The Effect Of Repeating The Location Of Interference On The Target Response

The cognitive system is very sensitive to stimulus repetitions. Even a single repetition of a stimulus can have an impact on behavior. This characteristic of the cognitive system proves extremely useful for successfully controlling behavior in natural environments. The influence of repetition may improve or delay our reaction. We have found lots of studies about stimulus repetition effect, such as repetition priming, which means repetition of a stimulus increase performance. Repetition priming is usually used in the studies of word or language, and displays only one stimulus each time. Another opposite effect named negative priming, which means when probe target is the same with prime distractor, reaction time is delayed. Compared with repetition priming, negative priming is usually produced in prime-probe task paradigm, and each display contains two or more stimuli which makes stimulus can change role from prime display to probe display and benefit to study stimulus repetition effect. However, reaction time also can be enhanced in negative priming paradigm. When probe target is the previous target, participants perform better.Plants of previous researches focused on repetition of target stimulus, or the condition that prime distractor and probe target are same stimuli. Recently, there have psychologists research prime and probe distractor repetition effect (Frings, Rothermund,&Wentura,2007), and find that the repetition of distractor can enhance the reaction to target which is called distractor repetition benefit. Moreover, this effect is affected by response. Repetition of the prime distractor as the probe distractor should delay responding in the probe if the probe response is different from the prime response. On the other hand, repetition of the prime distractor as the probe distractor should facilitate responding in the probe if prime and probe responses are identical since in this case the retrieved response of the prime episode is compatible with the probe response. According to Event File and Stimulus-Response Retrieval theory, we suggest that the distractor repetition benefit conducted in identity task could also happen in spatial location task. Thus, present research is concerned with analyzing the interaction of response repetitions and distractor repetitions in a location-based prime-probe task in which distractors compete with targets for response execution.With Experiment1, we transferred the DRB experiments of Frings et al.(2007) to a spatial task. Participants responded to the location of the target by pressing a spatially corresponding key while ignoring the location of the distractor. We orthogonally varied response repetitions and distractor repetitions. The result shows location-based distractor repetition benefit effect. The reaction time of distractor repetition condition is significantly smaller than that in distractor change condition. The repetition of the prime the effects of distractor repetition are modulated by response relation. If the same response has to be given in prime and probe, repetition of distractor location facilitates performance compared to trials in which the target but not the distractor location is repeated. We further control the possible mixed factors in Experiment2and3, and investigate whether they influence the effect or not. In Experiment2, we use cue stimulus to control the congruency of perception in prime and probe display, and add experimental conditions to control the contingency strategies in Experiment3. These two experiments’ results are similar to Experiment1, and further prove that location-based distractor repetition effect is not affected by stimulus’s identity perception and contingency between displays.Summing up all the results and discussions, present research conduct following conclusion:(1) In location-based prime-probe task, location information can combine with response information. The distractor location displayed repeatedly can be a kind of cue to retrieve response in the prime episodic including this location.(2) The repetition benefit of distractor location is modulated by response relation between prime and probe. If the same response has to be given in prime and probe, repetition of distractor location facilitates performance. When the response is incongruence in prime and probe, any effect is not appeared.(3) The stimulus identity perception and contingency between prime and probe do not influence the interaction of distractor location congruency and response congruency.