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reaction time
You react faster when your hand matches the stimulus position.
The Simon effect shows that response times are faster when the stimulus location corresponds to the response location.
If a light appears on your right, you respond faster with your right hand, even if the instruction is to respond based on color rather than position. The spatial overlap creates a conflict that forces your brain to spend extra time inhibiting the automatic spatial response. Your motor system is inextricably linked to the physical environment.
Your speed is determined by how well your body matches your environment.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Simon and Rudell, 1967, Journal of Applied Psychology
- What the check found
- The claim accurately reflects the findings of Simon & Rudell (1967) regarding stimulus-response compatibility and the interference generated by irrelevant spatial information.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
reaction timesimon effectmotor control
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.