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Abstract
Responding to a stimulus is faster and more accurate when stimulus location and response location spatially correspond than when they do not correspond (stimulus–response compatibility). In five experiments this standard compatibility effect is examined when using a T-shaped lever as a tool. Handling the lever allowed distinguishing body-related action effects (e.g., the tactile feedback from the moving finger) from external action effects (e.g., reaching at the stimulus with the lever's end-point). Results showed that the spatial relationship between stimulus and the direction of the hand movement (S-R compatibility) as well as the relationship between the stimulus and the functional end-points of the tool (S-E compatibility) determine performance. More precisely, responses were fast and less error prone when both kinds of compatibility did correspond than when they did not correspond.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Claire-Michelle Loock, Beate Riegger, Markus Röwenstrunk and Petra Wallmeyer for carrying out the experiments. In addition, we are especially grateful to Peter Wühr and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions on a previous version of this paper.
Notes
1Compatible and incompatible S-R relationship is confounded here with the vertical positions of the stimuli. When an upper stimulus is lit, a compatible response is always required, while when a bottom stimulus is lit, an incompatible response is demanded. Several findings indicate that responding to an upper stimulus is somewhat faster and more accurate with a right response than when with a left response and vice versa (orthogonal compatibility effects, see, e.g., Cho & Proctor, Citation2003; Lippa, Citation1996). So, in the present paradigm one could expect slightly different results for upper and bottom stimuli depending on their side of presentation (left vs. right), but these effects cancel each other out.
2If necessary, F probabilities of the ANOVAs were Greenhouse-Geisser corrected.