When a Social Experimenter Overwrites Effects of Salient Objects in an Individual Go/No-Go Simon Task - An ERP Study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• The joint Simon effect in humans is thought to arise from co-representing a co-actor's task.
• Recent studies suggest objects can elicit Simon effects, supporting referential coding.
• P300 modulation in EEG is a neural marker for joint Simon effects and task co-representation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if object-induced Simon effects modulate the P300 component.
• To re-evaluate the interpretation of P300 in individual and joint Simon tasks.
• To test if a Japanese waving cat can elicit P300 modulation in an individual go/no-go Simon task.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual replication of Dolk et al. (2013a) with added EEG recordings.
• Participants performed an individual go/no-go Simon task with and without a Japanese waving cat.
• An experimenter controlled the EEG computer, remaining in the task context.

Main Results:

• An overall Simon effect was observed, irrespective of the cat's presence.
• The Japanese waving cat did not modulate the P300 component.
• No P300 modulation by the cat was found, even when controlling for interfering factors.

Conclusions:

• Object-induced Simon effects do not necessarily modulate the P300.
• The presence of a spatially aligned experimenter may induce an overall Simon effect.
• This effect might overwrite potential modulations from task-irrelevant objects like the cat.