Van der Lubbe Rob H J, Abrahamse Elger L, De Kleine Elian
Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics, University of Twente, The Netherlands.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2012 May;140(1):25-34. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2012.01.011. Epub 2012 Mar 14.
The Simon effect refers to the phenomenon that responses are faster when the irrelevant location of a stimulus corresponds with the response location than when these locations do not correspond. In the current paper we examined the viability of an updated version of the premotor theory of attention (PMTA) as an account for the Simon effect. Two predictions were evaluated. First, in the case of focused attention at the relevant target position a strong reduction of the Simon effect should be observed as the Simon effect according to PMTA crucially depends on attentional orienting. Secondly, if attention is directed towards a location then this orienting by itself should already be sufficient for producing a Simon effect, as stimulus presence is not required. Our data confirmed these predictions thereby supporting the relevance of the PMTA for the Simon effect.
西蒙效应是指当刺激的无关位置与反应位置相对应时，反应速度比这些位置不对应时更快的现象。在当前论文中，我们检验了注意力运动前理论（PMTA）的更新版本作为解释西蒙效应的可行性。评估了两个预测。首先，在将注意力集中于相关目标位置的情况下，应观察到西蒙效应大幅减弱，因为根据PMTA，西蒙效应关键取决于注意力定向。其次，如果注意力指向一个位置，那么这种定向本身就应该足以产生西蒙效应，因为不需要刺激出现。我们的数据证实了这些预测，从而支持了PMTA与西蒙效应的相关性。
