The sound-free SMARC effect: The spatial-musical association of response codes using only sound imagery
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BRIEF REPORT
The sound-free SMARC effect: The spatial-musical association of response codes using only sound imagery Qi Jiang 1 & Atsunori Ariga 1
# The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract This study provides clear evidence that the human cognitive system automatically codes sound pitch spatially. The spatialmusical association of response codes (SMARC) effect, in which a high-pitched (low-pitched) tone facilitates an upper (lower) response, is considered to reflect the spatial coding of sound pitch. However, previous studies have not excluded the directional effects of sound localization. Because a high-pitched (low-pitched) tone is automatically misperceived as originating from a spatially high (low) location, the location of a perceived sound source might artificially elicit the SMARC effect. This study challenged this unresolved issue. Participants were trained to associate visual stimuli (novel contoured shapes) with sound pitches (high-pitched or low-pitched pure tones). After training, participants completed a discrimination task in which the vertically aligned keys were associated with the visual stimuli in the absence of sound. Even without sound, the SMARC effect was observed in response to the trained visual stimuli (Experiment 1). However, this sound-free SMARC effect was eliminated when training was omitted (Experiment 2). Therefore, the SMARC effect was observed based solely on the activation of sound imagery that was spatial. Keywords SMARC effect . SPARC effect . Sound imagery
Introduction The quickness and accuracy of an action toward a target object in the environment depend on the interaction between how it is encoded and how to respond to it. This phenomenon is evidenced by the stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect, which states that a right (left) response to a stimulus located on the right (left) is performed more quickly and accurately than when the opposite configuration is presented (Brebner, 1973; Fitts & Seeger, 1953; Kornblum, Hasbroucq, & Osman, 1990; Proctor & Vu, 2006; Shaffer, 1965; see also Hommel & Prinz, 1997, for a review). When an encoded stimulus has a consistent spatial code with the assigned response, the correct response is quickly selected due to dimensional overlap, whereas when this relationship is inconsistent, the response is disrupted by conflict between
* Atsunori Ariga [email protected] 1
Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-7-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8521, Japan
the spatial codes of the stimulus and those of the response (Kornblum et al., 1990; Kornblum & Lee, 1995; Proctor & Vu, 2006; Teichner & Krebs, 1974). Although the locus of the SRC effect has been discussed in several previous studies (Proctor & Reeve, 1990), there is a consensus that this effect enables humans to understand how non-spatial stimuli are spatially encoded. For example, Westerners make a right (left) response quickly and accurately when a large (small) number is visually presented at the center of a display following
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