EFFECTS OF COLOR AND LEXICAL RELEVANCE ON IRRELEVANT STIMULI - EVENT-RELATED POTENTIAL RESULTS

EVENT-RELATED potentials (ERPs) were recorded in a warning stimulus-im perative stimulus (S1-S2) situation where S1 was either a coloured bar followed by a letter string (S2), or vice versa. When S1 was a colour ed bar, reaction time (RT) response was required only to words which w ere preceded by a bar of a particular colour. When S1 was a letter str ing, response was required only to bars in a particular colour which w ere preceded by a word. Contingent negative variation (CNV) appeared o nly after those Sis which could be followed by a target stimulus. Howe ver, bars in the colour of the target elicited attention-related ERP c omponents even if these stimuli were preceded by non-words, i.e. when the subjects could be certain in advance of the appearance of a non-ta rget stimulus.