Research On The Functional Mechanism Of The Simon Effect And Its Reversal Under Hedge And Marsh Task Conditions

Stimulus-response Compatibility is an important research field in Contemporary Psychology . Simon effect of this article researched is a typical spatial Stimulus-Response Compatibility phenomenon . Systematically research on it will favor us deeply understanding the relationship between stimulus and response , and some of the law of human information-processing . In order to explore the functional mechanism of the Simon effect and its reversal, the relationship between stimulus and response and some of the law of human information-processing , this research change all kinds of experimental variables and the relationship between stimulus and response , observe whether the Simon effect and its reversal will occur or not under the influence of these variables changed , reveal the functional mechanism of the Simon effect and its reversal.American Psychologist Hedge and Marsh (1975) found , when left and right keys are made to stimuli in left and right locations , and stimulus location is irrelevant to the task, responses are typically faster when stimulus location corresponds with response location than it does not(the Simon effect) . This effect reverses when the relevant stimulus-response mapping is incompatible , with responses being slower when stimulus and response locations correspond , this is so-called the Hedge and Marsh reversal of the Simon effect. Simon et al.(1981)reported an exception to the Hedge and Marsh reversal for a situation in which the relevant stimulus dimension was the color of a centered visual stimulus and the irrelevant location information was left or right tone location . But the reversal of the Simon effect did not occur . In contrast, similar experiments have found a reversal of the Simon effect for tone location when relevant visual locations were mapped incompatibly to responses .Four experiments were conducted to investigate this discrepancy . This research adopted task interference experimental paradigm , and college students were used as subjects . The subjects were asked to ignore the interference stimulus that occurred simultaneously with the visual stimulus during experiments . They were also instructed to respond as fast as possible to the visual stimulus without making too many errors . InExperiment 1, the relevant visual information is left-right location of the stimulus, irrelevant interference stimulus is tone from one or the other ear that occurred simultaneously with the visual stimulus , comparing the results of the location task in the condition of compatible or incompatible mappings . The results showed that, when the S-R mapping was compatible , a positive Simon effect occurred ; The incompatible S-R mapping showed a small reverse Simon effect . In Experiment 2 , the relevant visual stimulus is color of a centered stimulus , irrelevant interference stimulus is tone from one or the other ear that occurred simultaneously with the visual stimulus , further comparing the performance of the color task with compatible and incompatible mappings . The results showed that, when the S-R mapping was compatible , a positive Simon effect occurred , although the effect for the color task was not significant in the RT data ; The incompatible S-R mapping showed a small positive Simon effect that did not differ reliably from that found with the compatible mapping .These findings suggest that the Simon effect for irrelevant tones does not show a tendency to reverse . Therefore, in Experiment 3 , A more standard Hedge and Marsh Two-Choice Response task were conducted , in which the relevant stimulus dimension was color and the irrelevant dimension was the location of that stimulus. Observe whether the Simon effect and its reversal was obtained or not . The results showed that, for both the compatible and incompatible S-R color mappings , the Simon effect was evident, but did not show the typical Hedge and Marsh reversal, which indicated that visible color labels may be necessary to obtain the reversal. Experiment 4 replicated Experiment 3, using irrelevant visual location task, but...