Journal article
Observation: Three reasons to avoid having half of the trials be congruent in a four-alternative forced-choice experiment on sequential modulation
Psychonomic bulletin & review, Vol.19(4), pp.750-757
08/2012
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-012-0257-3
PMID: 22549895
Abstract
Sequential modulation is the finding that the sizes of several selective-attention phenomena--namely, the Simon, flanker, and Stroop effects--are larger following congruent trials than following incongruent trials. In order to rule out relatively uninteresting explanations of sequential modulation that are based on a variety of stimulus- and response-repetition confounds, a four-alternative forced choice task must be used, such that all trials with any kind of repetition can be omitted from the analysis. When a four-alternative task is used, the question arises as to whether to have the proportions of congruent and incongruent trials be set by chance (and, therefore, be 25% congruent and 75% incongruent) or to raise the proportion of congruent trials to 50%, so that it matches the proportion of incongruent trials. In this observation, it is argued that raising the proportion of congruent trials to 50% should not be done. For theoretical, practical, and empirical reasons, having half of the trials be congruent in a four-alternative task aimed at providing unambiguous evidence of sequential modulation should be avoided.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Observation: Three reasons to avoid having half of the trials be congruent in a four-alternative forced-choice experiment on sequential modulation
- Creators
- J Toby Mordkoff - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA. jonathan-mordkoff@uiowa.edu
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Psychonomic bulletin & review, Vol.19(4), pp.750-757
- Publisher
- United States
- DOI
- 10.3758/s13423-012-0257-3
- PMID
- 22549895
- ISSN
- 1069-9384
- eISSN
- 1531-5320
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2012
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984002372002771
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