Cue the effects: Stimulus-action effect modality compatibility and dual-task costs

The pairings of tasks' stimulus and response modalities affect the magnitude of dual-task costs. For example, dual-task costs are larger when a visual-vocal task is paired with an auditory-manual task compared with when a visual-manual task is paired with an auditory-vocal task. These results are often interpreted as reflecting increased crosstalk between central codes for each task. Here we examine a potential source: modality-based crosstalk between the stimuli and the response-induced sensory consequences (i.e., action effects). In five experiments, we manipulated experimentally induced action effects so that they were either modality-compatible or -incompatible with the stimuli. Action effects that were modality-compatible (e.g., visual stimulus, visual action effect) produced smaller dual-task costs than those that were modality-incompatible (e.g., visual stimulus, auditory action effect). Thus, the relationship between stimuli and action effects contributes to dual-task costs. Moreover, modality-compatible pairs showed an advantage compared with when no action effects were experimentally induced. These results add to a growing body of work demonstrating that postresponse sensory events affect response selection processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).