Context Repetition Does Not Change the Sequential Congruency Effect When There is a Stimulus-Response Contingency

Abstract

The sequential congruency effect (SCE) is defined as the decrease in the congruency effect following incongruent trials compared to congruent trials. The effect of context repetition on SCE was investigated with two experiments. In both experiments, a four-color Stroop task was used, and stimuli were divided into two sets. For the first set of items, there was not a contingency between the stimulus and the context; however, for the second set there was a contingency between the stimulus and the context. Context was manipulated in Experiment 1 by using upper-case and lower-case letters, and in Experiment 2 by using regular and italic font. In Experiment 1, a significant SCE was observed with the non-contingent set, however there was no effect of context change on the SCE. In brief, the SCE was observed both when the context changed or when it remained the same. In other words, even if the contingency was in a different set (the second set), the fact that contingency existed in the experiment was enough to eliminate the effect of context-change on the SCE. In Experiment 2, the contingency manipulation was strengthened for the set that contained contingency and results were replicated for the first set, which did not contain contingency. The results showed that even though contingency is manipulated in a different set, it is enough to eliminate the effect of context repetition on the SCE. These results, support the notion that event representations, which contain stimulus, response and context information and most probably control parameters, are used dynamically.

Keywords

• Dikkat
• Bilişsel Kontrol
• Stroop Görevi
• Sıralı Uyumluluk Etkisi
• İzlerlik