Five shades of grey: Generalization in distractor-based retrieval of S-R episodes

2019

Psychon Bull Rev

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A single encounter of a response together with a stimulus results in short-lived binding between the stimulus and the response. A repetition of any part of such a stimulus-response episode can then retrieve the whole episode, including the response. Recent findings have shown that similar binding is also possible between two successive but independently planned manual responses, indicating that binding processes also play a role in the coordination of action sequences. Action coordination in everyday life often includes alternation between different effector sets. Yet switching effectors has been shown to result in very clear partitioning of actions. Thus, it is unclear whether responses carried out via different effector sets (feet and hands) are as easily integrated as responses via a single effector set (hands). In two experiments, we investigated whether response-response integration is possible across effector-set switches, and compared the binding effects across effector sets to those within one effector set. In a prime-probe design, participants executed two responses at the prime and the probe-the first via their hands and the second via their feet (Exp. 1), or the first via either hands or feet and the second via hands (Exp. 2). The data from both experiments indicated binding between responses, even if the actions were carried out via different effector sets. However, bindings between responses that were carried out via different effector sets were weaker than bindings between responses via a single effector set. We concluded that binding constitutes a main function of action sequences in human behavior.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Response–response binding across effector-set switches

Moeller

2019

Psychon Bull Rev

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“…For each distractor condition a DRB effect was calculated as (RRDC-RRDR)-(RCDC-RCDR) for reaction times and error rates, while using the largest lightness value difference as the distractor change condition for all four distractor repetition conditions with exact repetition and decreasing similarity as the repetition conditions. In line with the generalization processes observed in Pavlovian conditioning (Pearce, 1987), the DRB effect was largest for the exact distractor repetition condition and decreased with increasing distractor dissimilarity; that is, Singh et al (2016) observed generalization processes in distractor-based retrieval (see Fig. 2A for the original data).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Thus, upon a subsequent presentation of the distractor, the (associated) response to the target is executed. With these thoughts in mind, Singh, Moeller, and Frings (2016) hypothesized that processes that impact Pavlovian conditioning should also impact DRB effects: Because in Pavlovian conditioning generalization takes place, that is, conditioned responses can occur in situations that are similar, but not exactly the same as those situations they were learned in (Pearce, 1987), generalization might take place in distractor-based retrieval as well.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The official soundtrack to “Five shades of grey”: Generalization in multimodal distractor-based retrieval

Schöpper

Singh

Atten Percept Psychophys

2020

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When responding to two events in a sequence, the repetition or change of stimuli and the accompanying response can benefit or interfere with response execution: Full repetition leads to benefits in performance while partial repetition leads to costs. Additionally, even distractor stimuli can be integrated with a response, and can, upon repetition, lead to benefits or interference. Recently it has been suggested that not only identical, but also perceptually similar distractors retrieve a previous response (Singh et al., Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 78(8), 2307-2312, 2016): Participants discriminated four visual shapes appearing in five different shades of grey, the latter being irrelevant for task execution. Exact distractor repetitions yielded the strongest distractor-based retrieval effect, which decreased with increasing dissimilarity between shades of grey. In the current study, we expand these findings by conceptually replicating Singh et al. (2016) using multimodal stimuli. In Experiment 1 (N=31), participants discriminated four visual targets accompanied by five auditory distractors. In Experiment 2 (N=32), participants discriminated four auditory targets accompanied by five visual distractors. We replicated the generalization of distractor-based retrieval – that is, the distractor-based retrieval effect decreased with increasing distractor-dissimilarity. These results not only show that generalization in distractor-based retrieval occurs in multimodal feature processing, but also that these processes can occur for distractors perceived in a different modality to that of the target.

“…Thus, the reduced influence of the distractor stimulus might reflect a perceptual mismatch between the prime and probe in the appearance of the distractor stimulus, rather than the impact of a context change. However, the literature suggests that perceptually similar distractors (Singh, Moeller, & Frings, 2016), or even only conceptually similar distractor repetitions (Frings, Moeller, & Rothermund, 2013), elicit distractor-based retrieval. Here, perceptually very similar distractor stimuli (dark vs. light bluish distractors of the same identity) elicited no retrieval in the context-shift conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How the mind shapes action: Offline contexts modulate involuntary episodic retrieval

Atten Percept Psychophys

Koch

Moeller

2017

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Involuntary retrieval of previous stimulus-response episodes is a centerpiece of many theories of priming, episodic binding, and action control. Typically it is assumed that by repeating a stimulus from trial n-1 to trial n, involuntary retrieval is triggered in a nearly automatic fashion, facilitating (or interfering with) the to-be-executed action. Here we argue that changes in the offline context weaken the involuntary retrieval of previous episodes (the offline context is defined to be the information presented before or after the focal stimulus). In four conditions differing in cue modality and target modality, retrieval was diminished if participants changed the target selection criterion (as indicated by a cue presented before the selection took place) while they still performed the same task. Thus, solely through changes in the offline context (cue or selection criterion), involuntary retrieval can be weakened in an effective way.