence of conflict size on the congruency effect reduction for repetitions versus alternations.
- The reduction in congruency effects for repeated irrelevant information was independent of conflict magnitude.
Conclusions:
- Sustained-suppression does not appear to be a consequence of large conflicts.
- The findings challenge the generality of the sustained-suppression hypothesis as an explanation for congruency modulation.
- Conflict size is not a necessary condition for the observed reduction in congruency effects.
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