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. 2010 Dec 3:1:208.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00208. eCollection 2010.

The Virtual Co-Actor: The Social Simon Effect does not Rely on Online Feedback from the Other

Elize Vlainic  1 , Roman Liepelt, Lorenza S Colzato, Wolfgang Prinz, Bernhard Hommel
Affiliations

The Virtual Co-Actor: The Social Simon Effect does not Rely on Online Feedback from the Other

Elize Vlainic et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

The social Simon effect (SSE) occurs if two participants share a Simon task by making a Go/No-Go response to one of two stimulus features. If the two participants perform this version of the Simon task together, a Simon effect occurs (i.e., performance is better with spatial stimulus-response correspondence), but no effect is observed if participants perform the task separately. The SSE has been attributed to the automatic co-representation of the co-actor's actions, which suggests that it relies on online information about the other's actions. To test this implication, we investigated whether the SSE varies with the presence and amount of online action-related feedback from the other person. Experiment 1 replicated the SSE with auditory stimuli. Experiment 2, in which participants were blindfolded, demonstrated that visual feedback from the other's actions is not necessary for the SSE to occur. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 with a regular and a soundless keyboard. A comparable SSE was obtained in both conditions, suggesting that even auditory online input from the other's actions is not necessary. Taken together, our data suggest that the SSE does not rely on online information about the co-actor's actions but that a priori offline information about another actor's presence is sufficient to generate the effect.

Keywords: Simon effect; action representation; grounded cognition; social Simon effect; task representation.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Design of the social Simon task. The example shows a stimulus–location–congruent response (top panels) and an incongruent response (bottom panels) for the left and right located actor (left and right column, respectively).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Timing and sequence of events in Experiment 1.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Goggles used in the blindfolded (see left participant) and seeing conditions (see right participant).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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