Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56

www.elsevier.com/locate/actpsy

The Eriksen ¯anker e€ect revisited

A.F. Sanders *, J.M. Lamers
Cognitive Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, Free University, De Boelelaan 1111,
1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands
Received 13 March 2000; received in revised form 12 April 2001; accepted 20 April 2001

Abstract

Four studies are reported on the potential role of perceptual interference in a standard
Eriksen ¯anker task. In the ®rst study, incongruent ¯anker letters showed the usual e€ect on
choice reaction time (CRT) to the target letter but had no e€ect on the visual ®xation time
(VFT) needed to distinguish target and ¯ankers. In the second experiment, the e€ect of in-
congruent ¯ankers was studied in the context of a same±di€erent response in regard to the
target letter and a subsequently presented single letter. The e€ect of incongruent ¯ankers
vanished at an interstimulus interval of 200 ms. In Experiment 3, the same±di€erent task was
used in the paradigm of the functional visual ®eld with a target±¯ankers combination as
stimulus on the left (SL) and a single letter as stimulus on the right side (SR) of the visual ®eld.
Flankers did neither a€ect VFT nor the same±di€erent CRT suggesting that target selection
may proceed during the saccade from SL to SR. In Experiment 4 e€ects were studied of
¯anker-to-target and target-to-single-letter similarity. Flanker-to-target similarity did neither
a€ect VFT nor same±di€erent CRT but target-to-single-letter similarity prolonged same±
di€erent CRT. Together, the results suggest parallel perceptual processing of target and
¯ankers, followed by competition of responses to the target and to the incongruent ¯ankers. In
line with earlier research, processes of response selection and response competition appear not
to be tied to VFT but to proceed in parallel with the saccade from SL to SR. Ó 2002 Elsevier
Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PsycINFO classi®cation: 2340

Keywords: Choice reaction; Fixation time; Stimulus identi®cation; Response selection

*
Corresponding author.

0001-6918/02/$ - see front matter Ó 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 0 1 - 6 9 1 8 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 4 8 - 8
42 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56

1. Introduction

In a standard Eriksen ¯anker task (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974) participants carry
out a speeded response to a target letter which is closely surrounded by non-target
letters or ¯ankers. Choice reaction time (CRT) is invariably found to increase when
¯ankers are incongruent ± i.e. consist of letters from the target set that require an-
other response ± in comparison with conditions in which a target letter is presented
alone or is surrounded by congruent ¯ankers ± i.e. letters from the target set that
require the same response. When ¯ankers are neutral ± i.e. letters that do not belong
to the target set ± CRT may be slightly longer than in the congruent condition but
the e€ect is much less pronounced than in the incongruent condition.
This pattern of results has been commonly viewed as support for information
processing in terms of a continuous ¯ow rather than in terms of transmission
through a succession of discrete stages. (McClelland, 1979; Miller, 1988, 1993;
Sanders, 1990, 1998). Continuous ¯ow entails considerable parallel activity when
processing target and ¯ankers, which, however, is no safeguard against interference
due to, say, perceptual confusion of target and ¯ankers or to competition among
con¯icting response tendencies (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974; Eriksen & Schultz, 1979).
Eriksen and co-workers interpreted their initial results in terms of con¯icting stim-
ulus evaluation of target and ¯ankers, causing activation of their corresponding
response channels, thus resulting in competition at the level of response activation.
This view was supported by psychophysiological evidence. For instance, Coles,
Gratton, Bashore, Eriksen, and Donchin (1985) found incongruent ¯ankers to
prolong EMG latency and to evoke EMG activity of the limb connected to the in-
correct response. In addition, the lateralised readiness potential (LRP) appears to be
initially biased towards the incorrect response side when ¯ankers were incongruent
(e.g. Ridderinkhof & van der Molen, 1995; Smid, Lamain, Hogeboom, Mulder, &
Mulder, 1991). In addition, incongruent ¯ankers appear to increase the P3 latency of
the event-related brain potential (ERP), which has been widely viewed as evidence
for increased demands on stimulus evaluation (Donchin & Coles, 1988; Coles et al.,
1985; Ridderinkhof & van der Molen, 1995). Sto€els and van der Molen (1988)
found additive e€ects of variation of visual congruence of target and ¯anker letters
and of simultaneously presented irrelevant auditory location cues. This result was
interpreted as evidence that the e€ect of visual congruity might be predominantly
perceptual whereas irrelevant incongruent auditory location cues might frustrate
response selection by triggering an inappropriate tendency to respond towards the
location of the auditory stimulus. The e€ects of irrelevant auditory location cues and
visual congruity appeared to interact when target and ¯ankers consisted of arrows
rather than of letters, which was interpreted as evidence for perceptual crosstalk
between visual and auditory feature channels when both the visual and auditory
stimuli contained spatial information.
Flowers and Wilcox (1984) and Flowers (1990) suggested perceptual facilitation in
the case of congruent ¯ankers. They varied stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and
found incongruent ¯ankers to interfere most at simultaneous presentation of target
and ¯ankers, which e€ect vanished when ¯ankers preceeded the target by 200 ms. In
 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56 43

contrast, congruent ¯ankers hardly facilitated at simultaneous presentation but had

a facilitating e€ect at an SOA of 200 ms. Flowers proposed that ¯ankers might evoke
two processes: (a) perceptual (repetition) priming which evolves as a function of
SOA and facilitates when ¯ankers are congruent, and (b) inhibition of a tendency to
respond to ¯ankers, which has the e€ect of eliminating interference at a longer SOA
(Posner, 1978). In this way ¯ankers would have both a perceptual and a response
e€ect, although facilitation through repetition priming might be only e€ective in case
of a SOA.
Perceptual confusion of target and ¯ankers has been argued to depend on factors
such as location information about and similarity among target and ¯ankers (Estes,
1975; Bjork & Estes, 1973; Coles et al., 1985). Thus, Yeh and Eriksen (1984) studied
the relative role of physical versus name identity on ¯anker interference. Among
others, targets were surrounded by physical (e.g. AAA) or by name identical (e.g.
QqQ) congruent ¯ankers. In addition physical characteristics could be similar (e.g.
eGe) or dissimilar (eAe). For example, congruent ¯ankers could be name identical
but physically dissimilar (e.g. aAa). Alternatively, ¯ankers could be incongruent but
physically similar (aGa), etc. The results showed a dominant role of physical features
in regard to interference or facilitation. CRT was considerably faster when ¯ankers
and target were physically identical (AAA) than when they were name identical
(aAa). Yet, CRT proved still somewhat faster when ¯ankers were name identical
than when they consisted of another congruent letter ± i.e. a letter requiring the same
response as the target ± which suggests at least a contribution of name identity as
well. Interference from incongruent ¯ankers was less pronounced when target and
¯ankers belonged to di€erent physical letter categories (e.g. target: capital; ¯ankers:
small, or vice versa) than when they belonged to the same category (e.g. all capitals),
suggesting that subjects discriminate targets and ¯ankers primarily on the basis of
their physical features. The relevance of physical characteristics was also clear from
the pronounced interference that was observed when congruent or neutral ¯ankers
were physically similar to incongruent ¯ankers. Yeh and Eriksen concluded, there-
fore, that responses are formost elicited by physical and not by name codes. This was
taken as further evidence in favour of processing as a continuous ¯ow rather than in
discrete steps. Proponents of processing through discrete stages have commonly
assumed that the ®nal output of perceptual stimulus processing consists of a name
code (e.g. Sanders, 1998). The Yeh and Eriksen result that response activation de-
velops prior to achieving a name code is clearly at odds with this view. Yet, a name
code as output of perceptual identi®cation may be unwarranted. Recent data ob-
tained using the additive factors method (AFM) suggest that the output of per-
ceptual identi®cation may be a holistic physical representation, whereas a name code
is achieved during response selection (Sanders, van Duren, Wisman, Boers, &
Klompenhouwer, submitted).
More generally, the evidence for perceptual confusion as contributor to ¯anker
interference may not be fully watertight. For example, although Smid, Mulder, and
Mulder (1990) con®rmed that P3 latency was longer when a target was surrounded
by ¯ankers than when presented single, P3 latency proved to be insensitive to the
similarity of ¯ankers and target. Again, Smid, Mulder, Mulder, and Brands (1992)
44 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56

found no e€ect on P3 latency when stimuli were harder to distinguish (say, l (el) from
1(one)), which may cast some doubt on the P3 latency as an index of perceptual
processing demands. As mentioned, an e€ect of repetition priming is probably
limited to the case in which ¯ankers and target are presented in succession. Other
results suggesting perceptual confusion have relied on application of the AFM which
is likely to be inappropriate in the case of composite stimuli as used in the Eriksen
paradigm (e.g. Ridderinkhof, van der Molen, & Bashore, 1995; Sanders, 1998). In
fact, most reviewed results might be accounted for by assuming full parallel and
unrestrained perceptual analysis of target and ¯ankers ± i.e. no perceptual confusion
± resulting in competing response tendencies.
A convincing test of a perceptual contribution to ¯anker interference requires a
paradigm which enables separate assessment of processes involved in perceptual
analysis and in response selection. This may be achieved by the paradigm of the
functional visual ®eld (e.g. Sanders, 1993, 1998). In a prototypical study subjects
inspect a stimulus presented at a ®xed location in the left part of the visual ®eld, (SL)
followed by a shift of the eyes to a stimulus, presented at a symmetrical ®xed location
in the right part of the visual ®eld (SR), both stimuli presented at eyelevel. SL and
SR usually subtend a considerable binocular visual angle, say at least 45°. A trial
ends with a joint choice reaction to SL and SR by way of a key press or a vocal
response. In some studies the response has been a same±di€erent response whereas in
other studies SR indicated whether a response to SL should be carried out or be
withheld. Measuring the start and the end of the saccade from SL to SR allows
assessment of the ®xation time of SL (TL), the time taken by the saccade (TM) and
the time between the arrival of the eyes at SR and the completion of the response
(TR).
There is accumulating evidence that perceptual variables, such as stimulus quality,
a€ect CRT and TL about equally ± suggesting that perceptual processing is tied to
visual ®xation. (Sanders & Houtmans, 1985; van Duren, 1994). In contrast, S-R
compatibility has not been found to a€ect either TL or TR, suggesting that response
selection may proceed in parallel with the saccade from SL to SR (van Duren &
Sanders, 1995). It is tempting to assume that a saccade is triggered upon completion
of perceptual stimulus analysis.
These and other results (see Sanders, 1998, pp. 196±214 for a review) suggest
experiments on the e€ect of ¯anker congruity on TL. If the ¯anker e€ect is partly due
to perceptual analysis, such as target localisation or target±¯anker confusion, one
would expect a ¯anker e€ect on TL. If ¯anker interference is fully a matter of
response selection, ¯anker e€ects should be absent both in regard to TL and to TR.

2. Experiment 1

2.1. Method and procedures

The experiment took place in a dimly illuminated, sound attenuated and electri-
cally shielded cabin. Participants were seated at a table in front of a semicircular
 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56 45

black screen which was enclosed by a black non-re¯ecting ¯oor and ceiling. The
screen was excised at eye level at three locations, i.e. at the centre, at 22.5° to the left
and at 22.5° to the right of the visual meridian. A computer screen was positioned at
all three excision areas. Participants held their head in a chin rest so as to ensure a
constant distance of about 80 cm between their eyes and the screen.
In the experimental condition two stimuli were successively presented, the ®rst in
the middle of the computer screen at 22.5° to the left (SL) and the second in the
middle of the computer screen at 22.5° to the right (SR) of the visual meridian. The
task was to inspect SL, carry out a saccade from SL to SR, to inspect SR, and, ®-
nally, to carry out a speeded choice reaction depending on the joint state of SL and
SR. Timing of events, recording of reaction times, ®xation times and saccades were
controlled by an Olivetti M280. To assess onset and o€set of the saccade, horizontal
eye movements from SL to SR were measured through a standard EOG technique
using silver-chloride electrodes. Onset and o€set were determined by a computer
program that searched for signi®cant and continuing changes in electrical potential
at successive time units in ms. Moreover, the EOG measures of onset and o€set were
inspected o€-line, and corrected if artefactual. The time between presentation of SL
and saccade onset de®ned TL, the time between saccade onset and o€set de®ned TM
and the time between saccade o€set and the completion of the response de®ned TR.
A trial started with presentation of an auditory warning tone (750 Hz, 70 dB, 100
ms), ± generated by an audio oscillator and presented over headphones ± and of a
small circular ®xation light positioned 3.5 cm below the forthcoming location of SL,
so as to ensure that processing SL started immediately upon presentation. The ®x-
ation light was presented for 1.5 s whereupon it was replaced by SL which consisted
of a horizontal row of ®ve letters. A letter covered 3.3 min of arc and the visual angle
between adjacent letters was 3.3 min of arc as well. Letters were white on a grey
background. The instruction was to attend to the middle letter (the target) and to
ignore the ¯ankers. The target was a capital letter ``A'' or ``B'', and the ¯ankers were
capital ``A's'' ``B's'' or ``X's'', resulting in the following set of stimulus alternatives:
BBABB, AAAAA, AABAA, BBBBB, XXAXX, XXBXX. Inspection of SL (target
and ¯ankers) was followed by a saccade to SR, which consisted of a single dot at
80% and of ``no stimulus'' at the remaining 20% of the trials. If SR was a single dot
(go-signal) participants responded by pressing the left response key to target ``A''
and by pressing the right response key to target ``B''. When SR was absent (no-go
signal), participants had to withhold a response to the target.
In the control condition a trial started with the same auditory warning and a
®xation light, presented for 1.5 s on the central screen. After the foreperiod had
elapsed the ®xation light was replaced by one of the ®ve-letter stimuli, as described
above, which was also presented on the central screen and which required a speeded
choice reaction. Participants reacted to target ``A'' by pressing a left response key
and to target ``B'' by pressing a right response key.
The study had a two-factor design with ``task'' (experimental vs control) and
target±¯anker combination (congruent, e.g. AAAAA, incongruent, e.g. BBABB, and
neutral, e.g. XXAXX) as within-subjects variables. Participants were instructed to
respond as fast and accurately as possible. The various target±¯anker combinations
46 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56

all occurred within a block in a pseudo-random sequence, each combination with an

equal frequency. Task (experimental, control) was varied between blocks in alter-
nating order. A block consisted of 36 trials, the ®rst six of which were considered as
warming-up. In this way, experimental blocks had 24 ``go'' and 6 ``no-go'' trials. The
experiment comprised a total of 20 blocks, i.e. 10 control and 10 experimental
blocks, which were run in ®ve sessions of four blocks each. Testing was preceded by
instructions and demonstration trials. After each session participants were informed
about their error rate. The ®rst two sessions were considered as practice and not
included in the data analysis. Eight students from the Vrije Universiteit, between 21
and 30 years of age, took part. They were paid for their services and reported to have
normal or corrected-to-normal vision.

3. Results and discussion

Incorrect reactions, errors of commission and times exceeding the mean by two
standard deviations were excluded from analysis. Mean CRT (control condition)
and mean TL, TM and TR (experimental condition) and error proportions are
shown in Table 1
An ANOVA was carried out on the data of the control condition with individual
mean CRT's as cells. The e€ect of ¯anker condition was highly signi®cant
…F …2; 14† ˆ 137; P < 0:001†, which con®rms the commonly observed pronounced
interference in the incongruent condition and the slight facilitation in the congruent
condition in relation to the neutral condition. Thus, the present display produced the
traditional Eriksen e€ect. This is relevant in view of the ®nding that interference
diminishes as the visual angle between target and ¯ankers increases and as partici-
pants are more successful in focusing on the central target spot (LaBerge, Carter,
Bash, & Hartley, 1991; Miller, 1991). Flanker condition had no e€ect on TL, TM or
TR. A MANOVA on CRT with ¯anker condition and ``task'' as within subjects
variables showed a signi®cant interaction of task and ¯anker condition
…F …2; 14† ˆ 42:4; P < 0:001† underlining that the Eriksen e€ect was only found in
the control condition, both in regard to CRT and error proportion.
In contrast to CRT in the control condition, incongruent ¯ankers did not appear
to a€ect TL. As mentioned, perceptual variables such as stimulus quality (Sanders &

Table 1
E€ects of ¯anker conditions on choice reaction (CRT), on visual ®xation (TL, TR) and on saccadic
movement (TM) time
Flanker Task condition
condition
Control Experimental
CRT Errors (%) TL TM TR CRT Errors (%)
Congruent 438 2 233 135 280 648 0.2
Incongruent 503 6 234 138 278 650 3
Neutral 451 2 232 136 285 653 4
 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56 47

Houtmans, 1985), mixed vs blocked stimulus quality (van Duren & Sanders, 1988)
and stimulus rotation (Sanders et al., submitted) do a€ect TL. However, TL appears
not to be a€ected by variables relating to response selection, such as SR compati-
bility (van Duren & Sanders, 1995). The latter ®nding has been interpreted as evi-
dence that processes of response selection may proceed in parallel with the saccade
so that the e€ect of SR compatibility vanishes in the slack created by the saccade.
The same, then, might hold for interference of incongruent ¯ankers ± which would
lead to the conclusion that interference arises during response selection. This would
be in line with Eriksen's original assumption that target and ¯ankers are perceptually
processed in parallel, thus activating con¯icting response tendencies to be resolved
during response selection.
Experiments 2 and 3 sought to further investigate this issue. If perceptual pro-
cessing of target and ¯ankers proceeds undisturbed by interference, independent
perceptual codes should be established at the time of response selection. What is the
fate of these codes? One possibility is that they remain intact while the response
con¯ict is resolved. Alternatively, along the lines of Flowers (1990), the codes of
¯ankers and target may be a€ected by target selection, the target code being
strengthened and the incongruent ¯ankers codes being inhibited. To assess these two
alternatives participants had the task of carrying out a same±di€erent reaction as
joint response to two successively inspected stimuli. In Experiment 2, the two stimuli
(S1, S2) were successively presented on the same location with their inter-stimulus
interval (ISI) as main variable. As in Experiment 1, S1 consisted of a target (the letter
A or B) surrounded by a horizontal row of ¯ankers, (A's, B's or X's) whereas S2
always was a single letter (A or B). When ¯anker codes remain intact, the same±
di€erent response time should su€er from interference from incongruent ¯ankers,
irrespective of the ISI between S1 and S2 ± the target activating a ``same'' response
and the ¯ankers a ``di€erent'' response or vice versa (e.g. Eriksen, O'Hara, &
Eriksen, 1982). Alternatively, if target and ¯anker codes are a€ected by target se-
lection, interference should vanish as ISI increases. Experiment 3 studied the same±
di€erent task in the setting of the functional visual ®eld; SL consisted of a target
surrounded by ¯ankers and SR of a single letter. An additional issue concerned the
deduction that, in regard to target selection, a saccade from SL to SR is functionally
equivalent to an ISI ± i.e. permitting undisturbed progress of target selection pro-
cesses in either case.

4. Experiment 2

4.1. Method and procedures

Testing took place in a sound attenuated room; stimuli were presented on a single
Commodore 1936 screen, positioned at a distance of about 80 cm from the partic-
ipants' eyes. Tining of events was controlled by the ERTS (version 3) system (Be-
ringer, 1988). A trial started with presentation of the same 100 ms auditory warning
tone and circular ®xation light (during 1.5 s) as in Experiment 1. This was followed
48 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56

by two successively presented stimuli (S1 and S2). S1 was presented for 150 ms and
consisted of one of the alternatives of the following ®ve-letter rows (BBABB,
AAAAA, AABAA, BBBBB, XXAXX, XXBXX). As in Experiment 1, letters were
white on a grey background, a letter covering 3.3 min of arc and separated from its
adjacent letter by another 3.3 min of arc S2 was presented after an ISI of 10, 100 or
200 ms and consisted of a single letter A or B. Participants were instructed to carry
out a speeded same±di€erent reaction with respect to the S1 target letter and the S2
single letter by pressing the appropriate response key: A left key when S1 and S2
were the same and a right key when they were di€erent. The study had a two factors
within-subjects design with target±¯anker combination (congruent, incongruent,
neutral) and ISI (10, 100, 200 ms) as main variables. Flanker conditions were varied
pseudo-randomly within a block of trials. Each block had 40 trials, 12 trials for each
¯anker condition, preceeded by four warming-up trials. ISI was varied between
blocks in a counterbalanced order. A session consisted of three blocks, one for each
ISI. Nine paid participants, between 21 and 30 years of age and with normal or
corrected-to-normal vision took part. They had ®ve sessions each, the ®rst of which
was considered as practice and excluded from analysis.

5. Results and discussion

The statistical analysis was based on correct responses only. The cells in the
ANOVA were the individual means over sessions for ¯anker conditions, ISI dura-
tions and same vs di€erent trials. The mean CRTs and error proportions as a
function of ¯anker condition and ISI duration are presented in Table 2.
Flanker condition …F …2; 16† ˆ 10:4; P < 0:001† and ISI …F …2; 16† ˆ 8:37; P <
0:003† had a signi®cant e€ect on CRT, whereas their interaction just failed to reach
signi®cance …F …2; 16† ˆ 2:28; P ˆ 0:08†. Errors were more frequent at a combina-
tion of incongruent ¯ankers and an ISI of 10 ms …F …2; 16† ˆ 6:10; P < 00:1† Same
responses were faster than di€erent responses which e€ect interacted signi®cantly
with that of ¯anker condition (F …2; 16† ˆ 11:65; P < 0:001; Table 3) but not with
that of ISI.
Thus, the results showed a clear ¯anker e€ect at an ISI of 10 ms which vanished
completely at an ISI of 200 ms. Given that ¯ankers and target are processed in

Table 2
Mean CRT and error proportions as a function of ¯anker condition and ISI duration
Flanker ISI duration
conditon
10 ms 100 ms 200 ms
CRT Errors (%) CRT Errors (%) CRT Errors (%)
Congruent 477 8 450 5 448 6
Incongruent 518 12 469 6 448 7
Neutral 493 7 446 6 445 5
 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56 49

Table 3
The e€ects of same±di€erent and ¯anker condition on mean CRT (Experiment 2)
Flanker condition Response type
Same Di€erent Di€erence
Congruent 452 464 12
Incongruent 467 487 20
Neutral 457 475 18

parallel this result is in line with Flowers' (1990) notion that ¯anker codes do not
remain intact when selecting the target during ISI. Yet, the result does not imply
Flowers' view that ¯anker codes are actively inhibited; they could as well su€er from
passive decay as a function of time. At a 10 ms ISI, CRT was longer at all three
¯anker conditions which suggests con¯ict between ongoing processes of (a) target
selection and (b) same±di€erent decision. Although congruent stimuli elicited less
con¯ict at 10 ms, they did not facilitate the same±di€erent response at 200 ms. This
result argues against the generality of Flowers' (1990) suggestion that congruent
¯ankers have an automatic perceptual priming e€ect. Instead, like incongruent
¯ankers, they do not remain intact ± which is in line with passive decay rather than
active inhibition.
It may be mentioned in passing that the results showed only a modest ``fast same''
e€ect, which, if any, was somewhat larger at the incongruent condition (Table 3).
This is at odds with an interpretation of the fast same e€ect in terms of encoding
facilitation ± repetition priming (Proctor, 1981) ± or response priming (Eriksen et al.,
1982). Either view would predict a smaller fast same e€ect for incongruent than for
congruent ¯ankers. The ®nding that a fast same e€ect was found at all ¯anker
conditions is consistent with the suggestion that ¯anker codes do not remain intact
and, hence, do not a€ect the comparison of S1 and S2 in order to achieve the same±
di€erent response. The modest size of the fast same e€ect might re¯ect less bias
towards responding ``same'' (Ratcli€, 1978; Ratcli€ & Hacker, 1981), which could be
due to the joint demands of target±¯anker and same±di€erent processing in the
present study.

6. Experiment 3

6.1. Method and procedures

The experimental setting and equipment were similar to those in Experiment 1.

The control condition was even fully identical. The experimental condition di€ered
from Experiment 1 in that, instead of a go/no go indication, SR consisted of a single
letter (A or B). As in Experiment 2, the instruction was to carry out a same±di€erent
response in regard to the target of SL and the stimulus at SR, a same response
corresponding to a left response key and a di€erent response to a right response key.
50 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56

The study had a two-factors within-subjects design with ``task'' (experimental vs

control condition) and target±¯anker combination as within subjects variables. Six
new participants took part, three of which performed 10 blocks of 42 trials each on
the control condition followed by 10 blocks of 42 trials on the experimental con-
dition. This order was reversed for the three other participants. The ®rst six trials of
a block were considered as warming-up. As in Experiment 1 the three ¯anker con-
ditions were presented pseudo-randomly in a block with the constraint that the
conditions had an equal number of 14 trials. In the experimental conditions half of
the trials required a same or a di€erent response. The remaining experimental pro-
cedures were all the same as in Experiment 1.

7. Results and discussion

Mean CRTs of the correct reactions and error proportions, both averaged over
participants, are shown in Table 4. Mean CRT for the same and di€erent responses
are presented in Table 5.
An ANOVA on CRT in the control condition with individual means as cells
showed a signi®cant e€ect of ¯anker condition …F …2; 10† ˆ 30:33; P < 0:001†. Error
proportions di€ered signi®cantly as well …F …2; 10† ˆ 6:95; P < 0:01†. Similar ana-
lyses on the measures TL, TM and TR of the experimental conditions failed to show
any signi®cant di€erences. A MANOVA on CRT with task condition (control vs
experimental) and ¯anker condition as factors showed an arti®cial di€erence be-
tween task conditions and, more importantly, a signi®cant interaction between task
and ¯anker condition …F …2; 10† ˆ 7; 48; P < 0:01† suggesting that the ¯anker e€ect
was signi®cant in the control but not in the experimental condition.

Table 4
Mean CRT and error proportions for the control and experimental condition (Experiment 3)
Flanker Control condition Experimental condition
condition
CRT Errors (%) TL TM TR CRT Errors (%)
Congruent 417 0.2 254 147 432 833 4
Incongruent 477 7 259 147 447 853 4
Neutral 433 1 251 146 433 830 2

Table 5
Mean CRT for same±di€erent responses in the experimental conditions (Experiment 3)
Flanker condition Same Di€erent Di€erence
Congruent 404 462 58
Incongruent 412 483 71
Neutral 404 463 59
 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56 51

The data con®rm the results of Experiment 1 in the setting of a same±di€erent

response which required a comparison between a single letter (SR) and the target
letter from a target/¯anker combination (SL). The absence of a signi®cant e€ect of
incongruent ¯ankers on both TL and TR suggests that ¯anker interference did not
arise during perceptual processing and had virtually vanished at the time of com-
paring SL and SR. Table 4 may suggest a small e€ect of incongruent ¯ankers on TR
that could well reach signi®cance with added power ± but the potential e€ect on TR
remains marginal in comparison with the ¯anker interference as observed at the
control group. Similarly, Table 2 shows still a small e€ect at 100 ms ISI suggesting
that ¯anker interference may have not yet completely vanished at this interval.
In contrast to Experiment 2, Table 5 shows the commonly reported large ``fast
same'' e€ect. As suggested, variation of ISI in Experiment 2 might have counteracted
a bias towards same responses. Taken together, the results of Experiments 2 and 3
support the suggestion that an ISI and a saccade are equivalent in regard to pro-
cesses of response selection, which can proceed during ISI as well as during the
saccade.

8. Experiment 4

It is obvious that the absence of an e€ect of incongruent ¯ankers on TL does not

exclude conditions in which perceptual processing adds to interference. For instance,
perceptual confusion of targets and ¯ankers might only arise when they are physi-
cally similar (Yeh & Eriksen, 1984). Thus, TL may be a€ected when target and
¯ankers are similar and not when they are dissimilar. Physical similarity might
hamper target discrimination the processes of which are usually related to perceptual
stimulus identi®cation (e.g. Sanders, 1998).

8.1. Method and procedures

The experimental setting, the measures and the events at a trial and their time
course were identical to those described at Experiments 1 and 3. SL consisted of a
horizontal row of ®ve letters, the middle one of which was the target and, as in
Experiment 3, SR consisted of a single letter. Participants had the task of carrying
out a speeded same±di€erent response in regard to the SL target and the SR letter.
Two main variables were varied within subjects, namely physical similarity: (1) be-
tween target and ¯ankers (SL), and (2) between SL target and SR letter. SL target
and SR letter could be P, F or X, whereas SL ¯ankers could be P, F, X or J. The
ensuing conditions are illustrated in Table 6 with examples in which P was SL target.
The 12 target±¯anker combinations were PPPPP, FFFFF, XXXXX (identical),
FFPFF, PPFPP (incongruent/similar), (XXPXX, XXFXX, PPXPP, FFXFF) (in-
congruent/dissimilar) and JJPJJ, JJFJJ, JJXJJ (neutral).
Incongruent/dissimilar had more combinations than incongruent/similar but the
number of trials in a block was kept equal for each of the four categories. In the same
way the number of combinations requiring a ``di€erent response'' (24) was twice the
52 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56

Table 6
The conditions in Experiment 4 and examples of SL±SR combinations
Flanker condition Same±di€erent responses
Same Di€erent±similar Di€erent±dissimilar
Congruent PPPPP ± P PPPPP ± F PPPPP ± X
Incongruent±similar FFPFF ± P FFPFF ± F FFPFF ± X
Incongruent±dissimilar XXPXX ± P XXPXX ± F XXPXX ± X
Neutral JJPJJ ± P JJPJJ ± F JJPJJ ± X

number of combinations requiring a ``same'' response (12) but the frequency of

``same'' and ``di€erent'' responses was kept constant by presenting twice as many
``same'' combinations. A block contained 20 ``same'' trials for each of the four
¯anker conditions (identical, similar, dissimilar and neutral) and 10 ``di€erent'' trials
for each of the eight di€erent conditions making a total of 160 trials. In addition a
block started with ®ve warming-up trials which were excluded from the statistical
analysis. Each participant received four blocks, the ®rst two of which were consid-
ered as practice. Nine paid students from the Vrije Universiteit, four males and ®ve
females, between 20 and 27 years of age took part. They reported to have normal or
corrected-to-normal vision.

9. Results and discussion

Mean TL, TR and error proportions are presented in Table 7. The mean TM
values varied between 143 and 146 ms. A MANOVA on TL with the individual
means as cells did not show any signi®cant main e€ect or interaction of the variables.
A similar analysis on the TR data showed a highly signi®cant e€ect
…F …2; 16† ˆ 13:15; P < 0:001† of the similarity of SL target and SR stimulus on the
same±di€erent CRT. Similar di€erent responses (e.g. JJPJJ ± F) took longer than

Table 7
Mean TL, TR and error proportions (between parentheses) in Experiment 4
Flanker conditions Same±di€erent responses
Same Di€erent±similar Di€erent±dissimilar
TL
Congruent 292 290 299
Incongruent±similar 299 286 287
Incongruent±dissimilar 285 287 283
Neutral 295 283 292
TR
Congruent 461 (1.9) 538 (2.8) 476 (0.55)
Incongruent±similar 490 (3.9) 568 (3.2) 491 (0.2)
Incongruent±dissimilar 471 (2.5) 554 (2.2) 497 (1.6)
Neutral 462 (2.2) 544 (1.6) 513 (1.1)
 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56 53

dissimilar di€erent responses (e.g. JJXJJ ± F) or same responses (e.g. JJFJJ ± F). The
e€ect of ¯anker combination was far from signi®cant …F …3; 24† ˆ 0:55†, neither was
the interaction between the two variables …F …6; 48† ˆ 1:14†. With respect to error
proportions the similarity of SL target and SR was statistically signi®cant
…F …2; 16† ˆ 9:31; P < 0:01†. Analysis of the individual mean proportions showed
that the e€ect was due to less errors in the di€erent/dissimilar conditions than in the
other two conditions. Flanker condition did neither a€ect TR nor error proportion.
The ®nding that physical similarity did not a€ect TL con®rms the earlier con-
clusion that perceptual processing is not a€ected in the ¯anker paradigm ± not even
in conditions of physical similarity between target and ¯ankers, in which case a
potential e€ect of perceptual confusion would have the best opportunity of showing
up. Similarly, the lack of ¯anker e€ect on TR ± not even in the conditions in which
SR was physically similar to the ¯ankers ± con®rms the earlier conclusion that
¯anker codes vanish during the saccade, either through inhibition or decay. The
results on TR deviate from those of Eriksen et al. (1982) who found an e€ect of
physical similarity of ¯ankers and target on same±di€erent CRT. One should be
reminded, though, that in their study two successive stimuli were presented that both
consisted of a target surrounded by ¯ankers, whereas in the present research SR ± or
S2 in Experiment 2 ± was always a single letter. Thus, their similarity e€ect on same±
di€erent CRT might have arisen during the same±di€erent response processes of S1
(target) and S2 (target and ¯ankers).
Indeed, the only pronounced e€ect of physical similarity in the present study
concerned SL (target) and SR which demonstrates that, as such, physical similarity
a€ected the speed of same±di€erent responding. Using the same paradigm, Hansen
and Sanders (1988) found that TL was una€ected, whereas TR took less when a
physical identity match rather than a name identity match was required. They
suggested that a same±di€erent judgment may be achieved on the basis of the
physical code of SR. Along the same lines Sanders et al. (submitted) have recently
argued that the output of a visual ®xation may be a physical code. The present e€ect
of physical similarity on TR also suggests that same±di€erent response processes are
based on the physical codes of SL and SR.

10. General discussion

Taken together, the results showed the usual e€ect of incongruent ¯ankers on
CRT in the control conditions but neither on TL nor on TR in the setting of the
functional visual ®eld. The absence of an e€ect on TL, even not when target and
¯ankers were physically similar, argues against a contribution to ¯anker interference
on the levels of perceptual feature extraction and physical stimulus encoding. In
contrast the results are consistent with the hypothesis that visual stimuli are per-
ceptually processed in parallel as long as they are within the attentional focus (e.g.
Sanders, 1998, pp. 234±237), ¯anker interference arising during response selection
through activation of con¯icting response codes (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974). Evi-
dently, this conclusion is at odds with a perceptual interpretation of the e€ect of
54 A.F. Sanders, J.M. Lamers / Acta Psychologica 109 (2002) 41±56

incongruent ¯ankers on P3 latency. However, as already referred to, P3 latency is

a€ected most by variables, such as target search and classi®cation ± i.e. by post-
perceptual stimulus evaluation rather than by identi®cation per se (e.g. Brookhuis,
Mulder, Mulder, & Gloerich, 1981). In contrast, target search and classi®cation do
not a€ect visual ®xation duration (Boer & van der Weijgert, 1988; van Duren &
Sanders, 1995).
In accord with the results of Flowers and Wilcox (1984) and Flowers (1990), an
ISI of 200 ms between successive stimuli suced to eliminate the ¯anker e€ect on
the speed of a same±di€erent response. This is consistent with their view that one
of the activities involved in response selection is the active inhibition of ¯anker
codes, so that achieving the same±di€erent judgment is not hampered by incon-
gruent ¯ankers. Yet passive decay of ¯anker codes upon target selection is not
excluded either.
The consistent ®nding that TR is not hampered by incongruent ¯ankers when
a speeded same±di€erent response is required, supports the assumption that a
saccade and an empty interval are equivalent in regard to the deployment of
reponse selection processes. Finally, the e€ect of physical similarity on same±
di€erent CRT underlines the relevance of physical codes in processing visual
stimuli (Yeh & Eriksen, 1984) and is in line with the evidence that achieving
a physical code of the stimulus may trigger the saccade to the next one (Sanders
et al., submitted).

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