“School of Cognitive Sciences”
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| Paper IPM / Cognitive Sciences / 14565 |
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Simon Effect is observed when, in a two-choice RT task, spatially defined responses to non-spatial stimulus attributes are faster when stimulus and response locations are congruent. The same is observed when two participants sit alongside, each responding to one of the stimuli. Such "Social" Simon Effect (SSE) is absent when the tasks are performed individually. Whether SSE is an indication of sharing the task representation is debated. To further investigate this and based on the idea that the quality of relationship has a strong cognitive power to influence social interaction, we studied whether the affective quality of relationship modulates the SSE. Unlike previous studies, we investigated real rather than induced relationships with the quality of relationship ranging from neutral to very positive.
The experiment had three phases. In Individual Two-Choice (ITC) task the participant pressed the right or left button when s/he saw the green and red circles respectively ignoring the circles' location. In Individual Go-NoGo task (IGNG) participants separately responded to only one color with the corresponding button. In Joint Go-NoGo task (JGNG), participants sat in pairs, each person responding to one color. Afterwards, subjects rated the degree of intimacy towards co-actor using Ïnclusion of Other in the Self" scale. This scale consisted of four Venn diagram-like pairs of circles that varied on the level of overlap between the self and the other. Respondents selected the pair of circles that best described their current level of intimacy.
We successfully replicated the individual and social Simon Effect in ITC and JGNG (p<0.001) but not in IGNG (p>0.2) task. Importantly, results indicated that SSE was significantly stronger in pairs with high intimacy vs those rating their relationship as neutral. Our results provide evidence that SSE is affected by social factors such as the relationship quality.
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