Separating after-effects of target and distractor processing in the tactile sensory modality

Abstract

The present study investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying aftereffects of tactile target and distractor processing. In our experiment, participants selected tactile target stimuli against simultaneously presented tactile distractor stimuli in prime–probe sequences. Tactile distractors in each prime/probe trial were either response incompatible (i.e., interfering at the response level) or response neutral (i.e., noninterfering at the response level), manipulated between participants. Furthermore, distractor relation (repetition vs. change) and response relation (repetition vs. change) across prime–probe sequences were orthogonally varied within participants. Thus, independent estimates of distractor repetition main effects (that are attributable to distractor-specific prime processing and have previously been interpreted in terms of inhibition or episodic retrieval processes) and the modulation of distractor repetition effects due to response relation (that is target specific and can only be explained in terms of event-file retrieval) were assessed (see Giesen, Frings, & Rothermund, Memory & Cognition, 40, 373–387, 2012). Replicating previous studies with visual stimuli, simple distractor repetition effects were stronger for response-incompatible compared with response-neutral tactile distractors. In contrast, event-file retrieval as reflected in distractor-response binding retrieval effects was not modulated by whether the distractors were response incompatible or response neutral. Together, these findings highlight that in tactile tasks, prime-distractor and prime-target processing both hold the potential to cause aftereffects during probe performance.