The neurocognitive underpinnings of the Simon effect: An integrative review of current research
- PDF / 2,673,354 Bytes
- 40 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 89 Downloads / 167 Views
The neurocognitive underpinnings of the Simon effect: An integrative review of current research Jesús Cespón 1 & Bernhard Hommel 2 & Margarethe Korsch 3 & Daniela Galashan 3 Accepted: 13 September 2020 # The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract For as long as half a century the Simon task – in which participants respond to a nonspatial stimulus feature while ignoring its position – has represented a very popular tool to study a variety of cognitive functions, such as attention, cognitive control, and response preparation processes. In particular, the task generates two theoretically interesting effects: the Simon effect proper and the sequential modulations of this effect. In the present study, we review the main theoretical explanations of both kinds of effects and the available neuroscientific studies that investigated the neural underpinnings of the cognitive processes underlying the Simon effect proper and its sequential modulation using electroencephalogram (EEG) and event-related brain potentials (ERP), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Then, we relate the neurophysiological findings to the main theoretical accounts and evaluate their validity and empirical plausibility, including general implications related to processing interference and cognitive control. Overall, neurophysiological research supports claims that stimulus location triggers the creation of a spatial code, which activates a spatially compatible response that, in incompatible conditions, interferes with the response based on the task instructions. Integration of stimulus-response features plays a major role in the occurrence of the Simon effect (which is manifested in the selection of the response) and its modulation by sequential congruency effects. Additional neural mechanisms are involved in supporting the correct and inhibiting the incorrect response. Keywords Simon task . Event-related potentials . Electroencephalogram . Transcranial magnetic stimulation . Functional magnetic resonance imaging . Sequential congruency effects
Introduction and scope of review The Simon task (Simon & Small, 1969) represents – even more than the notorious Stroop task (Stroop, 1935; MacLeod, 1991) and the Flanker task (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974) – the signature tool to study stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) (Hommel, 2011a; Kornblum, Hasbroucq & Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00836-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jesús Cespón [email protected] 1
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Mikeletegi Pasealekua, 69, 20009 Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain
2
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition and Leiden University Institute of Psychology, Leiden, The Netherlands
3
Department of Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Osman, 1990) and it is widely used to study cognitive functions in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, su
Data Loading...
