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Updated: Dec 14, 2025

Irrelevant Stimuli and Action Control: Analyzing the Influence of Ignored Stimuli via the Distractor-Response Binding Paradigm
Published on: May 14, 2014
The Role of Congruency for Distractor-Response Binding: A Caveat
Roland Pfister1, Christian Frings2, Birte Moeller2
1Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, Department of Psychology III, Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany1.
Abstract:
Responding in the presence of stimuli leads to an integration of stimulus features and response features into event files, which can later be retrieved to assist action control. This integration mechanism is not limited to target stimuli, but can also include distractors (distractor-response binding). A recurring research question is which factors determine whether or not distractors are integrated. One suggested candidate factor is target-distractor congruency: Distractor-response binding effects were reported to be stronger for congruent than for incongruent target-distractor pairs. Here, we discuss a general problem with including the factor of congruency in typical analyses used to study distractor-based binding effects. Integrating this factor leads to a confound that may explain any differences between distractor-response binding effects of congruent and incongruent distractors with a simple congruency effect. Simulation data confirmed this argument. We propose to interpret previous data cautiously and discuss potential avenues to circumvent this problem in the future.
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