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Cue the Effects: Stimulus-Action Effect Modality Compatibility and Dual-Task Costs
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Cue the Effects: Stimulus-Action Effect Modality Compatibility and Dual-Task Costs

Jonathan Schacherer and Eliot Hazeltine
Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.46(4), pp.350-368
04/2020
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000719
PMCID: PMC7472667
PMID: 32223289

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Abstract

The pairings of tasks' stimulus and response modalities affect the magnitude of dual-task costs. For example, dual-task costs are larger when a visual-vocal task is paired with an auditory-manual task compared with when a visual-manual task is paired with an auditory-vocal task. These results are often interpreted as reflecting increased crosstalk between central codes for each task. Here we examine a potential source: modality-based crosstalk between the stimuli and the response-induced sensory consequences (i.e., action effects). In five experiments, we manipulated experimentally induced action effects so that they were either modality-compatible or -incompatible with the stimuli. Action effects that were modality-compatible (e.g., visual stimulus, visual action effect) produced smaller dual-task costs than those that were modality-incompatible (e.g., visual stimulus, auditory action effect). Thus, the relationship between stimuli and action effects contributes to dual-task costs. Moreover, modality-compatible pairs showed an advantage compared with when no action effects were experimentally induced. These results add to a growing body of work demonstrating that postresponse sensory events affect response selection processes. Public Significance Statement Actions are typically associated with a goal of producing an environmental effect. For example, a pianist must monitor the sound produced by a key press to ensure the proper note was played. In the present study, we demonstrate how a response's anticipated environmental effects affect the coordination of two tasks (i.e., dual-task performance). These results have implications for theoretical accounts of dual-task performance and demonstrate that the expected consequence of actions can partly determine the composition of selection processes.
 dual-task costs crosstalk modality pairings action effects

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