Hand-hemispace spatial compatibility, precueing, and stimulus-onset asynchrony

The role of attention and the resolution of coding conflicts in hand-hemispace spatial-compatibility effects was examined in a precueing experiment in which visual and vibrotactile precues, with various stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs), were presented in blocked and random order. It was expected that precues at the shorter SOAs would fail to facilitate the shifting of attention, as they occur too close to the imperative stimulus to be informative. The task would therefore approximate one of choice reaction time (RT), resulting in a hand-hemispace spatial-compatibility effect. Conversely, the longer SOAs would provide the subject with sufficient time in which to shift attention fully, and would therefore result in a task more like that of simple reaction time (SRT). It was expected that the hand-hemispace spatial-compatibility effect would then be absent. As was expected, this effect was present at the shorter SOAs, and absent at the longer SOAs. In Experiments 2 and 3, provision of a visual precue further facilitated attentional deployment, as did blocking the presentation of various SOAs in Experiment 3. Vibrotactile and visual precues did not differ in their ability to direct attention, implying that these modalities orient attention and precue location in essentially similar ways. These findings are discussed within the context of the mechanisms thought to underlie the time course of spatial compatibility and the dissipation of a fading trace of interfering spatial codes.