LATERALIZED WARNING TONES PRODUCE TYPICAL IRRELEVANT-LOCATION EFFECTSON CHOICE REACTIONS

Simon, Acosta, and Mewaldt (1975) reported an experiment in which a 20 0-Hz warning-tone, presented in the left or right ear, was followed by an imperative stimulus of 500 Hz in either ear, to which a left-or ri ght-key press was to be made. Simon et al, found a correspondence effe ct for warning location and response location (i.e., faster reactions when warning and response locations corresponded than when they did no t) when the stimulus-response mapping was incompatible but not when it was compatible. These findings stand in contrast to typical results o f (1) a correspondence effect for irrelevant location information when the mapping is compatible and (2) a reversed correspondence effect (i .e., faster responses when stimulus and response location do not corre spond) when the mapping is incompatible. We conducted a direct replica tion of Simon et al.'s experiment and another experiment that differed only in the imperative stimulus being visual, in order to determine w hether there are unique aspects of their method that yield atypical re sults. Our results failed to replicate those reported by Simon et al. but instead showed the patterns of correspondence effects typically fo und with other procedures, suggesting that the warning-signal method p roduces irrelevant-location effects consistent with those produced by other methods.