Abstract

Stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) refers to how accurately a display set (stimulus panel) and a control set (response panel) physically resemble one another. A symbol that can be coded along multiple dimensions (e.g., a green stop sign) could sometimes be interpreted in two distinct ways, which could lead to problems if they provide contradictory information. The right-left prevalence effect is the phenomenon whereby reaction time for responses that are made to two-dimensional (2-D) spatial stimuli is faster for the horizontal dimension, when compared to responses made to the vertical dimension. Prior studies on 2-D SRC examined compatibility effects in either a single modality or compared the results from unimodal visual conditions to unimodal auditory conditions. Two experiments were conducted to extend the findings of the prevalence effect to multisensory stimulus displays. Neutral tones were used in Experiment 1, and SMARC tones, known to create a spatial representation of height based on the attribute of pitch, were used in Experiment 2. The neutral tones had no effect on the prevalence effect, but the SMARC tones altered participants' coding of horizontal 2-D spatial locations. Theoretical implications, limitations, and the application of the results to multisensory displays are discussed.