Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Posters 5086–5093 Saturday Evening
(5086)
Action Corepresentation With Numerical Stimuli: The Joint SNARC
Effect. SILKE ATMACA, NATALIE SEBANZ, & GÜNTHER KNOB-
LICH, Rutgers University, Newark—Social context profoundly affects
thinking and reasoning. Does it also affect action planning? Using
pointing stimuli, we have demonstrated that when a task is distributed
between two persons, each person represents the other’s actions, resulting
in a joint spatial compatibility effect. In the present study, we
investigated whether action corepresentation emerges for more abstract
stimuli. Participants classified numbers as odd or even. When one
actor performed a two-choice task, small numbers were responded to
more quickly with the left key, and large numbers were responded to
more quickly with the right key, replicating the original SNARC effect.
The same effect occurred when the two responses were distributed between
two persons, each of them performing a go/no-go task. However,
no SNARC effect was observed when one person performed the same
go/no-go task alone. These results suggest that action corepresentation
is a general phenomenon that is not bound to a specific task.
(5087)
Does Tool Use Eliminate the Spatial Compatibility Effect? JOCHEN
MÜSSELER, RWTH Aachen—Subjects tend to respond more quickly
and less erroneously to stimuli presented in the visual hemifield that
spatially corresponds to the responding hand. In the present experiments,
we examined whether this spatial compatibility effect is modified
or even eliminated by using a tool. Subjects aimed at a left or a
right stimulus by moving a tool to the left or the right. Different hypotheses
emerged from considering the direction of the movement or
the direction in which the tool was aiming (the direction of the action
effect). If the direction of movement is important, tool use should not
affect the spatial compatibility effect. If the direction in which the tool
is aiming, is important, tool use should eliminate or even reverse the
spatial compatibility effect. So far, results have shown that the spatial
compatibility effect is not affected by tool use.
(5088)
Between-Task Interference and the Occurrence of Task Inhibition.
MIRIAM GADE, WOLFGANG PRINZ, & IRING KOCH, Max Planck
Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences—In addition to activation
of the currently relevant task, inhibition of competing tasks
occurs when task sequences are performed. We argue that inhibition
arises to resolve between-task interference. We assessed task inhibition
as n�2 repetition cost (ABA sequences, as compared with CBA
sequences). In Experiments 1A and 1B, we manipulated the temporal
interval between tasks (i.e., we manipulated decay of task activation).
We showed that the amount of inhibition in task sequences is dependent
on the residual activation of the competing task. In Experiments
2A and 2B, we showed that feature overlap between tasks (i.e.,
overlap in response categories) leads to between-task interference, determining
the occurrence of task inhibition. We conclude that inhibition
in the control of task sequences mainly serves the resolution of
interference, either because of residual activation of competing tasks
or because of feature overlap between tasks.
(5089)
The Effects of Attention Process Training in Older Adults. VALERIE
D. WEISSER & JANINE M. JENNINGS, Wake Forest University,
PAUL J. LAURIENTI, Wake Forest University School of Medicine,&
DALE DAGENBACH, Wake Forest University—Self-reports from older
adults in a recollection memory training study attribute performance
gains to improvements in attention and concentration (Jennings & Jacoby,
2003; Jennings et al., in press). In addition, age differences in the integration
of information from multiple senses have been found (Laurienti
et al., in press) and can be linked to attentional processing. The
present study was thus designed to investigate the effects of attention
training on both memory and sensory processing in older adults, using
a modified version of the Attention Process Training (APT-II) program
(Sohlberg & Mateer, 1987; Sohlberg et al., 2001). Training consisted
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of auditory and visual tasks devoted to selective, alternating, and divided
attention. Transfer performance was assessed on these aspects of attention,
as well as on measures of recollection, working memory, processing
speed, and multisensory integration. Training-related changes
on these tasks and their implications will be discussed.
(5090)
Attentional Processes Can Be Reverted by Different Manipulations
on Memory Load in an RSVP Stroop-Like Task. BEATRIZ
GIL-GÓMEZ DE LIAÑO & JUAN BOTELLA, Autónoma University
of Madrid (sponsored by Juan Botella)—We have recently studied the
relationship between working memory and attention (Gil-Gómez de
Liaño & Botella, 2004), using an RSVP paradigm within the framework
of the formation of illusory conjunctions in the time domain
(Botella, Barriopedro, & Suero, 2001). Our results showed better performance
in a Stroop-like task for the incongruent condition when
memory was loaded. The present study is an attempt to explain those
results in more detail. The last experiment used a dual-task paradigm
in which participants had to maintain and recall a set of numbers presented
at the beginning of the task while performing an RSVP Strooplike
task. The present study uses a simple task paradigm where memory
load is manipulated by using stimuli associated with the RSVP
Stroop-like task. The results show an inversion on the effect found in
the first study: Now, performance is worse for the incongruent condition
when memory is loaded.
(5091)
Fatiguing Executive Function. MARC G. BERMAN, DEREK E. NEE,
& JOHN JONIDES, University of Michigan—Resolving interference
in working memory is a component crucial to successful cognitive
functioning. However, little research has investigated whether interference
resolution processes can be facilitated or fatigued. Here, we
propose a paradigm with which to explore this question. We utilized
two tasks that require the resolution of proactive interference in working
memory: a directed forgetting task and an item recognition task.
The resolution of interference in both of these tasks has been shown
to activate the left inferior frontal gyrus. We found that subjects who
performed the item recognition task that included proactive interference
showed increased interference effects on the directed forgetting
task relative to subjects who performed an identical item recognition
task without an interference component. The results suggest that
mechanisms involved in the resolution of proactive interference (perhaps
localized to the left inferior frontal gyrus) fatigue, resulting in
increased interference on subsequent tasks using the same mechanisms.
(5092)
Executive Control Over Interference Effects. BIRGIT STÜRMER,
Humboldt University, Berlin—Cuing the correspondence condition on
a trial-by-trial basis in a stimulus–response correspondence task affects
the interference effect. Especially, responses to corresponding
events are faster with a valid correspondence condition cue. Manipulating
cue validity, as well as cue type, showed that the advantage of
the correspondence condition cue holds true only with 100% cue validity.
Moreover, modulations of the interference effect depending on
the correspondence condition of the previous trial were analyzed.
With a correspondence cue, the interference effect was enlarged after
a preceding corresponding event, as compared with other cue types.
In addition, cuing effects were tested in a Simon task. The cue type
did not affect the sequence-dependent modulation of the Simon effect.
Therefore, cuing the correspondence condition influenced the sequence
dependency in both tasks differentially. This finding is discussed
against the background of intentional and nonintentional control
mechanisms operating in the stimulus–response correspondence
task and the Simon task, respectively.
(5093)
Taboo: A Naturalistic Study of Mental Control. WHITNEY A.
HANSEN & STEPHEN D. GOLDINGER, Arizona State University—