COMPATIBILITY AND LOCATION EFFECTS IN TARGET AND DISTRACTOR PROCESSING

A Stroop-like task was used in a series of studies to test the effect of a distractor on target processing. Presentation conditions were var ied such that a scaled letter distractor appeared either spatially adj acent to or apart from a target. The retinal locations of the stimuli and the compatibility of the distractor were also varied. In Experimen ts 1 and 2, the effect of the spatial distribution of the stimuli was tested; the impact of distractor location was investigated in Experime nts 3 and 4. Distractor compatibility consistently influenced target p rocessing irrespective of whether the distractor was adjacent to the t arget or presented at some distance from the target. Moreover, related distractors that appeared in the opposite hemifield from the target h ad similar effects to distractors that appeared adjacent to the target . These data show qualitative differences in attentional processing ac ross retinal areas and have implications for the design of display pan els and the spatial layout of information.