Response-incompatible flanking noise letters impair target reaction time significantly more than response-compatible noise in a nonsearch task¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q3
Currency · newest study 1974 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? RT to the target was longest when noise letters belonged to the opposite response set and fastest when noise was identical to the target, across all spacing values. → Eriksen 1974

Evidence¶

Eriksen 1974¶

Eriksen, B. A., & Eriksen, C. W. (1974). Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task. Perception & Psychophysics, 16(1), 143-149. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03203267

q3 · i? · causal · r1

Tachistoscopic experiment with six paid volunteer subjects responding by leverpress to a target letter at a fixed location. The results section reports that opposite-response-set noise gave the longest RT while identical noise gave the fastest, with "little difference" between identical and same-response noise conditions.

"Over all values of the spacing variable, RT to the condition in which the noise was a letter of the opposite response set was the longest, while the fastest RTs were obtained when the noise was identical to the target."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Target-alone RT is approximately 30 msec faster in blocked no-noise trials than in trials intermixed with noise conditions, indicating a preparatory inhibitory set — related
• Error data mirror the RT findings: opposite-response-set noise caused far more errors at the two closest spacings — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Heterogeneous noise letters with set-related features produce intermediate RT impairment, consistent with stimulus generalization at wider spacings — related
• Target RT decreases as between-letter spacing increases, and the noise-condition effect is greatest at the closest spacing (Noise Condition by Spacing interaction) — related